JP2000082820A - Manufacture of thin film semiconductor device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To form an excellent semiconductor device by a method wherein a silicon film is formed on a substrate to serve as a channel, a natural oxide film is removed from the silicon film, the silicon film is irradiated with oxygen plasma, a gate insulating film is formed on the silicon film, and a gate electrode is formed. SOLUTION: An SiO2 base film 102 is deposited on a quartz glass substrate 101, and an impurity-containing silicon thin film 103 is deposited. Resist is applied onto the silicon thin film 103 and patterned, and a source/drain region 104 is formed. A silicon thin film 105 and an amorphous silicon thin film 106 are successively deposited. The substrate is cleaned to remove a natural oxide film, whereby a clean silicon surface is exposed, and the clean surface of the silicon substrate is irradiated with oxygen plasma 109. An amorphous silicon thin film 108 is oxidized, whereby an SiO2 film 110 is obtained. Chromium is deposited for the formation of a gate electrode 113. By this setup, a thin film semiconductor device of excellent characteristics can be manufactured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a thin film semiconductor device formed on an insulating material such as a thin film transistor and a three-dimensional LSI device applied to an active matrix liquid crystal display and the like. The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a thin-film semiconductor device formed by a low-temperature process in which the maximum temperature is about 600 ° C. or less.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the increase in screen size and resolution of liquid crystal displays, the driving system has shifted from a simple matrix system to an active matrix system, and large-capacity information can be displayed. The active matrix method enables a liquid crystal display having more than hundreds of thousands of pixels, and forms a switching transistor for each name pixel. As a substrate for various liquid crystal displays, a transparent insulating substrate such as a fused quartz plate or glass that enables a transmission type display is used.

However, in order to increase the size of the display screen and reduce the cost, it is essential to use inexpensive ordinary glass as the insulating substrate. Accordingly, there has been a demand for a technique capable of forming a thin film transistor for operating an active matrix type liquid crystal display on an inexpensive glass substrate with stable performance while maintaining this economic efficiency.

Conventionally, when such a thin film transistor is formed, a substrate is formed of oxygen (O ₂ ), laughing gas (N ₂ O), water vapor ( H ₂ O) and the like, and the temperature is raised to a high temperature of about 800 ° C. to 1100 ° C. to oxidize a part of the channel portion silicon layer,
A thermal oxidation method for forming a gate insulating layer has been used. Alternatively, after forming the channel silicon layer, monosilane (S
A silicon dioxide film (SiO ₂ film) was deposited by a gas phase growth method such as an atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD method) using iH ₄ ), oxygen (O ₂ ), or the like as a source gas to form a gate insulating layer.

[0005]

However, a number of problems have been pointed out in the above-mentioned conventional method. First, in the formation of an SiO ₂ film by a thermal oxidation method, a high-temperature heat treatment of at least 800 ° C. or more is involved in the formation, and thus the heat resistance of the thin film layer and the substrate located below the oxide film becomes a problem. For example, when producing a switching transistor for a large-area liquid crystal display, a substrate other than a very expensive fused silica plate cannot withstand such high temperatures. Also, in a three-dimensional LSI device, the thermal oxidation method is practically unusable because the lower layer transistor deteriorates at high temperatures.

On the other hand, in an insulating film deposition method utilizing a gas phase reaction such as the APCVD method, it is possible to deposit an insulating film at a low temperature of about 750 ° C. or less. This makes it possible to protect the thin film layer below the oxide film and use an inexpensive glass substrate with low heat resistance. However, the insulating layer formed by vapor phase growth generally has poor film quality, and it is difficult to keep the interface between the channel silicon semiconductor layer and the insulating layer clean. It was difficult to form the device at low temperatures.

[0007] Therefore, development of a low-temperature method for producing a high-quality SiO ₂ film capable of providing an effect equal to or higher than the high-temperature heat treatment has been expected.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an MIS type thin film semiconductor device having a silicon layer as a channel portion, the interface having good semiconductor device characteristics in a low temperature process. And forming an insulating layer.

[0009]

According to the present invention, a channel portion silicon film semiconductor layer is formed on one surface of a substrate having at least a surface made of an insulating material, and a gate insulating layer and a gate electrode are formed on the semiconductor layer. In the thin film semiconductor device constituting the MIS type field effect transistor described above, when the channel silicon film is formed on an insulating material under reduced pressure by using a chemical vapor deposition method (CVD method), After the film is deposited, an amorphous film is continuously formed on the channel silicon film without breaking the inert or reducing atmosphere.
Depositing a silicon film and, prior to forming a gate insulating layer on the amorphous silicon film, irradiating the amorphous silicon film with oxygen plasma. It is.

