Improving the Electrical Properties of NILC Poly-Si Films Using a Gettering Substrate

Abstract

<para xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> Ni-metal-induced lateral crystallization (NILC) of amorphous silicon (<formula formulatype="inline"><tex>$ \alpha$</tex></formula>-Si) has been employed to fabricate polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistors. However, current crystallization technology often leads to Ni and <formula formulatype="inline"><tex>$ \hbox{NiSi}_{2}$</tex></formula> precipitates being trapped, thus degrading the performance of the device. We proposed using <formula formulatype="inline"><tex>$\alpha$</tex></formula>-Si-coated wafers as Ni-gettering substrates. After bonding the gettering substrate with the NILC poly-Si film, both the Ni-metal impurity within the NILC poly-Si film and the leakage current were greatly reduced, thus increasing the <emphasis emphasistype="smcaps"> on</emphasis>/<emphasis emphasistype="smcaps">off</emphasis> current ratio. </para>