Pulsed excimer-laser processing of amorphous silicon on non-crystalline substrates allows for the fabrication of high-quality polysilicon thin-film transistors (TFTs). It also provides procedures for doping self-aligned amorphous silicon TFTs. In addition, laser-crystallized polysilicon exhibits some interesting materials properties, such as, large lateral grain growth with a corresponding enhancement in the electron mobility. Under optimized processing conditions, excellent polysilicon TFTs with high mobilities, sharp turn on, low off-state leakage currents and good spatial uniformity have been achieved. These improved parameters, particularly the low off-state leakage currents and good uniformity, enable not only displays but also the moredemanding flat-panel imaging arrays to be fabricated in polysilicon. Results on both polysilicon CMOS circuits and a polysilicon flat-panel imager are presented.

The optoelectronic behavior of diodes deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition was investigated for a series of different silane concentrations in the gas phase. The purpose of this work was to correlate device characteristics with inherent properties of microcrystalline silicon by experiments and numerical simulations. Dark diode characteristics and, therefore, the open circuit voltage behavior of this series were dominated by the bulk properties of the i-layer (equilibrium carrier concentration) as shown by numerical modeling. Measurement of the solar cell output parameters as a function of the temperature showed that the fill factor of solar cells with small silane concentrations is dominated by the dark diode characteristics. This is in contrast to the temperature dependent fill factor of solar cells with large silane concentration which is limited by the extraction efficiency of the photogenerated carriers. Interface effects dominated the temperature dependent blue response. The gain in blue response increased with temperature and silane concentration by up to 200 % which revealed transport limiting material properties in the vicinity of the p/i-interface. This behavior was attributed to the nucleation region.

Long-term light-soaking experiments of amorphous silicon photovoltaic modules have now established that stabilization of the degradation occurs at levels that depend significantly on the operating conditions, as well as on the operating history of the modules. We suggest that stabilization occurs because of the introduction of degradation mechanisms with different time constants and annealing activation energies, depending on the exposure conditions. Stabilization will occur once a sufficient accumulation of different degradation mechanisms occurs. We find that operating module temperature during light-soaking is the most important parameter for determining stabilized performance. Next in importance is the exposure history of the device. The precise value of the light intensity seems least important in determining the stabilized efficiency, as long as its level is a significant fraction of 1-sun.

Efficient hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) n-i-p solar cells have been fabricated with all doped and undoped a-Si:H layers deposited by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD). The total deposition time of all layers, except the top ITO-contact, is less than 4 minutes. On an untextured stainless steel (SS) substrate, an initial efficiency of 7.12% is reached, with a stable efficiency of 5.4% after 1000 hours 1 sun light soaking. This initial efficiency is reached by incorporating into the p/i interface about 60 Å of intrinsic a-Si:H “edge” material grown under conditions near the transition to microcrystallinity. This edge layer increases the cell's fill factor from 0.60 to 0.68 and the best open-circuit voltage is about 0.88 V. Using textured Ag/ZnOcoated SS supplied by United Solar Corporation, preliminary results of an all-HWCVD solar cell give an initial efficiency of 8.7 %.

Nanoparticles of Si-alloys were grown at room temperature in a RF-PECVD process from mixtures of SiH4, CH4 and NH3. Quasi-monodisperse nanoparticles were produced in conditions of fast particle development. Among the different conditions for particle formation, we chose moderate low pressure (below 100Pa) and RF-power lower than 200W in all cases. The particle size was controlled through the modulation of the RF power supplied to the discharge. A post-thermal treatment at 800-900°C was used to eliminate the hydrogen of the particles and to stabilize them against environmental oxidation. To study the thermal crystallization of the particles, various thermal-treatments were used. The annealing of these particles at 1400°C for one hour under Ar or N2 led to different results depending on the composition of the samples as revealed by HRTEM and electron-diffraction analysis: SiC particles showed a marked internal crystallization; SiCN particles developed nanocrystals embedded in their amorphous matrix; Si particles crystallized in diamond-like silicon when annealed in Ar, whereas long whiskers of the α-Si3N4 phase, 50-200nm wide, grew from the particles in N2.