[Action] In the present invention, the surface layer is amorphous.
The amorphous silicon is oxidized by irradiating oxygen plasma to the silicon layer of the channel portion made of silicon to form one portion of the gate insulating layer at a low temperature and to clean the interface between the semiconductor layer and the insulating layer. Therefore, the characteristics of the thin-film semiconductor device are improved.

[0011]

[Embodiment 1] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the following embodiment.

FIGS. 1A to 1H are sectional views showing the steps of manufacturing a silicon thin film semiconductor device for forming a MIS field effect transistor.

In this embodiment, 235 is used as the insulating substrate 101.
Although mm mm quartz glass was used, its type and size are of course not limited as long as the substrate or base material can withstand a temperature of 600 ° C. For example, a three-dimensional LSI formed on a silicon wafer can be used as a base substrate. First, a base SiO ₂ film 102 is deposited on the upper surface of a quartz glass substrate 101 that has been subjected to organic cleaning and acid cleaning by APCVD. The base SiO ₂ film 102 is formed at a substrate temperature of 300 ° C., a silane flow rate of 120 SCCM, oxygen of 840 SCCM, and nitrogen of about 140 S.
The LM deposition rate was 3.9 angstroms / Sec, and the deposited film thickness was 2000 angstroms. Next, a silicon thin film 103 containing an impurity serving as a donor or an acceptor is formed by a low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCV) method.
D method). (FIG. 1a) In the first embodiment, phosphorus is selected as an impurity, and phosphine (PH ₃ ) 0.03S
The deposition was performed at 1500 Å at a deposition temperature of 600 ° C. using CCM and 200 SCCM of monosilane (SiH ₄ ) as a source gas. At this time, the deposition rate was 30 angstroms / min, and the sheet resistance immediately after the film formation was 1951 Ω / □. Next, a resist is formed on the silicon thin film 103, and carbon tetrafluoride (SF ₄ ), oxygen (O ₂ ), nitrogen (N
_The source / drain regions 104 were formed by performing patterning using a mixed plasma such as ₂ ). Subsequently, the area 104
Immediately after removing the dirt and the natural oxide film on the surface, the silicon thin film 10 which will soon constitute the channel portion
5 and an amorphous silicon thin film 106 to be irradiated with plasma were eventually deposited by a low pressure CVD method. (Figure 1
b) The reduced pressure CVD apparatus in this embodiment has a capacity of 184.5.
At 1, the side wall and ceiling of the reaction chamber are made of quartz glass.
Outside the reaction chamber made of quartz glass, heaters divided into three zones are installed, and by independently adjusting them, an isothermal region is formed at a desired temperature near the center of the reaction chamber. The substrate is placed horizontally in this isothermal region, and the silicon thin film 1055 and the amorphous silicon thin film 1 are placed.
06 was deposited. The silicon thin film 105 was deposited at a deposition temperature of 600 ° C. for 20 minutes and 39 seconds using monosilane (SiH ₄ ) 11.25 SCCM as a source gas. No diluent gas was used, and the reaction chamber pressure at this time was 7.9 mTorr. According to preliminary experiments, the deposition rate under these conditions was 1
Silicon thin film 1 at 2.105 Å / min
05 should have been deposited about 250 angstroms. Subsequently, an amorphous silicon thin film 106 was continuously deposited without removing the substrate from the low pressure CVD apparatus. The deposition temperature of the amorphous silicon thin film 106 is 5
It was 50 ° C. Since the silicon thin film 105 is deposited at 600 ° C., a temperature reduction period of about one hour is required for depositing the amorphous silicon film 106. During this cooling period, in this embodiment, the mechanical booster pump and the rotary pump are kept in operation and 97
The mixture gas of 3% hydrogen and 3% hydrogen was continuously supplied at 1 SLM. At this time, the pressure in the reaction chamber was 186.5 mTorr. In the first embodiment, the temperature was reduced in a reduced-pressure reducing atmosphere so that a continuous silicon interface was formed without an oxide film between the silicon thin film 105 and the amorphous silicon thin film 106, but the purity was sufficiently high. As long as this condition can be satisfied with an inert gas, an inert reduced pressure atmosphere is also possible. In this manner, the temperature of the reaction chamber was lowered to 550 ° C. while the surface of the silicon thin film 105 was kept clean, and the amorphous silicon thin film 106 was continuously deposited. Using monosilane (SiH ₄ ) 30 SCCM as a source gas,
Min 22 seconds. No diluent gas was used, but the pressure in the reaction chamber was maintained at 282 mTorr by adjusting the opening and closing of a conductance valve attached to the exhaust system.
According to preliminary experiments, the deposition rate was 14.
At 907 angstroms / min, the amorphous silicon thin film 106 should have been deposited at about 80 angstroms. Next, the silicon thin film 10 thus prepared
5 and an amorphous silicon thin film 106, a resist was formed, and patterning was performed using a mixed plasma of carbon tetrafluoride (CF ₄ ), oxygen (O ₂ ), nitride (N ₂ ), and the like.
(FIG. 1c). At this time, the channel portion silicon thin film 107
The total film thickness of the amorphous silicon thin film 108 and that measured by a surface roughness meter was 310 Å.

