Improvement in the passivation quality of catalytic-chemical-vapor-deposited silicon nitride films on crystalline Si at room temperature.

Abstract We observe an improvement in the passivation quality of silicon nitride (SiN x) films formed on crystalline silicon wafers by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (Cat-CVD) under the storage at room temperature. Fluorescent light illumination enhances the improvement in the passivation quality of Cat-CVD SiN x films, although the passivation quality is also improved in the dark. We do not see any change of bonding configurations in the SiN x films by the storage at room temperature. Capacitance–voltage measurement reveals that an increase in positive charge density in the SiN x films improves their passivation quality. The improvement in the passivation quality of SiN x films is observed for SiN x films deposited at various substrate temperatures, and SiN x films deposited at higher temperature tends to show more significant improvement in the passivation quality. Highlights • Improvement in the quality of SiN x /c-Si interfaces following storage at room temperature. • Additional improvement obtained using fluorescent light illumination. • No change in the bonding configuration seen in the SiNx. • The improvement is caused by an increase in positive charge density in SiN x. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]