Microwave PECVD of micro-crystalline silicon

The deposition of micro-crystalline silicon with a new linear microwave plasma source is investigated. Advantages of this plasma source are the high deposition rates and the large area on which a homogeneous deposition can be achieved. Since this source has not yet been applied for deposition of micro-crystalline silicon before, we explored a large parameter space in order to find optimum growth conditions. It is observed that with this microwave source it is possible to grow microcrystalline layers at higher silane/hydrogen ratios and deposition rates than for conventional RF PECVD. In this paper, structural properties of silicon layers deposited by microwave assisted PECVD are discussed.