Large-area and high-speed deposition of microcrystalline silicon film by inductive coupled plasma using internal low-inductance antenna

A novel inductively-coupled RIF plasma source with internal low-inductance antenna (LIA) units was developed to synthesize microcrystalline silicon (mu c-Si) film on a large glass substrate. A film thickness profile on a 600 x 720 mm(2) glass substrate was achieved with high plasma uniformity and a variation of less than +/- 5% without a standing-wave effect. Raman and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis revealed that highly crystallized mu c-Si films, which were directly deposited on a glass substrate, were synthesized without an amorphous-phase incubation layer at the substrate interface. A bottom-gate thin-film transistor (BG-TFT) was fabricated employing an optimized mu c-Si layer and exhibited a field-effect mobility of 3 cm(2)/(V center dot s), which is one order higher than that of a typical amorphous silicon TFT.