Analysis of heating effect on the process of high deposition rate microcrystalline silicon

• Published in: Chinese physics B 2010-03, Vol.19 (3), p.568-573
• Main Author: 张晓丹 张鹤 魏长春 孙建 侯国付 熊绍珍 耿新华 赵颖
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Deposition; Discharge; Gas flow; Heating; Silicon; Silicon films; Silicon substrates; Thin films; 加热过程; 可能影响; 微晶硅薄膜; 放电功率; 放电时间; 沉积速率; 致热效应; 薄膜电极
• ISSN: 1674-1056; 2058-3834
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/19/3/038101

A possible heating effect on the process of high deposition rate microcrystalline silicon has been studied. It includes the discharge time-accumulating heating effect, discharge power, inter-electrode distance, and total gas flow rate induced heating effect. It is found that the heating effects mentioned above are in some ways quite similar to and in other ways very different from each other. However, all of them will directly or indirectly cause the increase of the substrate surface temperature during the process of depositing microcrystalline silicon thin films, which will affect the properties of the materials with increasing time. This phenomenon is very serious for the high deposition rate of microcrystalline silicon thin films because of the high input power and the relatively small inter-electrode distance needed. Through analysis of the heating effects occurring in the process of depositing microcrystalline silicon, it is proposed that the discharge power and the heating temperature should be as low as possible, and the total gas flow rate and the inter-electrode distance should be suitable so that device-grade high quality deposition rate microcrystalline silicon thin films can be fabricated.