It has been found that good quality silicon nitride films can be deposited at room temperature, with an alternate electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma source, called multipolar ECR. The effects of several deposition conditions on physical and electrical properties were studied in order to optimise the deposition process.\ud
The layers were characterised by a refractive index of 1.97, dielectric constant of 7.1, Si/N ratio values of around 0.78 and very low hydrogen content (under 1%). The lowest oxygen contamination (2%) was obtained for the highest nitrogen flow. A decrease in refractive index was observed at high pressure, probably because of insufficient energy to dissociate the nitrogen molecules. The density of interface charge was estimated to be in the range of 3-11•1011 cm-2 and the breakdown field was calculated to be around 12 MV/cm.\u