Low-Temperature Polycrystalline-Silicon Tunneling Thin-Film Transistors With MILC

Abstract

It is known that metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILC) thin-film transistors (TFTs) exhibit higher on-state current, steeper subthreshold slope, and lower minimum leakage than solid-phase-crystallization TFTs. In this letter, we propose a tunneling TFT (T-TFT) fabricated by MILC method for the first time. The MILC T-TFTs demonstrate a lower subthreshold swing, similar to 232 mV/decade, than the other T-TFTs and a high ON/OFF ratio > 10(6) at V-DS = 1 V without any hydrogen-related plasma treatment. These improvements can be due to the reduction of defects at grain boundaries and the channel direction parallel to grains. The polycrystalline silicon T-TFTs fabricated in this letter show a great promise for low standby power circuits, drivers of active-matrix liquid crystal displays, and 3-D integrated circuits applications in the future.