Film deposition of amorphous films with a graded bandgap by...

Semiconductor device manufacturing: process – Making device or circuit responsive to nonelectrical signal – Responsive to electromagnetic radiation

Reexamination Certificate

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C438S482000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07998785

ABSTRACT:
A method is described of forming a film of an amorphous material on a substrate (14) by deposition from a plasma. The substrate (14) is placed in an enclosure, a film precursor gas is introduced into the enclosure through pipes (20), and unreacted and dissociated gas is extracted from the enclosure through pipes (22) so as to provide a low pressure therein. Microwave energy—is introduced into the gas within the enclosure as a sequence of pulses at a given frequency and power level to produce a plasma therein by distributed electron cyclotron resonance (DECR) and cause material to be deposited from the plasma on the substrate. The frequency and/or power level of the pulses is altered during the course of deposition of material, so as to cause the bandgap to vary over the thickness of the deposited material.

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