Thin film semiconductor material produced through reactive sputtering of zinc target using nitrogen gases
First Claim
1. A deposition method comprising:
- positioning a substrate in a sputtering chamber, the sputtering chamber comprising a zinc-containing target;
delivering a sputtering gas to the sputtering chamber;
activating the sputtering gas; and
depositing an amorphous oxynitride semiconductor layer on a substrate, the semiconductor layer comprising a ternary compound of zinc, oxygen and nitrogen, wherein the semiconductor layer has a transmittance of less than 80 percent.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention generally comprises a semiconductor film and the reactive sputtering process used to deposit the semiconductor film. The sputtering target may comprise pure zinc (i.e., 99.995 atomic percent or greater), which may be doped with aluminum (about 1 atomic percent to about 20 atomic percent) or other doping metals. The zinc target may be reactively sputtered by introducing nitrogen and oxygen to the chamber. The amount of nitrogen may be significantly greater than the amount of oxygen and argon gas. The amount of oxygen may be based upon a turning point of the film structure, the film transmittance, a DC voltage change, or the film conductivity based upon measurements obtained from deposition without the nitrogen containing gas. The reactive sputtering may occur at temperatures from about room temperature up to several hundred degrees Celsius. After deposition, the semiconductor film may be annealed to further improve the film mobility.
-
Citations
9 Claims
-
1. A deposition method comprising:
-
positioning a substrate in a sputtering chamber, the sputtering chamber comprising a zinc-containing target; delivering a sputtering gas to the sputtering chamber; activating the sputtering gas; and depositing an amorphous oxynitride semiconductor layer on a substrate, the semiconductor layer comprising a ternary compound of zinc, oxygen and nitrogen, wherein the semiconductor layer has a transmittance of less than 80 percent. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
Specification