Title :
N/sub 2/ plasma treatment effects in silicon nitride film formation for silicon surface passivation
Author :
Moon, S. ; Kim, K. ; Yoo, J. ; Park, J. ; Kim, D. ; Chakrabarty, K. ; Lee, S. ; Yi, J.
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Sungkyunkwan Univ., Suwon, South Korea
Abstract :
We investigated to decrease the leakage current of SiNx film by employing a N/sub 2/ plasma treatment. The insulating layers were prepared by two step process; the N/sub 2/ plasma treatment and then PECVD SiNx deposition with SiH/sub 4/ and N/sub 2/ gases. To prove the influence of the N/sub 2/ plasma treatment, the Si substrate was exposed to the plasma, which was generated in N/sub 2/ gas ambient. Without plasma treatment SiNx film grows at the rate of 7.03 nm/min, which has a refractive index of 1.77 and hydrogen content of 2.16 /spl times/ 10/sup 22/ cm/sup -3/ for N/sub 2//SiH/sub 4/ gas flow ratio of 20. The obtained films were analyzed in terms of deposition rates, refractive index, hydrogen concentration, and electrical properties. By employing N/sub 2/ plasma treatment, interface traps such as mobile charges and injected charges were removed and hysteresis of capacitance-voltage (C-V) disappeared. We observed that the plasma treated samples had the leakage current density reduced by 2 orders compared to the sample having no plasma treatment.
Keywords :
charge injection; elemental semiconductors; interface states; leakage currents; passivation; plasma CVD; plasma materials processing; refractive index; silicon; silicon compounds; N/sub 2/ plasma treatment effect; PECVD; Si; SiN; current density; deposition rate; electrical properties; film formation; hydrogen concentration; injected charges; insulating layer; interface trap; leakage current; mobile charges; plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition; refractive index; surface passivation;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 2003. Proceedings of 3rd World Conference on
Conference_Location :
Osaka, Japan
Print_ISBN :
4-9901816-0-3
