JPH1146002A - Manufacture of thin-film transistor and manufacture of active matrix panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce threshold voltage Vth, increase mobility, and significantly increase on-current. SOLUTION: A silicon thin film 19 of a thin-film transistor is formed on an insulating substrata 18. After that, an interlayered insulting film 24 is formed so as to cover the silicon thin film 19 of the thin-film transistor. Then contact holes are formed in the interlayered insulting film 24, and electrodes are formed in the contact holes. A plasma treatment is applied in an atmosphere containing hydrogen or hydrogen and nitrogen as main components, after the interlayered insulating film 24 has been formed and before the contact holes are formed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a thin film transistor using a silicon thin film.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, research and development of thin film transistors using silicon thin films have been actively conducted. This technology is
Many applications are expected, such as an active matrix panel that realizes a thin display using an inexpensive insulating substrate, or an inexpensive and high-performance image sensor.

[0003] In addition, many of these are used as conductors for wiring and the like in order to improve optical characteristics using a transparent substrate.
It also has the feature of using a transparent conductive film such as n ₂ O ₃ , SnO ₂ , and ITO (Indium Tin Oxide).

Hereinafter, a case where a thin film transistor is applied to an active matrix panel will be described as an example. However, the present invention can be similarly applied to a case where a thin film transistor is applied to another. This is because the gist of the present invention relates to improvement of essential characteristics of a thin film transistor using a silicon thin film.

A liquid crystal display device in which a thin film transistor is applied to an active matrix panel is generally composed of an upper glass substrate, a lower thin film transistor substrate, and liquid crystal sealed therebetween. A liquid crystal drive element arranged in a matrix is selected by an external selection circuit, and a voltage is applied to a liquid crystal drive electrode connected to the liquid crystal drive element to display an arbitrary character, graphic, or image. It is. FIG. 1 shows a general circuit diagram of the thin film transistor substrate.

FIG. 1 (a) is a matrix layout of liquid crystal driving elements on a thin film transistor substrate. The area surrounded by 1 in the figure is the display area, in which the liquid crystal driving element
2 are arranged in a matrix. 3 is a liquid crystal drive element
Reference numeral 2 denotes a data signal line for supplying a data signal, and reference numeral 4 denotes a timing signal line for supplying a timing signal to the liquid crystal drive element 2. Fig. 1 (b) shows the circuit diagram of the liquid crystal drive element 2.
Shown in Reference numeral 5 denotes a thin film transistor which performs data switching. Reference numeral 6 denotes a capacitor used for holding a data signal. The capacity of this capacitor includes the capacity of the liquid crystal itself and the capacity of a capacitor provided intentionally. However, in some cases, the capacity of the capacitor may include only the capacity of the liquid crystal. 7 is a liquid crystal panel, 7-1 is a liquid crystal drive electrode formed corresponding to each liquid crystal drive element, 7
-2 is an upper glass panel.

[0007]

As can be seen from the above description, the thin film transistor is used for switching the data of the voltage applied to the liquid crystal. Since the display of the liquid crystal is determined by the potential of the capacitor, the thin film transistor must be able to pass a sufficiently large current in the ON state so that data can be written in a short time. The current at this time (hereinafter referred to as ON current) is determined by the capacity of the capacitor and the required writing time, and a thin film transistor must be manufactured so that the ON current can be cleared. The ON current that can flow through a thin film transistor greatly depends on the size (channel length and channel width), structure, manufacturing process, gate voltage, drain voltage, and the like of the transistor.

When a thin film transistor is applied to an active matrix panel, an image sensor, or the like,
Needless to say, it is more cost-effective to integrate peripheral drive circuits such as shift registers at the same time. In this case, the thin film transistor is required to operate at a very high frequency of several MHz. Therefore, an extremely large ON current is required.

Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing a conventional thin film transistor and its characteristics will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 2A to 2D show an example of a conventional method for manufacturing a thin film transistor. First, Fig. 2 (a)
The silicon thin film 9 is formed on the insulating substrate 8 as described above. For this, a plasma CVD method, a low pressure CVD method, a sputtering method and the like are usually used. Next, as shown in FIG.
0, after forming the gate electrode 11, ion implantation method,
The source region 12 and the drain region 13 are formed by doping impurities by a thermal diffusion method or the like. Next, as shown in FIG. 2C, after depositing an interlayer insulating film 14, a contact hole 15 is formed.
Open. Finally, as shown in FIG.
_A source electrode 16 and a drain electrode 17 are formed by depositing a transparent conductive film such as ₂ O ₃ , SnO ₂ , and ITO.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing an example of the characteristics of the thin film transistor thus manufactured. This is a result obtained by measuring the characteristics of the N-channel thin film transistor by the applicant under the conditions of a channel length of 30 μm, a channel width of 10 μm, and a drain voltage of 4 V. The vertical axis represents the drain current I _D , and the horizontal axis represents the gate voltage V _GS . As can be seen from this figure, relatively good characteristics are generally obtained, but the threshold voltage (hereinafter referred to as Vth) is high, and the change from the OFF state to the ON state is slow. For this reason, the ON current is reduced. With such a characteristic, it is impossible to measure various applications, and in particular, the characteristic is completely insufficient for configuring a peripheral drive circuit of an active matrix panel or an image sensor. In order to apply the thin film transistor to such various fields, it is necessary to reduce Vth, increase mobility, and increase the ON current by one digit or more.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate such drawbacks of the conventional thin film transistor, and an object of the present invention is to manufacture a thin film transistor which reduces Vth, increases mobility, and greatly increases ON current. Is to provide a way.

