Plasma Deposition of Transparent Conductive Layers

The present invention pertains to the deposition of transparent conductive layers, and more particularly to an improved charge-coupled optical imager having transparent conductive phase electrodes formed thereon by the plasma deposition of SnO.sub.2.

There are many applications which require the use of a layer of material which is both conductive as well as optically transparent, for example, solar cells, photodetectors, and semiconductor optical imagers. Frontside illuminated, semiconductor optical imagers, for example, require the use of conductive electrodes that completely cover the active surface of the device, but through which optical information must be allowed to pass for operation of the device. Metal oxide materials such as tin oxide and indium oxide are commonly used for this purpose.

Typically, tin oxide layers have been deposited by pyrolysis reactions, hydrolysis, R-F sputtering or CVD. Such processes have generally required high temperatures, and have not provided adequate uniformity of thickness or composition for purposes of fabricating CCD optical imaging devices.

Accordingly, it is a primary object of this invention to provide a low-temperature process for depositing SnO.sub.2 layers of uniform composition and thickness.

One aspect of the invention is embodied in a plasma deposition process which includes the step of exposing a suitable substrate to a reduced-pressure environment of CO.sub.2 and an organic tin compound, in the presence of an RF glow discharge, at a temperature preferably between 200.degree.-500.degree. C., although temperatures outside this range may also be suitable for certain purposes.

RF power densities in the range of 1-3 milliwatts per cm.sup.3 are generally suitable, and preferably about 1.3-1.7 milliwatts per cm.sup.3.

Reduced pressures in the range of 0.1 to 2.0 Torr are generally suitable, and preferably less than 1.0 Torr.

Tin compounds useful in the process include primarily the lower alkyl tin compounds, from methyl to butyl. Preferably tetramethyl tin is employed, because it provides superior control over the deposition rate, and its vapor pressure permits a convenient supply system. The ratio of CO.sub.2 to tin compound is between 50:1 and 300:1, preferably 100:1 to 250:1.

The chemistry of the reaction is substantially as follows:

a ccd imager having one or more phase electrodes fabricated by the process of the invention includes a channel region defined in a semiconductor substrate, peripherally bounded by channel stop regions. Also included is an appropriate structure for inputting signals, in the form of charged packets, into the channel beneath one or more selected phase electrodes. These charged packets are propagated along the channel by suitable clock pulses applied to phase electrodes located above the channel and insulated from the semiconductor surface, the charge packets being extracted as output signals by suitable output structure. As thus far described, the CCD imager structure and method of fabricating it are known in the art, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,563 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,382. Since they do not form part of the present invention, they will not be further described.

A suitable reactor for use in practicing the invention in disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,757,733, incorporated herein by reference.

The process of the invention was carried out as follows to coat a CCD imager with a layer of SnO.sub.2 :

Power; 12W (1.5 milliwatts cm.sup.3)

Temperature; 380.degree. C.

Pressure; 0.31 Torr

Co.sub.2; 0.75 liter/minute

Sn(CH.sub.3).sub.4; 0.0033 liter/minute

Deposition Rate; 24 A per minute

At the end of 90 minutes deposition, the SnO.sub.2 layer was found to be 2160 A thick.

While particular embodiments of this invention have been disclosed herein, it would be understood that various modifications may become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention which is defined by the appended claims.