One atmosphere uniform glow discharge plasma (OAUGDP) reactor for plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) of thin films

Summary form only given. Plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) can economically form thin films, and films that cannot be created in any other way. As a result, the production of PCVD coatings for microelectronics, optics, food packaging, metallurgy, and other applications has been gaining importance over the past 20 years. During this time, efforts have been made to understand the chemical and physical processes responsible for PCVD, and to improve the technology for producing thin films by PCVD. PCVD has become an established commercial technique for depositing thin films of silicon nitride and SiO/sub x/, for insulating or barrier coatings. To date, all published work on PCVD of thin films by glow discharge plasmas was done in vacuum. If PCVD is done at atmospheric pressure, expensive vacuum systems will not be needed, batch processing will be avoided, and the production cost of PCVD thin films will be significantly reduced. In this paper, we will describe the physical and operational characteristics of a PCVD reactor based on the one atmosphere uniform glow discharge plasma (OAUGDP). This reactor is intended for the in-line, roll-to-roll deposition of SiO/sub x/ on polymeric and plastic webs.