Solid Phase Crystallization of Hot-Wire CVD Amorphous Silicon Films

Solid Phase Crystallization of Hot-Wire CVD Amorphous Silicon Films

Event Date: March 28, 2005
Authors: D.L. Young, P. Stradins, E. Iwaniczko, B. To, B. Reedy, Y. Yan, H.M. Branz, J. Lohr, M. Alvarez, J.H. Booske, A. Marconnet, and Q. Wang
Journal: Materials Research Society Symposium
Paper URL: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8008614
Materials Research Society Symposium, San Francisco, CA, 2005

We measure times for complete solid phase crystallization (SPC) of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films that vary eight orders of magnitude, from a few ms to a few days. The time-to-crystallization activation energy is consistent with literature values of approximately 3.4 eV but the prefactor is markedly different for hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) films than for plasma-enhanced (PE) CVD films. The crystallized films were 0.3 – 2 μm thick, and deposited by high deposition rate (10-100 Å/s) HWCVD or standard PECVD onto glass substrates. We annealed these a-Si:H films over a wide temperature range (500 to 1100 °C) using techniques including simple hot-plates and tube furnaces, rapid thermal annealing by a tungsten-halogen lamp, and microwave electromagnetic heating at 2.45 GHz (magnetron) and 110 GHz (gyrotron).