Next, the substrate is washed with boiling 60% nitric acid and further immersed in a 1.67% aqueous hydrofluoric acid solution for 20 seconds to form a film on the source / drain region 104 and the amorphous silicon thin film 108. Immediately after removing the natural oxide film on the top and a clean silicon surface appears, an electron cyclotron resonance plasma CVD apparatus (ECR-PECVD) is used.
(Device) to irradiate the enzyme plasma 109. (FIG. 1d)
FIG. 2 shows an outline of the ECR-PECVD apparatus used in the first embodiment. The oxygen plasma guides the microwave of 2.45 GHz to the reaction chamber 202 through the waveguide 201,
Oxygen of CCM was introduced from the gas introduction tube 203 to establish oxygen plasma. At this time, the pressure in the reaction chamber was 1.80 mT
At orr, the microwave power was 2500 W. An external coil 204 is provided outside the reaction chamber, and a magnetic field of 875 Gauss is applied to the oxygen plasma so that electrons in the plasma satisfy the ECR condition. Substrate 205
Is placed perpendicular to the plasma, and the heater 206 keeps the substrate temperature at 300 ° C. Under this condition, the amorphous silicon thin film 108 was oxidized by irradiating oxygen plasma 109 for 8 minutes and 20 seconds, thereby obtaining a SiO ₂ film 110 which would be a part of the gate insulating layer. (Figure 1
e) An SiO ₂ film 111 serving as a gate insulating layer was continuously deposited on the substrate without breaking vacuum. (FIG. 1f)
This SiO ₂ film was deposited at a microwave output of 2,250 W, a silane flow rate of 60 SCCM, an oxygen flow rate of 100 SCCM, and a substrate temperature of 300 ° C. for 18.75 seconds. The pressure in the reaction chamber during the deposition was 2.65 mTorr. The multilayer film thus formed is subjected to multi-wavelength dispersion-type polarization analysis (multi-wavelength spectroscopic ellipsometry: MOSS-ES4G manufactured by Sopra) to remove the remaining film thickness of the channel portion silicon film 112 and the amorphous silicon film. S formed by oxidation
iO ₂ film 110 and S deposited by ECR-PECVD
When the thickness of the total SiO ₂ film of the iO ₂ film 111 was measured,
They were 219 angstroms and 1480 angstroms, respectively.

Next, chromium is deposited in a thickness of 1500 angstroms by sputtering, and the gate electrode 1 is formed by patterning.
13 was formed. (FIG. 1g) At this time, the sheet resistance value is 1.
It was 36Ω / □. Then, a contact hole is opened in the order of gate insulation, and the source / drain extraction electrode 114 is formed.
Is formed by sputtering or the like, and patterning is performed to complete the transistor (FIG. 1h). In the first embodiment, aluminum having a thickness of 8,000 angstroms was used as a source / drain extraction electrode material.
At this time, the sheet resistance value of aluminum was 42 mΩ / □.

[0016] An example _V gs _{-I ds} curve of the characteristics of the thin film transistor was fabricated in this way (TFT) Figure 3,3
-A. Where I _ds is the source / drain current,
V _gs is a gate voltage, and a source / drain voltage V _ds =
The measurement was performed at 4 V and a temperature of 25 ° C. The transistor size was such that the length L of the channel portion was 10 μm and the width W was 100 μm. When the transistor is turned on at V _ds = 4 V and V _gs = 10 V, the on current is I _ds = 7.1 μA,
_The off current at which _ds is minimized is V _ds = 4 V, V _gs = 0
At Vs, I _ds = 0.33 PA, and a thin film transistor having an on / off ratio of 7 digits or more and excellent transistor characteristics was obtained. The field effect mobility obtained from the saturation current region of this transistor is 5.07 cm ² / V · Sec.
It was. FIGS. 3 and 3b show, for comparison, the characteristics of a conventional TFT which was prepared in the same manner as the above-mentioned process except that no amorphous silicon thin film was deposited and oxygen plasma irradiation was not performed. Was. The on current of this conventional TFT is I _ds = 4.5 μA, and the off current I _ds = 0.87 P
At A, the field effect mobility is 4.34 cm ² / V · Sec
It was.

