Carbon cvd deposition methods to mitigate stress induced defects

A method of processing a substrate, comprising:

• flowing a carbon-containing precursor and a carrier gas into a processing volume having a substrate positioned therein;
• generating a plasma in the processing volume by applying a first RF bias to a substrate support to deposit a first portion of a carbon film onto the substrate;
• terminating the flow of the carbon-containing precursor and the flow of the carrier gas;
• flowing ammonia into the processing volume and contacting the carbon film with the ammonia;
• terminating the flow of the ammonia;
• and
• reintroducing the carbon-containing precursor and the carrier gas into the processing volume to deposit a second portion of the carbon film.

A method of processing a substrate, comprising:

• flowing a carbon-containing precursor gas and a first carrier gas into a processing volume having a substrate positioned therein, wherein a ratio of the carbon-containing precursor gas to the first carrier gas is about 2:1 to about 1:2;
• generating a plasma in the processing volume by applying a first RF bias to a substrate support to deposit a first portion of a carbon film onto the substrate, wherein the first portion of the carbon film has a thickness with a range of about 100 Å to about 500 Å;
• and
• flowing the carbon-containing precursor gas and a second carrier gas into a processing volume to deposit a second portion of carbon film onto the substrate, wherein the ratio of the carbon-containing precursor gas to the second carrier gas is about 1:5 to about 1:10, and wherein the second portion of the carbon film is has a thickness with a range of about 5 Å to about 30 Å.