Low-temperature deposition pathways to silicon nitride, amorphous silicon, polycrystalline silicon, and n type amorphous silicon films using a high density plasma system

Summary form only given, as follows. We report on our low temperature deposition approach to silicon nitride, amorphous silicon (a-Si) and polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si), and doped a-Si films using an Electron Cyclotron Resonance PECVD system. We find that silicon nitride films, deposited at temperatures as low as 30/spl deg/C can be obtained with /spl sim/7/spl times/10/sup -9/ A/cm/sup 2/ leakage currents, flat band voltages of /spl sim/0.6 V, and breakdown field strengths of /spl sim/6 MC/cm. In the case of the a-Si and poly-Si films, we employ X-ray diffraction, UV reflectance, photoluminescence, and electrical conductivity for evaluation. We find that a-Si films, deposited in the 30-120/spl deg/C temperature range, can be obtained with a photo-sensitivity (I/sub photo//I/sub dark/) of /spl sim/10/sup 4/ under AM1 light and that we can also produce polycrystalline films at temperatures as low as 120/spl deg/C on glass and polyethersulfone substrates. In the case of doped materials, conductivities of 10/sup -3/-10/sup -2/ S/cm can be obtained for the as-deposited layers grown at temperatures as low as 40/spl deg/C.