Gettering of Ni from Ni-metal induced lateral crystallization polycrystalline silicon films using a gettering substrate

Abstract

Ni-metal-induced lateral crystallization (NILC) of amorphous silicon (alpha-Si) has been employed to fabricate high-performance low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistors (TFTs). However, the current crystallization technology often leads to trapped Ni and NiSi2 precipitates, thus degrading the device performance. We proposed using a-Si-coated wafers as Ni-gettering substrates. By bonding the gettering substrate and NILC poly-Si film together, the Ni-metal impurity within the NILC poly-Si film was greatly reduced.