Interfacial modification of amorphous substrates for microcrystalline silicon growth with <i>in situ</i> hydrogen plasma pretreatment

Park, Young-Bae; Rhee, Shi‐Woo; Li, Xiaodong

doi:10.1002/pssa.200521144

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Clearly, the thick a‐Si:H film is more rough (with the roughness of 2.628 nm) compared with the thin film (with the roughness of 1.217 nm). A rough surface was reported by other workers to favor the nucleation of µc‐Si, however it is not the case in our experiments, which show a more rapid nucleation of µc‐Si on the thin a‐Si:H film with a smooth surface, as demonstrated in Figure and Figure . This result indicates that, in the present case, surface roughness does not have a notable contribution to the nucleation of the top layer.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 70%

Substrate‐thickness Dependence of Hydrogenated Microcrystalline Silicon Nucleation Rate on Amorphous Silicon Layer

Zuo

Cui

Wang

et al. 2013

Chemical Vapor Deposition

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The nucleation rate of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (mc-Si:H) films deposited by plasma-enhanced (PE)CVD on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) substrates is investigated through structural and electrical characterization, with special attention paid to the initial growth stage of mc-Si:H films. It is found that the nucleation rate of mc-Si is dependent on the thickness of the a-Si:H substrate. The mc-Si:H film exhibits a rapid nucleation on a thin a-Si:H layer, leaving a thin incubation layer at the mc-Si/substrate interface. This substrate-thickness dependence of the nucleation rate is proposed to be correlated with the stress inside the a-Si:H layer. The high interfacial stress existing in the thin a-Si:H layer facilitates the formation of high concentration, strained Si-Si bonds, which are responsible for the rapid mc-Si nucleation. The thick a-Si:H layer relaxes the interfacial stress through the formation of islands in the Stranski-Krastanow (S-K) growth mode, while the intrinsic stress is still low, resulting in a long nucleation process allowing for the intrinsic compressive stress to be accumulated that is necessary for the mc-Si deposited on it.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 70%

Substrate‐thickness Dependence of Hydrogenated Microcrystalline Silicon Nucleation Rate on Amorphous Silicon Layer

Zuo

Cui

Wang

et al. 2013

Chemical Vapor Deposition

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“…The second set consisted of μc‐Si:H films deposited on silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) layers on sapphire (Al 2 O 3 ) or c‐Si wafers. μc‐Si:H grows the same way on SiO 2 regardless of the underlying substrate, and thus these samples were made to investigate similar films on different substrates with both UV and visible Raman . The third set consisted of μc‐Si:H deposited on 10‐nm‐thick a‐Si:H layers on c‐Si wafers, and was used to compare crystallinities deduced from UV Raman, TEM, and ellipsometry.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Substrate‐independent analysis of microcrystalline silicon thin films using UV Raman spectroscopy

Carpenter

Bailly

Boley³

et al. 2017

Physica Status Solidi (b)

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Surface‐sensitive UV Raman spectroscopy is used to analyze the crystallinity of silicon films less than 20 nm thick directly on silicon wafers. The 325‐nm excitation has a Raman detection thickness of only 13 nm within the silicon film, thus eliminating signal from the substrate. We demonstrate measured crystallinities of microcrystalline silicon thin films that are consistent with the microstructure observed in transmission electron microscopy. Comparison is also made to ellipsometry, which is less able to accurately determine crystallinity than UV Raman spectroscopy. The UV Raman approach is particularly useful for layers grown on substrates of the same material but with different microstructure, and can be extended to non‐silicon materials.

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“…1(b), there exists a porous layer of roughly 300Å thick a-Si:H at the interface between μc-Si:H film and silicon nitride film when no interface gas treatment was used. From many studies in the past [5][6][7], it is known that the composition of the porous or transition layer consists of amorphous silicon and this is evident from the equivalent peak in the Raman spectra shown in Figure 2. In Fig.…”

Section: Interfacial Modificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

24.3: 32‐inch LCD TV Using Conventional PECVD Microcrystalline‐Silicon TFTs

Peng¹,

Chen²,

Chang³

et al. 2008

Symp Digest of Tech Papers

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A 32‐inch microcrystalline silicon thin film transistor liquid crystal display was manufactured on 1500×1850 mm2 (G6) glass substrate. We have successfully deposited non‐porous and highly crystalline microcrystalline silicon film with interfacial treatment as the active channel layer for TFTs in such large size display. Microcrystalline silicon was deposited by a conventional (13.56 MHz) plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system, and the crystalline fraction is 60%. Crystalline fraction was successfully improved with optimized gas treatment on SiNx layer before μc‐Si:H film deposition. Microcrystalline silicon TFTs with interfacial modification have about 2.8 times and 4 times more on‐current than μc‐Si:H TFT without interfacial modification measured at room temperature and at −10°C, respectively. The μc‐Si:H film with good crystallinity used as the active channel layer will significantly improve the reliability of the microcrystalline silicon TFTs. Furthermore, during the bias‐temperature‐stress test (BTS), VTH shift for μc‐Si:H TFT with treatment after 3hr BTS test is only 1.3V while μc‐Si:H TFT without treatment has a VTH shift of 13V.

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Interfacial modification of amorphous substrates for microcrystalline silicon growth with in situ hydrogen plasma pretreatment

Cited by 5 publications

References 19 publications

Substrate‐thickness Dependence of Hydrogenated Microcrystalline Silicon Nucleation Rate on Amorphous Silicon Layer

Substrate‐thickness Dependence of Hydrogenated Microcrystalline Silicon Nucleation Rate on Amorphous Silicon Layer

Substrate‐independent analysis of microcrystalline silicon thin films using UV Raman spectroscopy

24.3: 32‐inch LCD TV Using Conventional PECVD Microcrystalline‐Silicon TFTs

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