• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.111-114
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• 2008

We studied the influence of nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) thin film thickness on top gate nc-Si thin film transistor (TFT) fabricated at $180^{\circ}C$. The nc-Si thickness affects the characteristics of nc-Si TFT due to the nc-Si growth similar to a columnar. As the thickness of nc-Si increases from 40 nm to 200 nm, the grain size was increased from 20 nm to 40 nm. Having a large grain size, the thick nc-Si TFT surpasses the thin nc-Si TFT in terms of electrical characteristics such as field effect mobility. The channel resistance was decreased due to growth of the grain. We obtained the experimental results that the field effect mobility of the fabricated devices of which nc-Si thickness is 60, 90 and 130 nm are 26, 77 and $119\;cm^2/Vsec$, respectively. The leakage current, however, is increased from $7.2{\times}10^{-10}$ to $1.9{\times}10^{-8}\;A$ at $V_{GS}=-4.4\;V$ when the nc-Si thickness increases. It is originated from the decrease of the channel resistance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.254-255
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• 2012

Interest in nano-crystalline silicon (nc-Si) thin films has been growing because of their favorable processing conditions for certain electronic devices. In particular, there has been an increase in the use of nc-Si thin films in photovoltaics for large solar cell panels and in thin film transistors for large flat panel displays. One of the most important material properties for these device applications is the macroscopic charge-carrier mobility. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) or nc-Si is a basic material in thin film transistors (TFTs). However, a-Si:H based devices have low carrier mobility and bias instability due to their metastable properties. The large number of trap sites and incomplete hydrogen passivation of a-Si:H film produce limited carrier transport. The basic electrical properties, including the carrier mobility and stability, of nc-Si TFTs might be superior to those of a-Si:H thin film. However, typical nc-Si thin films tend to have mobilities similar to a-Si films, although changes in the processing conditions can enhance the mobility. In polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin films, the performance of the devices is strongly influenced by the boundaries between neighboring crystalline grains. These grain boundaries limit the conductance of macroscopic regions comprised of multiple grains. In much of the work on poly-Si thin films, it was shown that the performance of TFTs was largely determined by the number and location of the grain boundaries within the channel. Hence, efforts were made to reduce the total number of grain boundaries by increasing the average grain size. However, even a small number of grain boundaries can significantly reduce the macroscopic charge carrier mobility. The nano-crystalline or polymorphous-Si development for TFT and solar cells have been employed to compensate for disadvantage inherent to a-Si and micro-crystalline silicon (${\mu}$-Si). Recently, a novel process for deposition of nano-crystralline silicon (nc-Si) thin films at room temperature was developed using neutral beam assisted chemical vapor deposition (NBaCVD) with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300 eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at room temperature. In previous our experiments, we verified favorable properties of nc-Si thin films for certain electronic devices. During the formation of the nc-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. The more resent work on nc-Si thin film transistors (TFT) was done. We identified the performance of nc-Si TFT active channeal layers. The dependence of the performance of nc-Si TFT on the primary process parameters is explored. Raman, FT-IR and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to study the microstructures and the crystalline volume fraction of nc-Si films. The electric properties were investigated on Cr/SiO2/nc-Si metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.109-109
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• 2010

$Er^{3+}$ ion shows a stable and efficient luminescence at 1.54mm due to its $^4I_{13/2}\;{\rightarrow}\;^4I_{15/2}$ intra-4f transition. As this corresponds to the low-loss window of silica-based optical fibers, Er-based light sources have become a mainstay of the long-distance telecom. In most telecom applications, $Er^{3+}$ ions are excited via resonant optical pumping. However, if nanocluster-Si (nc-Si) are co-doped with $Er^{3+}$, $Er^{3+}$ can be excited via energy transfer from excited electrical carriers in the nc-Si as well. This combines the broad, strong absorption band of nc-Si with narrow, stable emission spectra of $Er^{3+}$ to allow top-pumping with off-resonant, low-cost broadband light sources as well as electrical pumping. A widely used method to achieve nc-Si sensitization of $Er^{3+}$ is high-temperature annealing of Er-doped, non-stoichiometric amorphous thin film with excess Si (e.g.,silicon-rich silicon oxide(SRSO)) to precipitate nc-Si and optically activate $Er^{3+}$ at the same time. Unfortunately, such precipitation and growth of nc-Si into Er-doped oxide matrix can lead to $Er^{3+}$ clustering away from nc-Si at anneal temperatures much lower than ${\sim}1000^{\circ}C$ that is necessary for full optical activation of $Er^{3+}$ in $SiO_2$. Recently, silicon-rich silicon nitride (SRSN) was reported to be a promising alternative to SRSO that can overcome this problem of Er clustering. But as nc-Si formation and optical activation $Er^{3+}$ remain linked in Er-doped SRSN, it is not clear which mechanism is responsible for the observed improvement. In this paper, we report on investigating the effect of separating the nc-Si formation and $Er^{3+}$ activation by using hetero-multilayers that consist of nm-thin SRSO or SRSN sensitizing layers with Er-doped $SiO_2$ or $Si_3N_4$ luminescing layers.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.07c
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• pp.1900-1902
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• 2005

