Effects of longitudinal and latitudinal grain boundaries on the performance of large-grain polysilicon MOSFET

The effects of longitudinal and latitudinal polysilicon grain boundaries on the performance metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) fabricated on large-grain polysilicon-on-insulator (LPSOI) have been investigated. Unlike conventional thin-film-transistors (TFTs) with random grain distribution, MOSFETs fabricated on the LPSOI film contains the combination of only longitudinal or latitudinal grain boundaries. Longitudinal GBs parallel to the direction of current flow has smaller impact to the current flow, but provided extra leakage current that caused early device shortage, especially in wide devices. The latitudinal GBs perpendicular to the direction of current flow offered higher resistance to the inversion carriers thus causing lower current drive, higher threshold voltage, and gentler subthreshold slope. The result of the study can be used to optimize device design for high performance on MOSFETs on the LPSOI substrate.