Effect of antireflection coating on the crystallization of amorphous silicon films by flash lamp annealing

Abstract

We succeed in decreasing the fluence of a flash-lamp pulse required for the crystallization of electron-beam (EB)-evaporated amorphous silicon (a-Si) films using silicon nitride (SiN x ) antireflection films. The antireflection effect of SiN x is confirmed not only when SiN x is placed on the surface of a-Si or flash lamp annealing (FLA) is performed from the film side, but also when SiN x is inserted between glass and a-Si and a flash pulse is supplied from the glass side. We also quantitatively confirm, by calculating flash-lamp pulse energies actually reaching a-Si films using reflectance spectra, that the reduction in the fluence of a flash-lamp pulse for the crystallization of a-Si films is due to the antireflection effect of SiN x .

Integration Challenges of Flash Lamp Annealed LTPS for High Performance CMOS TFTs

“…Under low drain bias, it can be assumed that these devices remain in linear operation mode. Field-effect mobility can thus be estimated from the transconductance, by the relation: [1] ECS Transactions, 86 (11) 57-72 (2018…”

“…It can be seen that FLA on thin films provides heating and cooling within the span of a few milliseconds. Most of the research into FLA has focused on thicker films of silicon for photovoltaic applications (1), or explorations of the various morphologies producible by this method (2). Still, this method has been used to produce thin film transistors (3), with recent work demonstrating both NMOS and PMOS operation with carrier mobility greater than 100 cm 2 /(Vs) (4).…”