Effects of Excimer Laser Annealing Process on the Ni-Sputtered Amorphous Silicon Film

This article conducted a comparative analysis on thin film transistors (TFTs) fabricated by using the excimer laser annealed (ELA) polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and those fabricated by using the Ni-sputtered ELA poly-Si. The grain size of the Ni-sputtered ELA poly-Si is 3 times greater than that of the ELA poly-Si. The Ni-sputtered ELA poly-Si TFTs showed a higher drain current, lower threshold voltage, smaller subthreshold swing, and higher electron mobility than the ELA poly-Si TFTs. This improvement is attributed mainly to the reduction of the defect density rendered by the large grain size.

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