Plasma-Induced Electronic Defects: Generation and Annihilation Kinetics in Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon

Abstract

Electronic defects in semiconductor devices play important roles in device performance and reliability. These defects are created during fabrication using plasma-based processing technology. The authors investigate the generation and annihilation of defects in amorphous silicon by measuring the photocurrent during processing with hydrogen and argon plasmas. Unfavorable species for defect generation and favorable species for defect recovery are distinguished. These results are beneficial for improving semiconductor plasma processing, which is used to make state-of-the-art devices such as FinFETs, computer memory, and solar cells.