Plasmas : Sources of Excited, Dissociated and Ionized Species. Consequences for Chemical Vapor Deposition (cvd) and for Surface Treatment

The use of the Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition techniques have increased during the last decades. PECVD attractiveness, basically due to the lowering of the substrate temperatures, has enlarged its uses because it allows an action of ions or excited species. However, the choice of the reactors is not always easy. After presenting the main domains of applications of the PECVD techniques, we describe the principal plasma reactors together with their specific characteristics. The basic phenomena involved in the flowing plasma and the attempts for their modelling are then presented. Finally, the consequences for the deposition rate and the efficiency of the surface treatment are discussed.