Large-Area and High-Speed Deposition of Microcrystalline Silicon Film by Inductive Coupled Plasma using Internal Low-Inductance Antenna

Abstract

A novel inductively-coupled RF plasma source with internal low-inductance antenna (LIA) units was developed to synthesize microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si) film on a large glass substrate. A film thickness profile on a 600×720 mm2 glass substrate was achieved with high plasma uniformity and a variation of less than ±5% without a standing-wave effect. Raman and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis revealed that highly crystallized µc-Si films, which were directly deposited on a glass substrate, were synthesized without an amorphous-phase incubation layer at the substrate interface. A bottom-gate thin-film transistor (BG-TFT) was fabricated employing an optimized µc-Si layer and exhibited a field-effect mobility of 3 cm2/(V·s), which is one order higher than that of a typical amorphous silicon TFT.