Method for low-temperature, hetero-epitaxial growth of thin film cSi on amorphous and multi-crystalline substrates and c-Si devices on amorphous, multi-crystalline, and crystalline substrates

摘要

A crystalline, highly textured or biaxially textured, foreign (non-silicon) material, which is closely lattice-matched to silicon, is deposited on a glass or other amorphous or multi-crystalline substrate to provide a template for hetero-epitaxial growth of highly ordered crystalline silicon semiconductor layers on such substrates. This process enables crystalline silicon semiconductor devices, such as photovoltaic devices, transistors, and the like, on such inexpensive substrates, or to enable reduced temperature processing for some kinds of semiconductor devices, such as bottom gate transistors, on crystalline silicon substrates.