Characteristics of N-Type Polycrystalline Silicon Thin Films on Glass Substrates Deposited at Room Temperature by Direct Current Magnetron Sputtering under Substrate Biases

Abstract

N-type polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films are successfully prepared on glass substrates at room temperature by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering with different DC substrate biases. The effects of different substrate biases on the crystallization, deposition rates, and electrical properties of Si thin films are presented in this work. In this work, we describe a direct method of preparing poly-Si thin films on glass substrates at room temperature, which is considered to be useful for applications in flexible electronics. A significant crystalline fraction value of 85% of the as-deposited Si thin films is obtained at a substrate bias of -50 V. In this work, the high activation rates of impurities at a substrate bias of -50 V result in poly-Si thin films on glass substrates with a resistivity of 1.5×10-3 Ω cm.