Anisotropic resistivity in plasma-sprayed silicon thick films

Silicon thick films deposited by thermal plasma spray are of interest as inexpensive electronic materials for conformal meso-scale electronics applications. In addition they also serve as a model system for the investigation of electrical properties of coatings with layered anisotropy. In this study impedance spectroscopy was used to measure the complex resistivity of free-standing 64 μm -thick polycrystalline silicon films deposited by thermal plasma spraying in an atmospheric ambient. Impedance spectroscopy measurements were taken in the through-thickness (across-splat) and edge-to-edge (in-splat) directions and revealed a resistivity difference of approximately 7.5±0.23 between the two directions. The complex resistivity results are explained on the basis of a brick-layer type model, associated with the layered splat microstructure obtained from cross-sectional transmission electron microscope imaging of the films. In addition a circuit-based model made up of parallel, resistor-capacitor elements in series, and Cole-Cole and Davidson-Cole impedance functions were used to fit the impedance data to extract material parameters and contributions from the grains and splat boundaries. Furthermore, thermal processing and phosphorus doping is shown to lead to higher and lower resistivity, respectively, in the films.