Hydrogenated Microcrystalline Silicon Film Growth by Inductively Coupled Plasma–Chemical Vapor Deposition on ZrO₂ Gate Dielectric for Thin Film Transistors

Abstract

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si:H) film was fabricated by inductively coupled plasma–chemical vapor deposition (ICP–CVD) at 150 °C on ZrO2 gate dielectric which was made by atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. µc-Si:H film with very thin incubation layer less than 10 nm was deposited on ZrO2 film. Polycrystalline ZrO2 played a role of crystal seed layer to enhance the crystalline fraction of µc-Si:H film. Surface roughness of ZrO2 film increased as deposition temperature of ZrO2 was increased. Rougher surface of ZrO2 film provided nucleation site of µc-Si:H film at early growth stage to reduce the thickness of the incubation layer. The crystalline fraction of µc-Si:H film depended on crystallinity of ZrO2. When µc-Si:H film was deposited on ZrO2 of 100 and 50 nm thickness at 250 °C, (200) and (111) peak intensity was increased respectively.

High quality nanocrystalline silicon thin film fabricated by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition at 350°C

“…High quality nc-Si film with high crystallinity and no incubation layer was fabricated by ICP-CVD without employing any additional techniques such as a deposition of a seed layer prior to the nc-Si deposition or a use of SiF 4 , SiH 2 Cl 2 or a plasma treatment on the surface [6,[13][14][15][16][17]. The fabrication of nc-Si film with dense crystalline structure in our experiment can be attributed to ICP-CVD which generates remote plasma of high density [10][11][12] and use of He as a dilution gas instead of H 2 [18].…”

Low-Temperature Crystallization of Silicon Films Directly Deposited on Glass Substrates Covered with Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Layers

“…24,25) Alternatively, the use of an induction layer for lowtemperature crystallization (crystallization-induction layer: CI layer) to cover an amorphous surface of a substrate has been proposed. [26][27][28] The CI layer, which is a polycrystalline dielectric, should have similar lattice constant and crystal structure to Si. The small lattice mismatch and same crystal structure give some advantages for low-temperature crystallization, although the heteroepitaxial growth of the Si film may not occur on the CI layer because of its too low process temperature.…”

“…As CI materials, ZrO 26) and CaF 2 27,28) have been proposed thus far. However, on the ZrO 2 layer, an amorphous incubation layer is formed, which means that ZrO 2 does not act as an actual CI material.…”

Low Temperature Deposition and Crystallization of Silicon Film on an HF-Etched Polycrystalline Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Layer Rinsed with Ethanol Solution

“…olycrystalline Si (poly-Si) and microcrystalline Si films on non-heat resistant glass substrates are very useful not only for thin film transistors (TFTs) applied to active matrix flat panel displays, but also for photovoltaic devices such as solar cells. In order to obtain the poly-Si film by deposition directly on the substrate at a lower temperature than usual Si processes, it was proposed to use an induction layer for crystallization (crystallizationinduction layer: CI layer), [1][2][3] to cover the surface of the substrate. This CI layer was expected to provide nucleation sites to induce or stimulate crystallization of deposited Si.…”