• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.211-217
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• 2002

Ti-Si-N films were deposited onto WC-Co substrate by a RF-PECVD technique. The deposition behaviors of Ti-Si-N films were investigated by varying the deposition temperature, RF power, and reaction gas ratio (Mx). Ti-Si-N films deposited at 500, 180W, and Mx 60% had a maximum hardness value of 38GPa. The microstructure of films with a maximum hardness was revealed to be a nanocomposite of TiN crystallites penetrated by amorphous silicon nitride phase by HRTEM analyses. The microstructure of maximum hardness with Si content (10 at.%) was revealed to be a nanocomposite of TiN crystallites penetrated by amorphous silicon nitride phase, but to have partly aligned structure of TiN and some inhomogeniety in distribution. and At above 10 at.% Si content, TiN crystallite became finer and more isotropic also thickness of amorphous silicon nitride phase increased at microstructure.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.169-175
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• 2020

Silicon nitride thin films are deposited by RF (13.57 MHz) magnetron sputtering process using a Si (99.999 %) target and with different ratios of Ar/N₂ sputtering gas mixture. Corning G type glass is used as substrate. The vacuum atmosphere, RF source power, deposit time and temperature of substrate of the sputtering process are maintained consistently at 2 ~ 3 × 10^-3 torr, 30 sccm, 100 watt, 20 min. and room temperature, respectively. Cross sectional views and surface morphology of the deposited thin films are observed by field emission scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The hardness values are determined by nano-indentation measurement. The thickness of the deposited films is approximately within the range of 88 nm ~ 200 nm. As the amount of N₂ gas in the Ar:N₂ gas mixture increases, the thickness of the films decreases. AFM observation reveals that film deposited at high Ar:N₂ gas ratio and large amount of N₂ gas has a very irregular surface morphology, even though it has a low RMS value. The hardness value of the deposited films made with ratio of Ar:N₂=9:1 display the highest value. The XPS spectrum indicates that the deposited film is assigned to non-stoichiometric silicon nitride and the transmittance of the glass with deposited SiO₂-Si_xN_y thin film is satisfactory at 97 %.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.107-112
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• 2003

Amorphous carbon nitride thin films have been deposited on silicon (100) by reactive magnetron sputtering method. The basic depositon parameters varied were the r.f. power(up to 250 W), the deposition pressure in the reactor(up to 100 mtorr) and Ar:$N_2$ gas ratio. FT-IR and X-ray photoelectron spectra showed the presence of different carbon-nitrogen bonds in the films. The surface topography of the films was studied by scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and atomic force microscopy(AFM).

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.565-569
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• 2006

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD) is a well established technique for the deposition of hydrogenated film of silicon nitride (SiNx:H), which is commonly used as an antireflection coating as well as passivating layer in crystalline silicon solar cell. PECVD-SiNx:H films were investigated by varying the deposition and annealing conditions to optimize for the application in silicon solar cells. By varying the gas ratio (ammonia to silane), the silicon nitride films of refractive indices 1.85 - 2.45 were obtained. The film deposited at $450^{\circ}C$ showed the best carrier lifetime through the film deposition rate was not encouraging. The film deposited with the gas ratio of 0.57 showed the best carrier lifetime after annealing at a temperature of $800^{\circ}C$. The single crystalline silicon solar cells fabricated in conventional industrial production line applying the optimized film deposition and annealing conditions on large area substrate of size $125mm{\times}125mm$ (pseudo square) was found to have the conversion efficiencies as high as 17.05 %. Low cost and high efficiency silicon solar cells fabrication sequence has also been explained in this paper.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.10
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• pp.585-588
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• 2007

Silicon nitride films for an anti-reflection coating were deposited on silicon via RF magnetron sputtering using a $Si_3N4$ target. The best result was obtained at the sputtering condition of 340 W RF power, 5 mtorr Ar atmosphere, $100^{\circ}C$ substrate temperature. The films showed 7.9% reflectance minimum with 2.35 refractive index. 0.21 absorption coefficient at 66.6 nm thickness. The surface morphology showed a smooth and dense film with good adhesion to silicon surface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.141-141
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• 2010

