High Rate Deposition of Microcrystalline Silicon Using Conventional Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

The deposition of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si:H) at a relatively high working pressure is performed using a conventional radio-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. Correlation of the deposition rate and crystallinity with deposition parameters, such as working pressure, flow rate, dilution ratio and input RF power, are studied. It was found that the deposition rate exhibits a maximum at around 4 Torr and that the crystallinity of films decreases monotonically with increasing pressure. The combination of SiH 4 depletion and high working pressure in the plasma is necessary to improve the crystallinity of films deposited at a high rate. Consequently, a high deposition rate of 9.3 Å/s is achieved with high crystallinity and low defect density.