Improve the electrical properties of NILC poly-Si films using a gettering substrate

Abstract

Ni-metal-induced lateral crystallization (NILC) of amorphous silicon (alpha-Si) has been employed to fabricate polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistors. However, this technology often leads to trapped Ni and NiSi2 precipitates, thus degrading the device performance. We proposed using alpha-Si-coated wafers as Ni-gettering substrates. After gettering process, the Ni impurity within the NILC poly-Si film and the leakage current were reduced.