Formation of Silicon-Based Thin Films Prepared by Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition (Cat-CVD) Method

This paper is a review of the catalytic chemical vapor deposition (Cat-CVD) method and properties of silicon-based thin films, such as amorphous-silicon (a-Si), polycrystalline-silicon (p-Si) and silicon nitride (SiN_x) films, prepared by the Cat-CVD method. In the Cat-CVD method, also known as the hot-wire CVD (HWCVD) method, deposition gases are decomposed by catalytic cracking reactions with a heated catalyzer placed near the substrates, so that films are deposited at low substrate temperatures around 300°C without any help from the plasma. After explaining the deposition system and deposition mechanism, the properties of Cat-CVD a-Si, p-Si and SiN_x films are described and the results are compared with those obtained by the conventional plasma CVD (PCVD) method. The superiority of the Cat-CVD method over the PCVD method is demonstrated.