Low-temperature (450 C) poly-Si thin film deposition on SiO{sub 2} and glass using a microcrystalline-Si seed layer

Conference · Tue Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997

OSTI ID:20015571

Wolfe, D M; Wang, F; Lucovsky, G

A low-temperature (450 C), remote plasma-assisted CVD process for deposition of poly-Si thin films on SiO{sub 2} 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 {angstrom}) 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-Di 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.

• Research Organization: North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: Office of Naval Research; National Science Foundation
• OSTI ID: 20015571
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
ELECTRON DIFFRACTION
ELLIPSOMETRY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
MICROSCOPY
MICROSTRUCTURE
PLASMA
SILICON
SILICON OXIDES
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0400-1000 K
THIN FILMS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION