Effects of Substrate Temperature on the Growth of Polycrystalline Si Films Deposited with SiH(4)+Ar

Polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) films were deposited using Ar diluted SiH(4) gaseous mixture by electron cyclotron resonance plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (ECR-PECVD). The effects of the substrate temperature on deposition rate, crystallinity, grain size and the configuration of H existing in poly-Si film were investigated. The results show that, comparing with H(2) dilution, Ar dilution could significantly decrease the concentration of H on the growing surface. When the substrate temperature increased, the deposition rate increased and the concentration of H decreased monotonously, but the crystallinity and the grain size of poly-Si films exhibited sophisticated trends. It is proposed that the crystallinity of the films is determined by a competing balance of the self-diffusion activity of Si atoms and the deposition rate. At substrate temperature of 200 degrees C, the deposited film exhibits the maximum poly-Si volume fraction of 79%. Based on these results, higher substrate temperature is suggested to prepare the poly-Si films with advanced stability and compromised crystallinity at high deposition rate.