Characterisation of thin film silicon films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition at 162MHz, using a large area, scalable, multi-tile-electrode plasma source

Abstract

Large area (600 × 720 mm) depositions of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) have been achieved at high deposition rates using a scalable, multi-tile electrode topology. Depositions have shown local results of μc-Si:H deposited with SiH4 concentrations of up to 20% and at rates of up to 15 Å/s. Of particular interest for this electrode topology is the material across the inter-tile gap. Here we present measurements of the deposition uniformity across the inter-tile gap as well as the material characteristics of the layers. The behaviour of the crystalline fraction, χc is observed using Raman spectroscopy, x-ray diffractometry, and dark/light conductivity measurements. A qualitative interpretation of these results is presented, relating them to depletion of SiH4 in the plasma.