Structural study of a-Si layers formed by high fluence hydrogen or deuterium implantation (up to 5×1017 cm−2) using high current beams with means of current up 40 mA/cm2 was carried out in the present work. The Si:H(D) silicon films were characterized using FTIR spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry. Hydrogen solubility in crystalline silicon is low but ion implantation allows one to introduce hydrogen atoms in the concentration of 1022cm−3 or even more in thin silicon layer. High defect concentration in combination with high hydrogen activity causes the formation of mixed amorphous and crystalline phases with structure similar to silicon produced PECVD or laser ablation. The transformation of optical properties of this film during annealing in temperature range of 200-1050°C was investigated. The changes in optical characteristics and number of Si-H or Si-D bonds in the spectra of IR absorption is correlated with increase in crystalline volume of silicon with a temperature.

Protocrystalline silicon deposited at temperatures below 80°C exhibits an extraordinary photosensitivity and superior stability against light-soaking. This material growths at the borderline of the amorphous and nanocrystalline phases in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. After thermal annealing and subsequent light-soaking, the photosensitivity is comparable to the values after deposition, while amorphous silicon strongly drops off. A structural and optical characterization reveals a small fraction of silicon crystallites embedded in an amorphous well-ordered matrix. We investigate the morphology of silicon films deposited at the edge of crystallinity by the absolute Constant Photocurrent Method and observe a phase transition from amorphous to nanocrystalline silicon. This thickness dependant morphology is of crucial importance for solar cell design. We attain protocrystalline absorber which reflect in a strongly improved fill factor compared to amorphous silicon based solar cells.

H/D-, N-H/D- and Si-H/D-bond density changes were investigated in stacks consisting of a Cz-Si substrate, a thin layer of SiO2, amorphous deuterated silicon nitride as well as amorphous hydrogenated silicon nitride in order to see if the post deposition anneal of a-SixNyHz layers on crystalline silicon wafers can actually lead to a migration of H atoms into the Si-bulk, which is an important question in regard to emitter passivation of Si-solar cells.

The stacks were grown with remote plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RPECVD). A low temperature (≈200°C) process of down stream injected ammonia (NH3) and silane (SiH4) activated by an upstream injected He-plasma, produced through RF-radiation (13.65MHz) was used. Thermal treatment was executed by ex situ rapid thermal anneal in Ar ambient. For the measurements of H and D bond densities, FTIR was employed while SIMS determined atomic densities of H, D and O in the c-Si/nitride interface region. The experiments showed that H transport in silicon nitride is determined by several mechanisms including diffusion and dissociation processes and that silicon nitride deposited with high ammonia to silane ratios can produce molecular species like ammonia and H2. The study of the reaction dynamics showed that the production of molecular hydrogen is the most dominant process as long as Si-H-bonds are present in the system. After their exhaustion, an ammonia producing reaction prevails that leads with increasing temperatures to lower densities in the nitride films.

In this work, we show results concerning electro-optical properties, composition and morphology of nanocrystalline hydrogenated undoped silicon (nc-Si:H) films produced by hot wire plasma assisted chemical vapour deposition process (HWPA-CVD) and exhibiting a compact granular structure, as revealed by SEM micrographs. This was also inferred by infrared spectra, which does not present the SiO vibration band located at 1050-1200 cm-1, even when samples have long atmospheric exposition. The photoconductivity measured at room temperature also does not change when samples have a long time exposition to the air or to the light irradiation. The influence of hydrogen dilution on the properties of the films was also investigated.