The effect of thermal anneal on the characteristics of structural properties and the enhancement of luminescence and photovoltaic (PV) characteristics of silicon-rich silicon-nitride films were investigated. By using an ultra high vacuum ion beam sputtering deposition, B-doped silicon-rich silicon-nitride (SRSN) thin films, with excess silicon content of 15 at. %, on P-doped (n-type) Si substrate was fabricated, sputtering a highly B doped Si wafer with a BN chip by N plasma. In order to examine the influence of thermal anneal, films were then annealed at different temperature up to $1100^{\circ}C$ under $N_2$ environment. Raman, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy did not show any reliable evidence of amorphous or crystalline Si clusters allowing us concluding that nearly no Si nano-cluster could be formed through the precipitation of excess Si from SRSN matrix during thermal anneal. Instead, results of Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy clearly indicated that defective, amorphous Si-N matrix of films was changed to be well-ordered thanks to high temperature anneal. The measurement of spectral ellipsometry in UV-visible range was carried out and we found that the optical absorption edge of film was shifted to higher energy as the anneal temperature increased as the results of thermal anneal induced formation of $Si_3N_4$-like matrix. These are consistent with the observation that higher visible photoluminescence, which is likely due to the presence of Si-N bonds, from anneals at higher temperature. Based on these films, PV cells were fabricated by the formation of front/back metal electrodes. For all cells, typical I-V characteristic of p-n diode junction was observed. We also tried to measure PV properties using a solar-simulator and confirmed successful operation of PV devices. Carrier transport mechanism depending on anneal temperature and the implication of PV cells based on SRSN films were also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics A
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• v.29A no.10
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• pp.35-41
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• 1992

Ultra-thin silicon nitride films were fabricated with ECR(Electron cyclotron Resonance) nitrogen plasma at room temperature. Film thickness was about 50$\AA$ after nitridation for 1min at microwave power of 1000W, RF power of 500W, and NS12T pressure of ${\times}10^{-3}$ torr. 50$\AA$ fo nitride film was grown within 1 min and no appreciable growth occured thereafter. Dielectric breakdown strength and leakage current density in Al/SiN/Si structure were measured to be about 7-11 MV/cm and ${\times}10^{-10}~5{\times}10^{-10}A/cm^{2}$, respectively. Observed linear relationship in 1n(J/E)-vs-E$^{1/2}$ and no polarity-dependence of the leakage current indicated that the Poole-Frenkel emission is mainly responsible for the conduction in this nitrided silicon films.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.1402-1404
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• 2009

The silicon nitride films for gate dielectric were deposited by catalytic chemical vapor deposition at low temperature (${\leq}200^{\circ}C$). The mixture of $SiH_4$, $NH_3$ and $H_2$ was used as source gases. The current-voltage (I-V) and the capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of the films were measured. The breakdown voltage and the flat band voltage shift of samples were improved by increase of the $NH_3$ contents and $H_2$ dilution ratio. The defect states were analyzed by photoluminescence (PL) spectra. As the defect states decreased, the breakdown voltage and the flat band voltage shift increased.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.218-224
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• 1990

Silicon nitride thin(SiNx) is deposited onto 3 inch silicon wafor using ECR plasma apparatus. For the two different plasma extraction windows size, the thin films which were deposited by changing the SiH4/N2 gas fole at at 1.5mTorr without substrate heating are analyzed through the XPS and wlliposometer measurements. The very uniform and good quality silicon nitride thin film were obtained with the analyzed results of the deposited films, and particularly, ion temperature perpendicular to the magnetic filed was nearly same as the neutral gas temperature. The large amount of plasma loss in the transport process following magnetic field lines could be seen from the plasma emission intensity measurements.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.365-365
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• 2010

In this paper, silicon nitride thin films with different silane and ammonia gas ratios were deposited and characterized for the antireflection and passivation layer of high efficiency single crystalline silicon solar cells. As the flow rate of the ammonia gas increased, the refractive index decreased and the band gap increased. Consequently, the transmittance increased due to the higher band gap and the decrease of the defect states which existed for the 1.68 and 1.80 eV in the SiNx films. The reduction in the carrier lifetime of the SiNx films deposited by using a higher $NH_3/SiH_4$ flow ratio was caused by the increase of the interface traps and the defect states in/on the interface between the SiNx and the silicon wafer. The silicon and nitrogen rich films are not suitable for generating both higher carrier lifetimes and transmittance. These results indicate that the band gap and the defect states of the SiNx films should be carefully controlled in order to obtain the maximum efficiency for c-Si solar cells.