PE-CVD APPARATUS AND METHOD

According to the invention there is provided a capacitively coupled Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PE-CVD) apparatus comprising:a chamber;a first electrode comprising a substrate support positioned in the chamber;a second electrode comprising a gas inlet structure positioned in the chamber, the gas inlet structure comprising an edge region, a central region which depends downwardly with respect to the edge region, and one or more precursor gas inlets for introducing a PE-CVD precursor gas mixture to the chamber, the edge region and the central region both constituting part of the second electrode, wherein the precursor gas inlets are disposed in the edge region and the central region is spaced apart from the substrate support to define a plasma dark space channel; andan RF power source connected to the gas inlet structure for supplying RF power thereto.