본 연구에서는 scanning probe microscopy(SPM)을 이용하여 국소영역에서 silicon nanocrystal(Si NC)의 전기적 특성을 분석하였다. Si NCs은 압축된 silicon powder를 laser로 분해하는 laser ablation 방식으로 제조되었고, sharpening oxidation 과정을 통하여 Si NC 주변에 oxide shell을 형성시켰다. 이 과정에서 Si NCs은 $10{\sim}50 nm$의 크기와 약 $10^{11}/cm^2$의 밀도로 $SiO_2$층에 증착되었다. SPM의 conducting tip을 통하여 전하는 각각의 Si NC로 주입되게 되고, 이로 인하여 발생하는 SCM image와 dC/dV curve의 변화를 통하여 Si NC에서 전하 거동을 모니터 하였다. 또한 국소영역에서 Si NC의 전기적 특성을 MOS capacitor 구조에서의 C-V 특성과 비교 분석하였다.

• Proceedings of the Optical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.108-109
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• 2003

실리콘은 반도체 산업에 이용되는 주된 물질로, 원가, 기능성, 신뢰도 등의 면에서 이점을 가지고 있기 때문에 실리콘칩 위에 기존의 전기적 소자와 광전기적 소자들을 집적하고자 하는 노력이 계속되고 있다. 특히 실리콘 나노결정 (nc-Si)으로부터 가시광 방출을 관측한 이래, 이를 기반으로 한 광학적 능동매질에 대한 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있는데, 최근에는 nc-Si을 이용한 LED와 어븀이 첨가된 nc-Si을 이용한 nc-Si／silica 광 도파로 광증폭기에서의 광학적 이득이 보고 된 바 있다. (중략)

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.08a
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• pp.93-93
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• 2003

Photoluminescence(PL) properties of Silicon nanocrystals (nc-Si) as a function of temperature is reported to consider the mechanism of PL. Nc-Si has been made by $Si^+$ ion-implantation into thermal $SiO_2$ and subsequent annealing. And after gold had been diffused at the same samples above, the resultant PL spectra has been compared to the PL spectra from the non-gold doped nc-Si. PL peak energy variation from nc-Si is same with the variation of energy bandgap of bulk silicon as temperature changes from 6 K to room temperature. This result may mean nc-Si is still indirect transition material like bulk silicon. Gold doped nc-Si reveals short peak wavelength of PL spectrum than gold undoped one. PL peak shift through gold doing process shows clearly the PL mechanism is not from defect or interface states. PL intensity increases from 6K to a certain temperature and then decrease to room temperature. This characteristic with temperature shows that phonon have a role for the luminescence as theory explains that electron and hole can be recombined radiatively by phonon's assist in nc-Si, which is almost impossible in bulk silicon. Therefore luminescence is observed in nc-Si constructed less than a few of unit cell and the peak energy of luminescence can be higher than the bulk bandgap energy by the bandgap widening effect occurs in nanostructure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.136-136
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• 2011

