Hydrogenated Microcrystalline Silicon Film Growth by Inductively Coupled Plasma–Chemical Vapor Deposition on ZrO2 Gate Dielectric for Thin Film Transistors

Abstract

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si:H) film was fabricated by inductively coupled plasma–chemical vapor deposition (ICP–CVD) at 150 °C on ZrO2 gate dielectric which was made by atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. µc-Si:H film with very thin incubation layer less than 10 nm was deposited on ZrO2 film. Polycrystalline ZrO2 played a role of crystal seed layer to enhance the crystalline fraction of µc-Si:H film. Surface roughness of ZrO2 film increased as deposition temperature of ZrO2 was increased. Rougher surface of ZrO2 film provided nucleation site of µc-Si:H film at early growth stage to reduce the thickness of the incubation layer. The crystalline fraction of µc-Si:H film depended on crystallinity of ZrO2. When µc-Si:H film was deposited on ZrO2 of 100 and 50 nm thickness at 250 °C, (200) and (111) peak intensity was increased respectively.