In-vacuum surface flashover of SiN, AlN, and etched SiO2 thin films at micrometre scales
Authors
Vijay Kumar
Martin Siegele-Brown
Matthew Aylett
Sebastian Weidt
Winfried Karl Hensinger
Abstract
We investigate the surface flashover voltage threshold for SiO$_2$, SiN, and AlN thin films over micrometre scale lengths. Furthermore, we test the effects of different etching chemistries on SiO$_2$ layers. We find that there is little significant difference between untreated SiO$_2$ samples and those that have been etched with hydrogen fluoride or Transene AlPad Etch 639. SiN and AlN samples performed significantly better than all SiO$_2$ samples giving a 45% increase in surface flashover voltage at a distance of 5 $μ$m with the difference increasing with electrode spacing.