반도체 및 전자기기 산업에 있어서 NVM은 아주 중요한 부분을 차지하고 있다. NVM은 디스플레이 분야에 많은 기여를 하고 있는데, 측히 AMOLED에 적용이 가능하여 온도에 따라 변하는 구동 전류, 휘도, color balance에 따른 문제를 해결하는데 큰 역할을 한다. 본 연구에서는 bottom gate 구조의 nc-Si NVM 실험을 진행하였다. P-type silicon substrate (0.01~0.02 ${\Omega}-cm$) 위에 Blocking layer 층인 SiO2 (SiH4:N2O=6:30)를 12.5nm증착하였고, Charge trap layer 층인 SiNx (SiH4:NH3=6:4)를 20 nm 증착하였다. 마지막으로 Tunneling layer 층인 SiOxNy은 N2O (2.5 sccm) 플라즈마 처리를 통해 2.5 nm 증착하였다. 이러한 ONO 구조층 위에 nc-Si을 50 nm 증착후에 Source와 Drain 층을 Al 120 nm로 evaporator 이용하여 증착하였다. 제작한 샘플을 전기적 특성인 Threshold voltage, Subthreshold swing, Field effect mobility, ON/OFF current ratio, Programming & Erasing 특성, Charge retention 특성 등을 알아보았다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.154-155
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• 2012

The promise of nano-crystalites (nc) as a technological material, for applications including display backplane, and solar cells, may ultimately depend on tailoring their behavior through doping and crystallinity. Impurities can strongly modify electronic and optical properties of bulk and nc semiconductors. Highly doped dopant also effect structural properties (both grain size, crystal fraction) of nc-Si thin film. As discussed in several literatures, P atoms or radicals have the tendency to reside on the surface of nc. The P-radical segregation on the nano-grain surfaces that called self-purification may reduce the possibility of new nucleation because of the five-coordination of P. In addition, the P doping levels of ${\sim}2{\times}10^{21}\;at/cm^3$ is the solubility limitation of P in Si; the solubility of nc thin film should be smaller. Therefore, the non-activated P tends to segregate on the grain boundaries and the surface of nc. These mechanisms could prevent new nucleation on the existing grain surface. Therefore, most researches shown that highly doped nc-thin film by using conventional PECVD deposition system tended to have low crystallinity, where the formation energy of nucleation should be higher than the nc surface in the intrinsic materials. If the deposition technology that can make highly doped and simultaneously highly crystallized nc at low temperature, it can lead processes of next generation flexible devices. Recently, we are developing a novel CVD technology with a neutral particle beam (NPB) source, named as neutral beam assisted CVD (NBaCVD), which controls the energy of incident neutral particles in the range of 1~300eV in order to enhance the atomic activation and crystalline of thin films at low temperatures. During the formation of the nc-/pm-Si thin films by the NBaCVD with various process conditions, NPB energy directly controlled by the reflector bias and effectively increased crystal fraction (~80%) by uniformly distributed nc grains with 3~10 nm size. In the case of phosphorous doped Si thin films, the doping efficiency also increased as increasing the reflector bias (i.e. increasing NPB energy). At 330V of reflector bias, activation energy of the doped nc-Si thin film reduced as low as 0.001 eV. This means dopants are fully occupied as substitutional site, even though the Si thin film has nano-sized grain structure. And activated dopant concentration is recorded as high as up to 1020 #/$cm^3$ at very low process temperature (＜ $80^{\circ}C$) process without any post annealing. Theoretical solubility for the higher dopant concentration in Si thin film for order of 1020 #/$cm^3$ can be done only high temperature process or post annealing over $650^{\circ}C$. In general, as decreasing the grain size, the dopant binding energy increases as ratio of 1 of diameter of grain and the dopant hardly be activated. The highly doped nc-Si thin film by low-temperature NBaCVD process had smaller average grain size under 10 nm (measured by GIWAXS, GISAXS and TEM analysis), but achieved very higher activation of phosphorous dopant; NB energy sufficiently transports its energy to doping and crystallization even though without supplying additional thermal energy. TEM image shows that incubation layer does not formed between nc-Si film and SiO2 under later and highly crystallized nc-Si film is constructed with uniformly distributed nano-grains in polymorphous tissues. The nucleation should be start at the first layer on the SiO2 later, but it hardly growth to be cone-shaped micro-size grains. The nc-grain evenly embedded pm-Si thin film can be formatted by competition of the nucleation and the crystal growing, which depend on the NPB energies. In the evaluation of the light soaking degradation of photoconductivity, while conventional intrinsic and n-type doped a-Si thin films appeared typical degradation of photoconductivity, all of the nc-Si thin films processed by the NBaCVD show only a few % of degradation of it. From FTIR and RAMAN spectra, the energetic hydrogen NB atoms passivate nano-grain boundaries during the NBaCVD process because of the high diffusivity and chemical potential of hydrogen atoms.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.12-14
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• 2005

