Effect Of Bipolar Pulsed Voltage On Properties Of DLC Films Deposited By Inductively Coupled PECVD

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is a metastable form of amorphous carbon having large sp 3 bonding. DLC films have unique properties such as high hardness, low-friction, good transparency in IR region, chemical inertness and biocompatibility. To have better performance of the coating one should have proper selection of different parameters for deposition. In the present study, DLC films were deposited on p-type silicon (100) substrates using methane (CH4) and hydrogen (H2) as source gases in an inductively coupled RF plasma CVD system. Bipolar pulsed bias voltage source at 10 KHz frequency used for substrate shows proper DLC film. The DLC films were characterized for surface morphology & roughness, hardness & Young’s modulus, IR absorption and microRaman spectroscopy. Deposited DLC film images show that the roughness decreases, hardness & Young’s modulus increases and the Id/Ig ratio decreases with the increase of pulse bipolar bias voltage. Raman result shows that disorder decreases. The correlation plotted between Id/Ig, hardness and roughness.