[0013]

According to the present invention, there is provided a method of forming a thin film transistor on an insulating substrate, comprising the steps of: forming a silicon thin film of the thin film transistor on the insulating substrate; Forming an interlayer insulating film so as to cover the silicon thin film of the thin film transistor; forming a contact hole in the interlayer insulating film; and forming an electrode in the contact hole. Performing a plasma treatment in an atmosphere containing hydrogen or hydrogen and nitrogen as main components after forming the film and before forming the contact hole.

[0014]

The reason why the characteristics of the thin film transistor are greatly improved by the present invention is as follows. Generally, a silicon thin film cannot be formed as a single crystal thin film, but is in a polycrystalline state or an amorphous state. For this reason,
It has many irregularities in the arrangement of silicon atoms and, as a result, contains many dangling bonds. Such a dangling bond not only has a function of forming a rank in the band gap of silicon and trapping carriers, but also forms a space charge by being charged. That is, carrier mobility is reduced by carrier trapping, and Vt is formed by forming space charges.
h rises. The plasma treatment of the present invention reduces the density of the dangling bonds by filling the dangling bonds with hydrogen atoms. as a result,
The mobility increases, Vth decreases, and a thin film transistor having an extremely large ON current is realized.

[0015]

2 (a) to 2 (d) show an example of a conventional method for manufacturing a thin film transistor. The method for manufacturing a thin film transistor according to the present invention employs a silicon thin film 9 on an insulating substrate 8 shown in FIG. 2 (a). The first feature is that after the step of forming the silicon thin film, the silicon thin film is subjected to a plasma treatment in an atmosphere containing hydrogen or hydrogen and nitrogen as main components.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing an example of characteristics of a thin film transistor manufactured by such a manufacturing method. The solid line (A) shows the characteristics of the thin film transistor according to the present invention. The broken line (B) shows the characteristics of the conventional thin film transistor, which is the same as the characteristics shown in FIG. The parameters such as the transistor size and the drain voltage of the two completely match. As is clear from this graph,
The thin film transistor manufactured by the manufacturing method of the present invention,
It has an extremely large ON current and has greatly improved characteristics. That is, not only the Vth is reduced, but also the mobility is increased. As a result, the ON current is increased by 1.5 to 2 digits compared to the conventional case. Accordingly, the change from the OFF state to the ON state has become extremely steep. The thin-film transistor manufactured according to the present invention has a capacity of several M as in a peripheral driving circuit such as an active matrix panel or an image sensor.
The present invention can be sufficiently applied to applications that require high-speed operation at Hz, and can be applied to various applications.

In the present invention, the reason why the plasma processing atmosphere is allowed to contain nitrogen is that nitrogen facilitates generation of hydrogen plasma. In general, hydrogen is hard to be in a plasma state, but this problem can be easily solved by mixing nitrogen. In addition, the present applicant has confirmed through experiments that there is no adverse effect of mixing nitrogen.

FIGS. 4A to 4E show a step-by-step process of manufacturing a thin film transistor. First, a silicon thin film 19 is formed on an insulating substrate 18 as shown in FIG. 4A. Next, as shown in FIG. 4B, after forming a gate insulating film 20 and a gate electrode 21, a source region 22 and a drain region 23 are formed.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4C, an interlayer insulating film 24 is deposited. Next, as shown in FIG. 4D, plasma processing is performed in an atmosphere containing hydrogen or hydrogen and nitrogen as main components.
Reference numeral 25 denotes the generated hydrogen plasma. Finally, figure
As shown in FIG. 4E, a transparent conductive film is deposited after opening a contact hole, and a source electrode 26 and a drain electrode 27 are formed. Thus, a thin film transistor is completed.

As described above, the plasma processing may be performed after opening the contact hole, immediately after forming the silicon thin film, or immediately after forming the gate insulating film. That is, the same effect can be obtained at any stage after the formation of the silicon thin film, even if the plasma treatment is performed.

