Development of Linear Sequential Lateral Solidification Technique to Fabricate Quasi-Single-Crystal Super-Thin Si Films for High-Performance Thin Film Transistor Devices

Abstract

Sequential Lateral Solidification (SLS) [1], and Single-Crystal Sequential Lateral Solidification (SCSLS) [2] techniques have been recently proposed by the Columbia University group in order to recrystallize amorphous silicon precursor films into layers with crystalline quality close to single-crystal films. These new methods facilitate superior quality and uniformity of Si films formed on low-temperature glasses compared to the conventional excimer-crystallization techniques. The methods have great significance for Thin Film Transistor (TFT) applications, especially for driver- and systemintegrated Liquid-Crystal Displays (LCDs). However, the new techniques, as previously demonstrated [1,2], have certain features that may be further improved. In particular, one notes that: (1) only a small part of the laser energy is actually used for crystallization; (2) if only a single beam is used, then the crystallization rate will be rather low; (3) in addition, previous results have used relatively thick films only.