Low temperature plasma assisted deposition of thick silica layers (1mum -> 20mum) for optical planar waveguides devices, using the helicon diffusion reactor

In order to allow future optical devices to be coupled to microelectronic chips on the same silicon wafer, it is necessary to be able to deposit high quality silica (5102) films at low temperature. Previous results presented on the deposition of silicon dioxide from a silane-oxygen plasma dealt with silicon substrates which were neither externally biased nor cooled. This paper will show the first results concerning a low temperature process. Deposition rates, optical and physical properties of the deposited layers will be presented.