Light- and annealing-induced structural changes in undoped hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), pure amorphous silicon (a-Si) and crystalline silicon (c-Si) have been investigated in detail by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). Both the Si2s and Si2p peaks in a-Si:H films were found to shift simultaneously to lower binding energies by the same amount with illumination time, and nearly reach saturation at about 0.06 eV after one hour of light-soaking at the intensity used. In contrast to the metastable changes in electronic properties [Staebler-Wronski effect (SWE)], the light-induced shifts in both peaks are unstable even at room temperature and can be reversed by annealing with a lower activation energy than that for the SWE. The absence of metastable XPS changes in pure a-Si and c-Si suggests that hydrogen is actively involved in the light-induced structural changes. Furthermore, visible light exposure produces XPS changes in a-Si:H less effectively than X-ray irradiation, despite its much higher incident intensity, indicating a high-energy photon irradiation effect. Our present results suggest that essentially the whole Si network structure is affected by light-soaking or X-ray irradiation, and becomes more stable after repeated irradiation-annealing training. These structural changes may be an independent metastable phenomenon or a precursor process of the SWE.

The patterned nc-Si/a-SiNx:H superlattices were fabricated by using laser interference crystallization method and investigated with atomic force microscope (AFM), micro-Raman spectroscope, cross-section transmission electron microscope (TEM) and high resolution electron microscope (HREM). We found that after laser irradiation, self-assembled Si nanocrystallites (nc-Si) are formed within the initial a-Si:H sublayers, moreover, in the plane parallel to the surface of the films, these nc-Si orderly distribute in the certain regions with the same periodicity of 2.0 µm as phase shifting mask grating. Based on the structural analyses, the crystallization mechanism and the origin of the self-assembled phenomena are briefly discussed.

A systematic study has been made of amorphous silicon (a-Si) alloy solar cells using various hydrogen dilutions during the growth of the intrinsic (i) layer. We find that the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of the cells increases as the dilution increases; it then reaches a maximum before it decreases dramatically. This sudden drop in Voc is attributed to the transition from amorphous silicon to microcrystalline inclusions in the i layer. We study i-layer thicknesses ranging from 1000 Å to 5000 Å and find that the transition occurs in all thicknesses investigated. Based on this study, a-Si alloy p i n solar cells suitable for use in the top cell of a high efficiency triple-junction structure are made. By selecting an appropriate dilution, cells with Voc greater than 1 V can be achieved readily. Solar cells made near the threshold not only exhibit higher initial characteristics but also better stability against light soaking. We have compared top cells made near the threshold with our previous best data, and found that both the initial and stable efficiencies are superior for the near-threshold cells. For an a-Si/a-Si double-junction device, a Voc value exceeding 2 V has been obtained using thin component cells. Thicker component cells give rise to an initial active-area efficiency of 11.9% for this tandem structure.

This paper compares a-Si:H p-i-n diodes having a spatially uniform distribution of defect states with diodes in which the defect distribution is non-uniform, i.e. equilibrated according to the Defect-Pool model. Diodes with a uniform defect distribution exhibit a clear dependence of the current-voltage characteristics on the width of the intrinsic region, whereas in equilibrated diodes, this dependence is absent. This difference is explained by comparing the space-charge distribution and the recombination profile of the intrinsic region in both types of diodes.

We have studied the structure of highly hydrogen-diluted a-Si:H films by using Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies. Raman spectra show a typical broad a-Si:H peak in the films with different substrate surfaces or i-layer thicknesses, except for one 1.4 μm film deposited directly onto a stainless steel (ss) substrate that shows the c-Si peak. An apparent μc-Si component was characterized by a low energy PL enhancement in a 0.5 μm film deposited directly onto the ss substrate. When a thin n-layer was inserted between the substrate and the a-Si film, no μc-Si growth was found in the first 0.5-1.0 μm thick layer but there was a μc-Si component in the top surface layer when the film was grown to a 1.5 μm thickness. The nonuniformity structure along the growth direction was characterized by PL spectroscopy using varied laser excitation wavelengths of 325, 488, 514.5, and 632.8 nm. We find that PL spectroscopy is a sensitive tool to characterize the microcrystallinity of the film.

For three types of hydrogenated silicon films, amorphous, microcrystalline and crystalline hydrogenated silicon, hydrogen diffusion was studied as a function of doping level employing depth profiling by secondary ion mass spectrometry. Hydrogen implantation was used to control the hydrogen concentration. All three materials show a similar doping dependence of H diffusion, namely a strong increase upon boron (p-type) doping and a much lesser increase for n- type (P, As) doping. In a band model of H diffusion, the effect is related to a decrease in energy of the hydrogen diffusion path. Possible explanations are a different charge state of diffusing hydrogen or an effect of the Fermi energy on the release energy of neutral hydrogen.

