Abstract
In comparison with conventional heat treatment, high-temperature rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in a radio frequency (RF) induction-heated system can reduce or eliminate residual stresses in thin films in a few seconds. In this work, changes in the stress level due to the RTA of polycrystalline silicon thin films were studied as a function of annealing time and temperature. The corresponding variations in the microstructure and surface layer of the thin films were experimentally investigated by a variety of analytical tools. The results suggest that the residual stress evolution during annealing is dominated by two mechanisms: 1) microstructure variations of the polysilicon thin film and 2) effects of a surface layer formed during the heat treatment. The fact that the microstructure changes are more pronounced in samples after conventional heat treatment implies that the effects of the formed surface layer may dominate the final state of the residual stress in the thin film. [337].
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 356-363 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 1998 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Polysilicon thin films
- Rapid thermal annealing
- Residual stress
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Mechanical Engineering
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering