Large-grain polycrystalline silicon films with low intragranular defect density by low-temperature solid-phase crystallization without underlying oxide
The solid-phase crystallization of an amorphous silicon film to polycrystalline silicon by a low-temperature (⩽600 °C) furnace anneal has been investigated in a suspended cantilever structure without underlying silicon oxide by transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The grain size of polysilicon increases up to ∼3.0 μm and the density of intragranular defects decreases one order of magnitude in the samples without underlying oxide, compared with those with underlying oxide. The main reasons for the high quality of the suspended structures are thought to be due to the lower stress in the films during crystallization and a reduced grain nucleation rate.
On the Effect of the Film Hydrogen Content and Deposition Type on the Grain Nucleation and Grain Growth During Crystallization of A-Si:H Films
We report the effect of the initial film hydrogen content (CH ) on the crystallization kinetics, crystallite nucleation rate and grain growth rate when HWCVD and PECVD a-Si:H films are crystallized by annealing at 600degC. For the HWCVD films, both the incubation time and crystallization time decrease, and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the XRD (111) peak decreases with decreasing film CH. However, other sources of XRD line broadening exist in such materials in addition to crystallite size, including the density of crystallite defects. To address these issues, TEM measurements have also been performed on a-Si:H films deposited directly onto TEM grids. Following the procedure of Iverson and Reif (J. Appl. Phys. 62 (1987) 1675), an examination of films with low grain density enables a determination of the crystallite nucleation rate as well as grain growth rate. We compare the results for HWCVD films of different film CH , and also for HWCVD and PECVD a-Si:H films containing the same initial film CH. We also perform Raman measurements on fully crystallized HWCVD films to explore whether film disorder plays a role in the different XRD FWHMs when different amounts of film hydrogen are evolved
Traceability strategy for gear-pitch-measuring instruments: development and calibration of a multiball artifact
There is a strong demand to ensure the traceability of gear-measuring instruments (GMIs). We propose a multiball artifact (MBA) for the evaluation of pitch-measuring accuracy. The aim of the MBA is to transfer the minimum uncertainty from a calibrated value at the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ) to a measured value of GMIs at a shop floor. The MBA is composed of equally spaced high-accuracy balls around an axis. The pitch-measuring accuracy of GMIs is evaluated by measuring the angular pitch deviation of the balls instead of the angular pitch deviation of a gear. We calibrated the angular pitch deviation using a coordinate measuring instrument (CMM) at the NMIJ and adapting a multiple-orientation technique. We proposed a calibration strategy of the angular pitch deviation. The calibration value of the pitch deviation for the MBA at the NMIJ was obtained with a measurement uncertainty (U95) of 0.2 µm. We evaluated the pitch-measuring accuracy of a GMI using the calibrated MBA. Each value of U95 for the cumulative and single pitch deviations for the left and right flanks was less than or equal to 0.5 µm. The small uncertainty was transferred from the NMIJ to the GMI.