Air-gap micromachined structures such as bridges and cantilevers were fabricated on 50 and 125 µm-thick polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic substrates. The maximum processing temperature using PET is limited to 110 °C. Two surface micromachining processes on PET which used two different sacrificial layers - photoresist and Al - were developed. Several materials were used as structural layers in the microstructures including Al, TiW, amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and a bilayer of a-Si:H and Al. The maximum length of free-standing bridges and cantilevers is discussed as a function of the fabrication process. The bridge structures were actuated electrostatically, in a DC switch setup configuration, and the critical voltage as a function of the length was measured. Mechanical actuation and optical detection were used, in an AC mode, for the measurement of the resonance frequency of bridge structures.

We show that the analysis of post-transit photocurrent i(t) in a multi-trapping context to determine the density of trapping states g(E) is capable of resolving features less than kT in width. A commonly used method uses a Laplace inversion of i(t) data giving the well-known result g(E) ∼ t i(t) but employs a delta function approximation for trap release times, which results in loss of energy resolution. We show that it is possible to retain the exponential distribution function for trap release time and solve the multi-trapping rate equations directly, giving significantly improved resolution. The analysis is performed on computer generated post-transit data for distributed and discrete traps, and compared with the earlier method and other related Fourier transform methods for determining g(E). In addition, the versatility of the new method in handling cases with either distributed traps or with discrete traps means that it can be applied to disordered materials or to crystalline materials with well-defined defect levels.

Three-dimensional integration offers a dramatic reduction in chip area required per bit and has long been a research objective. Three-dimensional integration with thin film transistors (TFTs) requires detailed parametric analysis with techniques such as Capacitance-Voltage (CV) Characterization. CV analysis of polysilicon TFTs uses polysilicon-oxide-polysilicon thin film structures. Most of the CV analysis involving polysilicon available to date, however, is with polysilicon-oxide-bulk silicon structures. In this paper, we report the results of modeling andmeasurement of the CV characteristics of polysilicon-polysilicon oxide-polysilicon for doped and undoped polysilicon. To increase the conductivity of the polysilicon, elevated temperatures were used for measurement. CV measurements matching the theoretical curves were made for these polysilicon thin films. Oxide thickness, series and shunt resistance were extracted and correlated to process problems and splits.

We report on the growth and fabrication of low-gap a-(Si,Ge) solar cells, including cells made from a-Ge:H. The cells were deposited from silane and germane, or germane alone, using a high dilution of hydrogen in a remote ECR plasma reactor. We have been able to achieve a Tauc gap of as low as 1.15 eV with good device properties. The fill factors were in the 50%-60% range, and the Urbach energies measured in devices were in the range of 45 meV. The devices were of the p/i/n type with light entering the p layer. The devices were fabricated on stainless steel substrates. We also report on experiments to improve graded gap solar cells in a- (Si,Ge) using a novel combination of ppm-boron dopant and bandgap grading. It is shown that this grading significantly improves the device performance, both voltage and fill factor.

We investigated spatial non-uniformity and optical anisotropy in hydrogenated silicon thin films using infrared spectroscopy and other techniques. The films ranged in morphology from amorphous to micro-crystalline, as determined by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Trace element analysis of the films was carried out using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). We used polarized attenuated total reflection (ATR) measurements together with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to investigate anisotropy in the Si-H covalent bonding structure of the films, and also to detect oxide impurity phases present at certain sites in some samples. The FTIR-ATR measurements were performed using a germanium (Ge) contact microprobe with a 100-micron sampling area, as well as on films deposited on standard crystalline Si and Ge ATR substrates. The Ge contact ATR microprobe enabled relatively interference-free measurements of the IR spectra of a-Si:H and µc-Si:H films deposited on conductive substrates such as stainless steel and transparent conductive oxides, and is also sensitive to the spatial distribution of oxide precipitates in the films. This measurement is difficult or impossible using transmission or reflection IR spectroscopy.