Inductively Coupled Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition(ICP-CVD)를 이용하여 공정온도 $150^{\circ}C$에서 Nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) 박막을 증착하였다. 실험에서 헬륨(He)가스, 수소($H_2$)가스 그리고 헬륨(He)과 수소($H_2$)의 혼합가스로 희석한 사일렌($SiH_4$)을 반응가스로 이용하였다. 이 혼합가스는 3sccm의 사일렌($SiH_4$)에 헬륨(He)과 수소($H_2$)의 주입율을 20sccm에서부터 60sccm까지 변화시켜 조건을 달리하여 사용했다. 증착한 Nc-Si 박막을 X-ray diffraction (XRD)으로 분석하여 각각의 조건에 대한 Nc-Si 박막의 속성을 연구하였다. 헬륨(He) 또는 수소($H_2$) 혼합가스의 주입율이 커지면서 <111>과 <222>의 최고점(peak)이 더 높아졌으며 결정화 되지 않고 비결정질로 남아 있는 성장층(incubation layer)이 얇아졌다. 이 결과는 nc-Si를 증착할 때 사용한 수소($H_2$) 플라즈마와 헬륨(He) 플라즈마의 효과로 설명할 수 있다. 실험을 통해 ICP-CVD로 증착한 nc-Si 박막을 박막 전계효과트랜지스터 (TFT)에서 우수한 특성의 전자수송층(active layer)으로 사용할 수 있는 것을 확인하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.148-148
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• 2010

플래시 메모리로 대표되는 비휘발성 메모리는 IT 기술의 발달에 힘입어 급격한 성장세를 나타내고 있지만, 메모리 소자의 크기가 작아짐에 따라서 그 물리적 한계에 이르러 차세대 메모리에 대한 요구가 점차 높아지고 있는 실정이다. 따라서, 이러한 문제점에 대한 대안으로서 고속 동작 및 정보의 저장 시간을 향상 시킬 수 있는 nano-floating gate memory (NFGM)가 제안되었다. Nano-floating gate에서 사용되는 nanocrystal (NCs) 중에서 Si nanocrystal은 비휘발성 메모리뿐만 아니라 발광 소자 및 태양 전지 등의 매우 다양한 분야에 광범위하게 응용되고 있지만, NCs의 크기와 밀도를 제어하는 것이 가장 중요한 문제로 이를 해결하기 위해서 많은 연구가 진행되고 있다. 또한, 소자의 소형화가 이루어지면서 기존의 플래시 메모리 한계를 극복하기 위해서 터널베리어에 관한 관심이 크게 증가했다. 특히, 최근에 많은 주목을 받고 있는 개량형 터널베리어는 크게 VARIOT (VARIable Oxide Thickness) barrier와 CRESTED barrier의 두 가지 종류가 제안되어 있다. VARIOT의 경우에는 매우 얇은 두께의low-k/high-k/low-k 의 적층구조를 가지며, CRESTED barrier의 경우에는 반대의 적층구조를 가진다. 이와 같은 개량형 터널 베리어는 전계에 대한 터널링 전류의 감도를 증가시켜서 쓰기/지우기 특성을 향상시키며, 물리적인 절연막 두께의 증가로 인해 데이터 보존 시간의 향상을 달성할 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 박막의 $SiO_2$와 $Si_3N_4$를 적층한 VARIOT 타입의 개량형 터널 절연막 위에 전하 축적층으로 $SiN_x$층의 내부에 Si-NCs를 갖는 비휘발성 메모리 소자를 제작하였다. Si-NCs를 갖지 않는 $SiN_x$전하 축적층은 Si-NCs를 갖는 전하 축적층보다 더 작은 메모리 윈도우와 열화된 데이터 보존 특성을 나타내었다. 또한, Si-NCs의 크기가 감소됨에 따라 양자 구속 효과가 증가되어 느린 지우기 속도를 보였으나, 데이터 보존 특성이 크게 향상됨을 알 수 있었다. 그러므로, NFGM의 빠른 쓰기/지우기 속도와 데이터 보존 특성을 동시에 만족하기 위해서는 Si-NCs의 크기 조절이 매우 중요하며, NCs크기의 최적화를 통하여 고집적/고성능의 차세대 비휘발성 메모리에 적용될 수 있을 것이라 판단된다.