Method of manufacturing crystalline semiconductor thin film
Provided is a method of manufacturing a crystalline semiconductor thin film formed on an amorphous or poly-crystalline substrate such as a glass substrate, a ceramic substrate, and a plastic substrate through induction heating using photo-charges. The method of manufacturing a crystalline semiconductor thin film includes a process of forming a low-concentration semiconductor layer on an inexpensive amorphous or poly-crystalline substrate such as a glass substrate, a ceramic substrate, and a plastic substrate and a process of crystallizing the low-concentration semiconductor layer through an induction heating manner using photo-charges. Accordingly, a low-concentration crystalline semiconductor thin film having characteristics better than those of general amorphous or poly-crystalline semiconductor thin film can be obtained by using simple processes at low production cost.
1. A method of manufacturing a crystalline semiconductor thin film, the method comprising steps of:
(a) forming a low-concentration semiconductor layer on a substrate;
(b) generating photo-charges by illuminating the low-concentration semiconductor layer with light; and
(c) crystallizing the low-concentration semiconductor layer by performing induction heating on the low-concentration semiconductor layer.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step (c) comprises steps of:
(c1) generating an alternating magnetic field on the low-concentration semiconductor layer by flowing an alternating current through an induction coil;
(c2) accelerating the photo-charges by the generated alternating magnetic field;
(c3) heating a portion of the low-concentration semiconductor layer underlying the induction coil due to the accelerating of the photo-charge, so that the portion is changed into a fluid state; and
(c4) crystallizing the fluid-state portion.
3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein in the step (c4), the crystallization is performed in an interface between the fluid-state portion and a solid-state portion by using a solid-state portion as a seed.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the low-concentration semiconductor layer contains impurities having a concentration of 10 14 /Cm 3 to 10 19 /Cm 3 .
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the step (b), the illuminating light has an energy of 1.8 eV to 3.0 eV.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in the step (a), the low-concentration semiconductor layer is formed after a diffusion barrier is formed on the substrate.
7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the diffusion barrier is made of an oxide or a nitride.
8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the substrate is an amorphous substrate or a poly-crystalline substrate.
9. The method according to claim 6 , wherein in the step (c), the crystallizing of the low-concentration semiconductor layer is performed by using the diffusion barrier as a seed.