THE EFFECTS OF NH3 PLASMA PASSIVATION ON POLYSILICON THIN-FILM TRANSISTORS

Abstract

The NH3 plasma passivation has been performed for the first time on the polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistors (TFT's). It is found that the TFT's after the NH3 plasma passivation achieve better device performances, including the off-current below 0.1 pA/mu m and the on/off current ratio higher than 10(8), and also better hot-carrier reliability as well as thermal stability than the H-2-plasma ones, These improvements were attributed to not only the hydrogen passivation of the grain-boundary dangling bonds, but also the nitrogen pile-up at SiO2/poly-Si interface and the strong Si-N bond formation to terminate the dangling bonds at the grain boundaries of the polysilicon films.