Influence of deposition temperature of thermal ALD deposited Al2O3 films on silicon surface passivation

The effect of deposition temperature (Tdep) and subsequent annealing time (tanl) of atomic layer deposited aluminum oxide (Al2O3) films on silicon surface passivation (in terms of surface recombination velocity, SRV) is investigated. The pristine samples (as-deposited) show presence of positive fixed charges, QF. The interface defect density (Dit) decreases with increase in Tdep which further decreases with tanl up to 100s. An effective surface passivation (SRV<8 cm/s) is realized for Tdep ≥ 200 °C. The present investigation suggests that low thermal budget processing provides the same quality of passivation as realized by high thermal budget process (tanl between 10 to 30 min).