Substrate Temperature Dependence of Microcrystalline Silicon Thin Films by Combinatorial CVD Deposition

A high-pressure depletion method using plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is often used to deposit hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (${\mu}c-Si:H$) films of a low defect density at a high deposition rate. To understand proper deposition conditions of ${\mu}c-Si:H$ films for a high-pressure depletion method, Si films were deposited in a combinatorial way using a multi-hollow discharge plasma CVD method. In this paper the substrate temperature dependence of ${\mu}c-Si:H$ film properties are demonstrated. The higher substrate temperature brings about the higher deposition rate, and the process window of device quality ${\mu}c-Si:H$ films becomes wider until $200^{\circ}C$. This is attributed to competitive reactions between Si etching by H atoms and Si deposition.