Investigation of Low-Temperature ICP-CVD <i>µ</i>-Si N- and P-Doped/Undoped Layers for Fully ICP-CVD Electronics

Low-temperature microcrystalline silicon (<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>-Si) has been realized in a Corial inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) system. Both doped and undoped <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>-Si layers have been investigated in terms of resistivity and crystalline fraction. Following a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>-Si recipe using H2/Ar/SiH4 mixture developed for plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), a technological transfer has been carried out in ICP-CVD. Some key parameters have been defined and a domain of use determined for N-type, P-type, and intrinsic layers. In the same reactor, nitride layers have also been deposited to perform gate insulator for thin-film transistors (TFTs). Finally, TFTs were fully realized by ICP-CVD and also electrically characterized, highlighting the interest of ICP-CVD for thin-film electronics. This demonstrates the great versatility of ICP-CVD technology applied to low-temperature electronic processes.