Thin-Film Transistors with Polycrystalline Silicon Films Prepared by Two-Step Rapid Thermal Annealing

Abstract

A novel two-step rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process has been developed to significantly reduce the crystallization time for the solid-phase crystallization (SPC) of amorphous silicon films. In comparison with the conventional SPC processes, it not only keeps a low thermal budget but also achieves a larger poly-Si film grain size than that obtained by one-step RTA, and even as large as that obtained by conventional furnace annealing (CFA). Furthermore, poly-Si thin-film transistors fabricated by such a novel annealing scheme possess electrical characteristics superior to those obtained by one-step RTA and comparable to those obtained by long-time CFA.

Fabrication of nano-crystalline silicon thin film at low temperature by using a neutral beam deposition method

“…Currently, c-Si thin films are fabricated by crystallizing a-Si films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) with a post-treatment method such as excimer laser annealing (ELA), solid phase crystallization (SPC), metal-induced crystallization (MIC), etc. [1][2][3][4]. However, these troublesome post-treatments require a high processing temperature (500-600 1C), which is higher than the glass transition temperature.…”

Asymmetric source/drain offset structure for reduced leakage current in polycrystalline‐silicon thin‐film transistors

“…In order to improve the uniformity and reliability of TFTs for large-area displays, several alternative crystallization methods have been proposed. [1][2][3][4][5] Solid-phase crystallization (SPC) of a-Si results in a rather uniform poly-Si film. It has certain advantages over ELC, such as simplicity, low cost, high uniformity, and large-area applicability.…”

Alternating magnetic field-assisted crystallization of Si films without metal catalyst

“…Nowadays, however, the higher performance of TFTs is required for the flat panel displays, especially for AM-OLEDs; consequently, polycrystalline Si (poly-Si) crystallized at low temperatures have been attracting great attention because of their superior characteristics, such as fast carrier mobility and low driving voltage [3,4]. Various low-temperature crystallization techniques of a-Si deposited on glass substrates have been intensively studied, and among the low-temperature crystallization techniques, excimer laser crystallization (ELC) and solid phase crystallization (SPC) have been widely reported [4,5]. Even though excimer laser is an optimized energy source to crystallize a-Si, ELC method has the problems of the laser shot mark, shot stability, and higher process cost.…”