μc Silicon Thin Films Deposited by Remote Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Process

In an earlier study, we deposited μc-Si thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering (RMS). Here we extend our studies to the deposition of both undoped and high conductivity N-type and P-type μc-Si thin films by a remote PECVD. We show that μc-Si films can be deposited by bringing hydrogen, H2, into the source gas mixtures. The H2 could introduced by either upstream in a He/H2 mixture and directly plasma excited, or downstream, and be remotely excited along with the silane, SiH4, feed gas. The degree of crystallinity is shown to depend on the hydrogen dilution, the substrate temperature and the substrate material.