Effect of Ar on Polycrystalline Si Films Deposited by ECR-PECVD using SiH_4

In this paper, polycrystalline silicon films were deposited by electron cyclotron resonance plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (ECR-PECVD) using SiH4/Ar and SiH4/H2 gaseous mixture. Effects of argon flow rate on the deposition efficiency and the film property were investigated by comparing with H2. The results indicated that the deposition rate of using Ar as discharge gas was 1.5-2 times higher than that of using H2,while the preferred orientations and the grain sizes of the films were analogous. Film crystallinity increased with the increase of Ar flow rate. Optimized flow ratio of SiH4 to Ar was obtained as F(SiH4): F(Ar)=10:70 for the highest deposition rate.