The Latest Plasma-Enhanced Chemical-Vapor Deposition Technology for Large-Size Processing

• Published in: Journal of display technology Vol. 3; no. 4; pp. 386 - 391
• Main Authors: Ya-Tang Yang, Tae Kyung Won, Soo Young Choi, Takehara, T., Nishimura, Y., White, J.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.12.2007; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Chemical processes; Chemical technology; Chemical vapor deposition; Deposition; Display devices; Large-area deposition; liquid crystal display (LCD); Liquid crystal displays; Marketing; Markets; Plasma applications; Plasma chemistry; Plasma displays; Plasma materials processing; Plasma temperature; plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (PECVD); Productivity; Semiconductor devices; Substrates; Thin film transistors; thin-film transistor (TFT); liquid crystal display (LCD); thin-film transistor (TFT); Large-area deposition; plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (PECVD)
• ISSN: 1551-319X; 1558-9323
• DOI: 10.1109/JDT.2007.900912

The thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry has in recent years demanded ever-larger- area substrate processing capability to keep up with consumer market demands for larger and larger displays. This paper discusses the latest plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition (PECVD) system, the AKT 50 K PECVD, which handles up to 2160 x 2460 mm 2 substrates. As substrate size increases, lowering the processing temperature is getting even more important to improve production reliability and cost performance. The most commonly used process temperature for the so-called active layers of amorphous silicon (a-Si) TFTs is approximately 350 degC. In this paper, a newly developed single-chamber low-temperature PECVD active-layers process is discussed. In particular, our low-temperature process maintains film performance at the same level as high-temperature active layers while also maintaining system productivity and throughput.