Patent ID: 8053254

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor film, comprising: a substrate holding step of holding a substrate so as to face a plasma electrode in a vacuum chamber of a thin film forming apparatus including the vacuum chamber having the plasma electrode and a shield box that is connected to a ground so as to surround the plasma electrode outside the vacuum chamber; and a microcrystalline semiconductor film forming step of intermittently supplying a material gas containing at least one of silicon and germanium while continuously supplying a gas containing hydrogen as a main component to the vacuum chamber, and applying different levels of high frequency power to the plasma electrode during a period for which the material gas is supplied and during a period for which the material gas is not supplied in order to generate plasma in a plasma generation space between the plasma electrode and the substrate, thereby forming a microcrystalline semiconductor film, wherein, in the microcrystalline semiconductor film forming step, a valve provided in the shield box is periodically opened or closed to supply the material gas from a shower head that is provided so as to face the substrate.