From these results, it can be seen that the characteristics of the thin film semiconductor device are improved according to the present invention as compared with the conventional example.

This is a MIS type field effect transistor. Since the interface between the semiconductor layer and the insulating layer, which greatly affects the transistor characteristics, is formed by a method called oxygen plasma irradiation oxidation of an amorphous silicon thin film, a clean semiconductor layer is formed. This is the result of obtaining the insulating layer interface. This is supported by the fact that the embodiment 3-a of the present invention has a steeper rise near the gate voltage of 0 V in FIG. 3 than the conventional example 3-b in FIG.

Example 2 A thin film transistor was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1 except for the time of irradiating oxygen plasma with an ECR-PECVD apparatus. In the second embodiment, the amorphous silicon thin film is
The oxygen plasma irradiation time for CR-plasma oxidation was 4 minutes and 10 seconds. Except for this, all the steps were carried out under exactly the same conditions as in Example 1. In Example 2, the thickness of the remaining channel silicon film was 249 angstroms, and was formed by oxidizing the amorphous silicon film. SiO ₂ film and S deposited by ECR / PECVD method
The total thickness of the SiO ₂ film of the iO ₂ film was 1,431 Å. The on current of the TFT thus formed is I _ds = 7.6 μA, and the off current I _ds = 0.32 PA
And the field effect mobility was 5.15 cm ² / V · Sec.

Also in the second embodiment, it can be seen that the characteristics of the thin film semiconductor device are improved according to the present invention.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In forming a thin film semiconductor device on a substrate having a surface made of an insulating material, after depositing a channel silicon film, an amorphous film is continuously formed on the channel silicon film without breaking an inert or reduced pressure atmosphere. By depositing a silicon film and further irradiating the amorphous silicon film with oxygen plasma before forming a gate insulating layer on the amorphous silicon film, a thin film semiconductor device having good transistor characteristics is manufactured. Things become possible, LSI
This has a great effect of realizing high performance of an active matrix liquid crystal display using multiple layers and thin film transistors.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 (a) to 1 (h) are cross-sectional views of an element in each step of manufacturing a silicon thin-film semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing an outline of an electron cyclotron resonance plasma CVD apparatus used for oxygen plasma irradiation and deposition of a SiO ₂ film which is a part of a gate insulating layer in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the effect of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... insulating substrate 102 ... base SiO ₂ film 103 ... silicon thin film 104 containing an impurity ... source and drain regions 105 ... silicon thin film 106 ... amorphous silicon thin film 107 ... channel portion silicon film 108 ... amorphous silicon thin film 109 ... oxygen plasma 110 ... amorphous · SiO a silicon thin film was formed by oxidizing ₂ film 111 ... ECR · SiO ₂ film 112 ... channel portion silicon film remaining deposited by a PECVD method 113 ... gate electrode 114 ... source-drain extraction electrodes 201 ... Waveguide 202 ... Reaction chamber 203 ... Gas introduction tube 204 ... External coil 205 ... Substrate 206 ... Heater

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission Date] September 6, 1999 (September 9, 1999)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Claims]

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0001

[Correction method] Change

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[0001]

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a thin film semiconductor device such as a thin film transistor applied to an active matrix liquid crystal display or the like.

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0009

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0009]

According to a method of manufacturing a thin film semiconductor device of the present invention, a step of forming a silicon film serving as a channel on a substrate; a step of removing a natural oxide film on the silicon film; Performing a step of irradiating the silicon film with oxygen plasma, a step of forming a gate insulating film on the silicon film after the step of irradiating oxygen plasma, and forming a gate electrode on the gate insulating film. And a step of performing

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0010

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 5]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0021

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, the interface between the silicon film and the gate insulating film is cleaned by irradiating oxygen plasma after removing the natural oxide film on the silicon film. Thus, a thin film semiconductor device having good characteristics can be manufactured. It is possible to realize multi-layered LSIs and high-performance active matrix liquid crystal displays using thin film transistors.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A channel silicon semiconductor layer is formed on one surface of a substrate having at least a surface made of an insulating material,
A gate insulating layer and a gate electrode formed on the semiconductor layer;
A method of manufacturing a thin film semiconductor device comprising a thin film semiconductor device constituting an IS type field effect transistor, comprising the following steps. a) Vapor phase chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on insulating material under reduced pressure
When forming the channel portion silicon film using
A step of continuously depositing an amorphous silicon film on the channel portion silicon film after the channel portion silicon film is deposited without breaking an inert or reducing reduced pressure atmosphere. b) irradiating the amorphous silicon film with oxygen plasma before forming a gate insulating layer on the amorphous silicon film.