AMORPHOUS HYDROGENATED 'DIAMONDLIKE' CARBON DIELECTRIC FILMS.

Films of amorphous carbon can be prepared which are black, conducting and soft (by evaporation). Conversely, by supplying sufficiently energetic species a very hard, transparent, highly resistive carbon film can be prepared. This paper deals with the latter type films, which were first prepared in the 1960's. Research was at a relatively low level until a rapid growth of interest in the past few years. The usefulness of these films results from their reported hardness, pinhole free coverage, acid and solvent resistance, optical transparency, low deposition temperature, and constancy of properties at elevated temperatures. Example substrates where bonding is excellent include polished wafers of silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, indium antimonide, and fused silica.