Inverter made of complementary p and n channel transistors using a single directly deposited microcrystalline silicon film

We report a p channel thin-film transistor (TFT) made of directly deposited microcrystalline silicon (mu c-Si). By integrating this p TFT with its n channel counterpart on a single mu c-Si film, we fabricated a complementary metal-silicon oxide-silicon (CMOS) inverter of deposited mu c-Si. The mu c-Si channel material was grown at 320 degrees C by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition in a process similar to the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon. The highest postdeposition TFT process temperature was 280 degrees C. The low-temperature p channel mu c-Si TFT and the integrated CMOS inverter represent building blocks of a digital circuit technology based on ultralow-temperature silicon. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)04634-3].