In addition, a thin film transistor may use a transparent conductive film as its wiring / electrode material. In such a case, it is better to perform the plasma treatment before forming the transparent conductive film. In general, as a transparent conductive film, In
Metal oxides such as ₂ O ₃ , SnO ₂ , and ITO are used. When the plasma treatment is performed after forming such a transparent conductive film, the metal oxides are reduced and exhibit metallic properties. . In severe cases, it may even have the appearance of scattered fine metal grains. Under such circumstances, the transparent conductive film can no longer maintain its original characteristics. Therefore, when a transparent conductive film is used as the wiring / electrode material, the plasma treatment may be performed before forming the transparent conductive film as shown in FIG.

Next, the second feature of the present invention is that the manufacturing process after the plasma treatment is performed at 350 ° C. or lower. This will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing the dependence of the effect of the plasma treatment on the heat treatment. As a measure of the effect of the plasma processing, Vth is plotted on the vertical axis. Vth is defined as a gate voltage required to flow a drain current of 10 nA with a drain voltage of 4 V. As is clear from the figure, Vth is changed from 9 V to 3.7 V by performing the plasma processing.
The value does not change at all even if heat treatments at 200 ° C., 250 ° C., and 300 ° C. are sequentially applied. A slight increase in Vth is seen in the 350 ° C heat treatment, but only a small change. However, when a heat treatment at 400 ° C. or higher is applied, Vth sharply increases, and at 450 ° C., the value is almost equal to the initial value. As described above, the effect of the plasma treatment is almost completely maintained by the heat treatment at 350 ° C. or lower, but rapidly deteriorates at 400 ° C. or higher. Therefore, after performing the plasma treatment, the effect is exhibited only by keeping all the manufacturing steps at 350 ° C. or lower.

Therefore, if a heat treatment is required after the plasma treatment for the purpose of, for example, activating impurities in the source / drain regions, the treatment temperature must be 350 ° C. or lower. If a high temperature (400 ° C. or higher) heat treatment is absolutely necessary, the plasma treatment must be performed after the heat treatment.

The reason why the characteristics are deteriorated again by the heat treatment after the plasma treatment is considered as follows. In other words, hydrogen introduced by plasma treatment bonds with silicon atoms and annihilates dangling bonds, but the bond is maintained by a certain finite bond energy, and the bond is suppressed by external heat energy. Unleashed easily. The magnitude of its thermal energy contributes exponentially to the degree of dissociation, and therefore
Dissociation of silicon and hydrogen proceeds rapidly from a certain temperature.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, hydrogen is introduced into a silicon thin film by plasma processing, and dangling bonds disappear, so that the effect of improving the characteristics of the thin film transistor can be surely maintained. Further, since hydrogen is introduced from above the interlayer insulating film, the silicon thin film is not exposed to plasma.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A and 1B are general circuits of an active matrix substrate using thin film transistors.

FIGS. 2A to 2D are views showing an example of a conventional method for manufacturing a thin film transistor.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing an example of characteristics of a thin film transistor manufactured by a conventional method.

FIGS. 4A to 4E are diagrams illustrating an example of a method for manufacturing a thin film transistor.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing an example of characteristics of a thin film transistor manufactured by the method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing how the characteristics of a thin film transistor manufactured by the method of the present invention change with heat treatment.

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] May 25, 1998

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Name of invention

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

Patent application title: Method of manufacturing thin film transistor and method of manufacturing active matrix panel

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Claims]

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0001

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a thin film transistor using a silicon thin film and a method of manufacturing an active matrix panel having the thin film transistor formed on a substrate.

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0013

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0013]

According to the present invention, there is provided a method for forming a thin film transistor on a substrate, comprising the steps of: forming a silicon thin film of the thin film transistor on the substrate; Thereafter, a step of forming an interlayer insulating film so as to cover the silicon thin film of the thin film transistor, a step of forming a contact hole in the interlayer insulating film, and a step of forming an electrode in the contact hole, Performing a plasma treatment in an atmosphere containing hydrogen or hydrogen and nitrogen as main components after forming the interlayer insulating film and before forming the contact hole. Secondly, in a method of manufacturing an active matrix panel having a thin film transistor formed on a substrate, a step of forming a silicon thin film of the thin film transistor on the substrate, and thereafter, an interlayer insulating film covering the silicon thin film of the thin film transistor Forming a film, forming a contact hole in the interlayer insulating film, and forming an electrode in the contact hole, after forming the interlayer insulating film and before forming the contact hole. Performing a plasma treatment in an atmosphere containing hydrogen or hydrogen and nitrogen as main components.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for forming a thin film transistor on an insulating substrate, comprising: forming a silicon thin film of the thin film transistor on the insulating substrate; and forming an interlayer insulating film so as to cover the silicon thin film of the thin film transistor. And forming a contact hole in the interlayer insulating film; and forming an electrode in the contact hole. After forming the interlayer insulating film and before forming the contact hole, hydrogen, Or performing a plasma treatment in an atmosphere containing hydrogen and nitrogen as main components.