The effects of extended heat treatment on Ni induced lateral crystallization of amorphous silicon thin films

Author

Jin, Zhonghe ; Moulding, Keith ; Kwok, Hoi S. ; Wong, Man

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Hong Kong Univ., Hong Kong

Volume

46

Issue

1

fYear

1999

fDate

1/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

78

Lastpage

82

Abstract

The effects of extended heat treatment on the rate of metal induced lateral crystallization (MILC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si) were investigated. Orientation image microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were employed to reveal the crystallinity of the thin film and to measure the MILC length. It was found that for circular Ni disc patterns, the radial dimensions of the resulting MILC rings increased with the radii of the Ni discs. The longest MILC lengths were obtained from straight-edged Ni patterns, which effectively had infinite radii of curvature. The MILC rate decreased upon extended heat treatment. One reason is the continuously changing state of the a-Si during the treatment. An additional reason could be the diminishing supply of Ni from the Ni covered area. The contribution of both to the reduction of the MILC rate is discussed

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; crystallisation; elemental semiconductors; heat treatment; nickel; semiconductor growth; semiconductor thin films; silicon; transmission electron microscopy; Si-Ni; amorphous silicon thin film; heat treatment; metal induced lateral crystallization; orientation image microscopy; transmission electron microscopy; Amorphous silicon; Crystallization; Heat treatment; Materials science and technology; Nickel; Resists; Semiconductor thin films; Temperature; Thin film transistors; Transmission electron microscopy;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.737444

Filename

737444