Patent ID: 7138332

Claim:
A method for depositing a nitrogen-doped silicon carbide layer onto a substrate, the method comprising: providing a silicon and carbon source gas comprising a non-alicyclic alkyl silicon compound, a nitrogen source gas comprising ammonia, and an inert gas into a reaction zone, the reaction zone containing the substrate; producing an electric field in the reaction zone, the electric field generated using low and high frequency RF energy produced by an RF power supply, the RF power supply generating an average power at an electrode surface used for plasma discharge in the reaction zone; and reacting the silicon and carbon source gas and the nitrogen source gas to deposit on the substrate a nitrogen-doped silicon carbide film; wherein the RF power supply generates high frequency RF power having a frequency between about 13 MHz and about 30 MHz and low frequency RF power having a frequency between about 100 kHz and about 500 kHz during a processing period, wherein a ratio of the low frequency RF power to a total RF power is more than 0 but no more than about 0.15.