1. A plasma apparatus, comprising:
a chamber;
an arc electrode set disposed in the chamber, wherein the arc electrode set comprises an anode and a cathode, an arc discharging space is formed between the anode and the cathode, an end of the cathode opposite to the anode and an end of the anode opposite to the cathode respectively has a crystallized silicon target, and a resistance of the crystallized silicon targets is smaller than 0.01 \u03a9\xb7cm; and
a substrate holder disposed within the chamber, wherein the substrate holder has a carrier substrate, and the carrier surface faces to the arc discharging space.
2. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the crystallized silicon targets has a single crystal structure of silicon, the single crystal structure of silicon grains has dopants with a high dopant concentration, and the dopant concentration of the dopants within each of the single crystal structure of silicon grains is substantially from 1019 to 1020 atomcm2.
3. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the crystallized silicon targets has a high dopant concentration, a material of the dopants is selected from III-group elements, and the crystallized silicon targets constitute P-type semiconductor targets.
4. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the crystallized silicon targets has a high dopant concentration, a material of the dopants is selected from V-group elements, and the crystallized silicon targets constitute N-type semiconductor targets.
5. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the crystallized silicon targets has a high dopant concentration, a material of the dopants includes III-group elements and V-group elements, and each of the crystallized silicon targets constitutes an intrinsic semiconductor target.
6. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein a resistance of the crystallized silicon targets is greater than 0.005 \u03a9cm.
7. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a movable mechanism, wherein the movable mechanism is connected to the arc electrode set, so as to generate a relative displacement between the anode and the cathode by the movable mechanism.
8. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a substrate, wherein the substrate is disposed on a carrier surface of the substrate holder, the substrate holder further comprises a cooling system, wherein the cooling system is buried inside the carrier surface, so as to force the substrate heated during process to cool.
9. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the cooling system comprises a cooling pipe and a coolant, the cooling pipe passes through a trench buried inside the substrate holder, and the coolant flows and circulates in the cooling pipe.
10. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the carrier surface is forced to cool to a temperature substantially smaller than 0\xb0 C. by the cooling system during the process.
11. The plasma apparatus of claim 9, wherein the coolant comprises water or liquid nitrogen.
12. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the substrate is a flexible substrate.
13. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein a surface to be deposited of the substrate is a flat surface, a spherical surface or a mirror surface.
14. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a continuous feeding system, wherein the continuous feeding system is connected to the substrate, and the substrate is carried to be disposed on the substrate holder through the continuous feeding system.
15. The plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a gas pipe, wherein the gas pipe is disposed on a sidewall of the chamber, and a dopant gas passing through the gas pipe comprises diborane or phosphine.
16. A method of fabricating a nano-crystalline silicon thin film, suitable for fabricating by using the plasma apparatus as claimed in claim 1, the method of fabricating a nano-crystalline silicon thin film comprises:
providing a substrate on the carrier surface of the substrate holder;
adjusting a pressure of the gas within the chamber to an operation pressure;
inputting a voltage to form a voltage difference between the anode and the cathode;
shortening a distance between the anode and the cathode, so as to form a stable arc plasma between the anode and the cathode;
forming a plurality of silicon crystalline grains and silicon atoms through the crystallized silicon target of the anode and the crystallized silicon target of the cathode by the stable arc plasma; and
depositing the plurality of silicon crystalline grains and silicon atoms to the substrate to form a nano-crystalline silicon thin film.
17. The method of fabricating a nano-crystalline silicon thin film as claimed in claim 16, wherein the plurality of silicon crystalline grains and silicon atoms formed by the stable arc plasma are in a status of high temperature.
18. The method of fabricating a nano-crystalline silicon thin film as claimed in claim 17, wherein the substrate holder further comprises a cooling system, the cooling system is buried inside the carrier surface, and passing a coolant through the cooling system to force the heated substrate during process to cool before the step of forming the silicon crystalline grains and silicon atoms through the stable arc plasma, so that the high-temperature silicon crystalline grains and silicon atoms are quenched and deposited to the substrate.
19. The method of fabricating a nano-crystalline silicon thin film as claimed in claim 16, wherein the nano-crystalline silicon thin film comprises a continuous phase of amorphous silicon layer and a plurality of single crystal of silicon grains dispersed within the amorphous silicon layer.
