Effect of the initial structure on the electrical property of crystalline silicon films deposited on glass by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition.

Crystalline silicon films on an inexpensive glass substrate are currently prepared by depositing an amorphous silicon film and then crystallizing it by excimer laser annealing, rapid thermal annealing, or metal-induced crystallization because crystalline silicon films cannot be directly deposited on glass at a low temperature. It was recently shown that by adding HCI gas in the hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) process, the crystalline silicon film can be directly deposited on a glass substrate without additional annealing. The electrical properties of silicon films prepared using a gas mixture of SiH4 and HCl in the HWCVD process could be further improved by controlling the initial structure, which was achieved by adjusting the delay time in deposition. The size of the silicon particles in the initial structure increased with increasing delay time, which increased the mobility and decreased the resistivity of the deposited films. The 0 and 5 min delay times produced the silicon particle sizes of approximately 10 and approximately 28 nm, respectively, in the initial microstructure, which produced the final films, after deposition for 300 sec, of resistivities of 0.32 and 0.13 Omega-cm, mobilities of 1.06 and 1.48 cm2 V(-1) S(-1), and relative densities of 0.87 and 0.92, respectively.