Improved uniformity and electrical performance of continuous-wave laser-crystallized TFTs using metal-induced laterally crystallized si film

Abstract

Continuous-wave (CW) laser crystallization (CLC) of amorphous Si (alpha-Si) has previously been employed to fabricate high-performance low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistors (TFTs). Unfortunately, their uniformity was poor because the shape of the beam profiles was Gaussian. In this study, alpha-Si film was replaced by Ni-metal-induced laterally crystallized Si (MILC-Si). MILCLC-Si was MILC-Si irradiated by a CW laser (lambda approximate to 532 nm and power approximate to 3.8 W). It was found that the performance and uniformity of the metal-induced laterally crystallized continuous-wave laser crystallization - thin film transistors (MILCLC-TFTs) were much better than those of the CLC-TFTs. Therefore, the MILCLC-TFT is suitable for application in systems on panels.