Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T21:21:38.011Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Low-Temperature (450 °C) Poly-Si Thin Film Deposition on SiO2 and Glass using a Microcrystalline-Si Seed Layer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

D. M. Wolfe
Affiliation:
Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, [email protected], [email protected]
F. Wang
Affiliation:
Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, [email protected], [email protected]
G. Lucovsky
Affiliation:
Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, [email protected], [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

A low-temperature (450 °C), remote plasma-assisted CVD process for deposition of poly-Si thin films on SiO2 and Corning 7059 glass in which interface formation is separated from bulk film growth has been developed. This approach is based on first depositing an ultra-thin (<100 Å) microcrystalline-Si seed layer onto the oxide in order to provide nucleation sites at which low-temperature poly-Si film growth can be initiated. Conditions for poly-Si film deposition were optimized by using a low-temperature, remote plasma process that had previously yielded epitaxial growth of Si thin films on crystalline Si substrates. Microstructural characterization was performed on poly-Si films grown with different seed layer thicknesses, and additionally with exposure of this seed layer to a predeposition hydrogen plasma treatment. Results demonstrated that the seed layer thickness and surface morphology played a significant role in promoting crystallinity in the poly-Si overlayer. For example using deposition conditions that yielded epitaxial film growth on Si substrates, films deposited on un-seeded oxide substrates were amorphous, whereas those deposited using a seed layer were polycrystalline. This indicated that interfacial nucleation was the rate limiting step in promoting the low-temperature deposition of poly-Si thin films.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

[1] Heath, J. R., Gates, S. M., and Chess, C. A., Appl. Phys. Lett. 64, 3569 (1994).Google Scholar
[2] Tanikawa, A. and Tatsumi, T., J. Electrochem. Soc. 141, 2848 (1994).Google Scholar
[3] Matsumoto, T., Nagahiro, Y., Nasu, Y., Oki, K., and Okabe, M., Appl. Phys. Lett. 65, 1549 (1994).Google Scholar
[4] Lucovsky, G., Tsu, D.V., Rudder, R.A., and Markunas, R.J., in Thin Film Processes II, edited by Vossen, J.L and Kern, W. (Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, 1991).Google Scholar
[5] Bennema, P., in Crystal Growth: An Introduction, edited by Hartman, P. (North Holland, Amsterdam, 1973).Google Scholar
[6] Kakinuma, H., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 13, 2310 (1995).Google Scholar
[7] Cullity, B. D., Elements of X-Ray Diffraction (Addison-Wesley, USA, 1978).Google Scholar