Process study of silicon carbide coatings deposited on steel by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition from tetramethylsilane-argon gas system

Silicon carbide coatings were prepared in an RF plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) device from the tetramethylsilane-argon gas system. The present paper is devoted to investigation of the plasma process and determination of the deposition rate with the experimental parameters. By employing the general convective diffusion equation, we obtain a simple analytical expression of the deposition rate. Calculated results are compared with experimental data. The agreement between calculated and measured results as functions of total pressure, total flow rate, reactant composition, and plasma geometry is fairly good. The kinetic parameters selected are found to have a reasonable order of magnitude in comparison to those of other studies.