Abstract
Atmospheric pressure (AP) operation of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) is one of promising concepts for high quality and low cost processing. Atmospheric plasma discharge requires narrow gap configuration, which causes an inherent feature of AP PECVD. Two dimensional radial gas flows in AP PECVD induces radial variation of mass-transport and that of substrate temperature. The opposite trend of these variations would be the key consideration in the development of uniform deposition process. Another inherent feature of AP PECVD is confined plasma discharge, from which volume power density concept is derived as a key parameter for the control of deposition rate. We investigated deposition rate as a function of volume power density, gas flux, source gas partial pressure, hydrogen partial pressure, plasma source frequency, and substrate temperature; and derived a design guideline of deposition tool and process development in terms of deposition rate and uniformity.
Highlights
Silicon thin film processing technologies have evolved with the advancement in micro- and large area electronics.[1,2,3] High performance microelectronics have requested quality development in Si thin film technologies like epitaxial growth at lower temperature conditions; and large area electronics have driven faster deposition facilities for cost lowering
From our calibration of the Pt thin film sensor we found that the variation of resistance per unit temperature is around 20 Ω/K, and the variation of substrate temperature is within 20 K in our experimental range of gas flow rates and electrode to substrate gaps
We have examined deposition characteristics of atmospheric pressure (AP) plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CVD) (PECVD) to gain fundamental insights for a design guideline of deposition tool and process development
Summary
Silicon thin film processing technologies have evolved with the advancement in micro- and large area electronics.[1,2,3] High performance microelectronics have requested quality development in Si thin film technologies like epitaxial growth at lower temperature conditions; and large area electronics have driven faster deposition facilities for cost lowering The former has been developed mainly with thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD),[1] and the latter with plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD).[2] There have been pioneering approaches in high quality Si thin films with enhanced deposition rates by operating PECVD at atmospheric pressure (AP).[4,5,6,7] It was claimed that atmospheric operation of PECVD could minimize high energy ion bombardment during film deposition processes, and high quality thin films like epitaxial Si are facilitated with mitigated ion damages. Design strategies of deposition tools and processing methods in terms of deposition rates and uniformity will be discussed based both on experimental results and simulation data.[4,5,6,7]
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