Thermal conductivity of SiO2 grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

SiO2 is a crucial material in silicon-based semiconductor devices, where efficient thermal management is essential. Reliable thermal conductivity for SiO2 grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) at different deposition temperatures remains lacking. In this study, we measured the thermal conductivity of PECVD-grown SiO2 to be 1.11–1.13 W m−1 K−1 at room temperature, with minimal dependence on the PECVD deposition temperature. Notably, PECVD-grown SiO2 exhibits higher thermal conductivity than SiO2 grown by other low-temperature process techniques. Moreover, we propose a revised equation based on the Cahill–Pohl model to calculate the minimum thermal conductivity of glasses. Our results provide valuable thermal conductivity data for PECVD SiO2 and emphasize the significance of specific heat capacity in the evaluation of minimum thermal conductivity.