Combinatorial deposition of microcrystalline silicon films using multihollow discharge plasma chemical vapor deposition

A high-pressure depletion method using plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is often used to deposit hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (c-Si:H) films of a low defect density at a high deposition rate. To understand proper deposition conditions of c-Si:H films for a high-pressure depletion method, Si films were deposited in a combinatorial way using a multihollow discharge plasma CVD method by which fluxes of H and SiH3 radicals and their flux ratio can be varied with the distance from the discharges. The higher gas pressure brings about the higher deposition rate, whereas the process window of device quality -c-Si:H films becomes quite narrower for the higher gas pressure.