Shigeaki Kishida

Low-Temperature Microcrystalline Silicon Film Deposited by High-Density and Low-Potential Plasma Technique Using Hydrogen Radicals

As a novel direct deposition method of microcrystalline silicon, we have developed the high-density and low-potential plasma-enhanced silane generating chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system. We have studied a two-step deposition process which consists of the silicon nucleation step using atomic hydrogen (radicals) and the microcrystalline growth step using silane plasmas at low temperature. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and micro-ultraviolet Raman spectrometry (UV-Raman) analyses reveal that silicon films crystallize with a low defect density starting from the interface between the SiO2 substrate and the film. Furthermore, the electron mobility determined on the basis of the TFT characteristics indicates that this method is highly effective for the direct deposition of microcrystalline silicon.