20. The method of fabricating a nano-crystalline silicon thin film as claimed in claim 19, wherein a size of each of the single crystal of silicon grain substantially ranges from 100 nanometers to 5 micrometers.
21. The method of fabricating a nano-crystalline silicon thin film as claimed in claim 16, wherein the substrate is a flexible substrate, and the substrate is continuously fed, so that the nano-crystalline silicon thin film is continuously deposited on the continuous-fed substrate.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method, carried out on a computer with a volatile storage device running an operating system, comprising:
intercepting an IO request packet (IRP) from the operating system, the IRP indicative of an impending operating system shutdown;
signaling the operating system to temporarily suspend the operating system shutdown;
in response to intercepting the IRP, transferring information from the volatile storage device to an image file on a nonvolatile storage device;
signaling the operating system to permit the shutdown to proceed following transferring of the information to the image file; and
restoring the information to the volatile storage device from the image file on system re-boot to re-establish the information in the volatile storage device.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the volatile storage device includes a random access memory (RAM) disk.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the RAM disk has characteristics including a size, a drive letter, and a location of the image file on the nonvolatile storage device.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein characteristics of the RAM disk are added to the operating system registry.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the nonvolatile storage device includes a magnetic disk.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information transferred to the image file is digital data representing a subset of information stored in the volatile storage device prior to intercepting the IRP.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the IRP indicates an instruction to power-off, and the information is provided back to the volatile storage device on reboot.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the volatile storage device is a RAM disk, and information is provided to the nonvolatile storage device on shutdown and back to the volatile storage device on re-boot in a manner that appears to the user to be the same before and after the shutdown and re-boot.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing access to the volatile memory device while the information is being provided from the nonvolatile storage device to the volatile storage device.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the image file corresponds to an allocated block of memory in the nonvolatile storage device, the allocated block of memory having a same size as a RAM disk in the volatile storage device or a partition thereof.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising increasing the rate of movement of data to or from the volatile storage device by transferring the data to or from the volatile storage device in block sizes at least large enough to reduce latency time during the transfer of said data to or from the volatile storage device.
12. A system for providing persistent memory in a computer running an operating system comprising:
a volatile storage device;
a nonvolatile storage device; and
a bus driver,
wherein:
the nonvolatile storage device includes an image file of the volatile storage device,
the bus driver for intercepting an IO request packet (IRP) from the operating system, the IRP indicative of an impending operating system shutdown, and for signaling the operating system to temporarily suspend the operating system shutdown,
and in response to intercepting the IRP, the bus driver for transferring information from the volatile storage device to the image file,
and, following the transferring of information, the bus driver for signaling the operating system to permit the shutdown to proceed;
and
on system re-boot the bus driver for restoring the information to the volatile storage device from the image file to re-establish the information in the volatile storage device.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein the volatile storage device includes a random access memory (RAM) disk.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the RAM disk has characteristics which include a size, a drive letter, and a location of the image file on the nonvolatile storage device.
15. The system of claim 14, wherein characteristics of the RAM disk are added to the operating system registry.
16. The system of claim 12, wherein the nonvolatile storage device includes a magnetic disk.
17. The system of claim 12, wherein the information transferred to the image file is digital data representing a subset of information stored in the volatile storage device prior to intercepting the IRP.
18. The system of claim 12, wherein the IRP indicates an instruction to power-off, and the information is provided back to the volatile storage device on reboot.
19. The system of claim 12, wherein the volatile storage device is a RAM disk, and wherein the bus driver provides information to the nonvolatile storage device on shutdown and back to the volatile storage device on re-boot in a manner that appears to the user to be the same before and after the shutdown and re-boot.
20. The system of claim 12, wherein the system allows access to the volatile memory device while the information is being provided from the nonvolatile storage device to the volatile storage device.
21. The system of claim 12, wherein the image file corresponds to an allocated block of memory in the nonvolatile storage device, the allocated block of memory having a same size as a RAM disk in the volatile storage device or a partition thereof.
22. The system of claim 12, wherein the bus driver increases the rate of movement of data to or from the volatile storage device by transferring the data to or from the volatile storage device in block sizes at least large enough to reduce latency time during the transfer of said data to or from the volatile storage device.