Development of Localized Plasma Confinement (LPC) CVD method for high rate and uniform deposition of thin-film crystalline Si

A Localized Plasma Confinement (LPC) CVD method was newly developed. The special cathode, which has periodically arranged pyramid-nozzles and pumping holes, enables stable plasma generation under very high-pressure (1,000-2,000Pa) conditions. We could fabricate uniform and high quality muc-Si films with very high deposition rates and very high gas utilization efficiencies by using LPC-CVD. The maximum deposition rates of 4.1 nm/s for muc-Si and 5.7 nm/s for a-Si have been also achieved. This method is expected to be effective for larger-area deposition