Rapid thermal annealing of polysilicon thin films

Author

Zhang, Xin ; Zhang, Tong-Yi ; Wong, Man ; Zohar, Yitshak

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Hong Kong Univ. of Sci. & Technol., Kowloon, Hong Kong

Volume

7

Issue

4

fYear

1998

fDate

12/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

356

Lastpage

364

Abstract

In comparison with conventional heat treatment, high-temperature rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in a radio frequency (RF) induction-heated system can reduce or eliminate residual stresses in thin films in a few seconds. In this work, changes in the stress level due to the RTA of polycrystalline silicon thin films were studied as a function of annealing time and temperature. The corresponding variations in the microstructure and surface layer of the thin films were experimentally investigated by a variety of analytical tools. The results suggest that the residual stress evolution during annealing is dominated by two mechanisms: 1) microstructure variations of the polysilicon thin film and 2) effects of a surface layer formed during the heat treatment. The fact that the microstructure changes are more pronounced in samples after conventional heat treatment implies that the effects of the formed surface layer may dominate the final state of the residual stress in the thin film

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; internal stresses; rapid thermal annealing; semiconductor thin films; silicon; Si; heat treatment; high temperature rapid thermal annealing; microstructure; polycrystalline silicon thin film; radio frequency induction heating; residual stress; surface layer; Heat treatment; Microstructure; Radio frequency; Rapid thermal annealing; Residual stresses; Semiconductor thin films; Silicon; Surface treatment; Thermal stresses; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/84.735342

Filename

735342