A polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor (TFT) technology, field-aided lateral crystallization (FALC), has been explored. Polycrystalline silicon thin film, as an active layer, was prepared by applying an electric field to amorphous silicon film during Ni metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILC). Compared with the conventional metal-induced lateral crystallization thin-film transistors (MILC TFTs), these field-aided lateral crystallization thin-film transistors (FALC TFTs) show a low off-state leakage current of 1.79×10−11 A at Vg=−10 V and a high on/off current ratio of 8.82×105. Moreover, the threshold voltage is lower and field-effect mobility is higher than those of MILC TFTs. Therefore, the possibility of high-performance and low-temperature (<500 °C) polycrystalline silicon TFTs was demonstrated by using FALC technology.

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There have been many reports on the low temperature crystallization of amorphous silicon films by introducing a trace amount of metal impurity for low temperature poly-Si TFTs applications. MIC (Metal Induced Crystallization) uses various metals, to lower crystallization temperature. In this study, a new crystallization method called FALC (Field Aided Lateral Crystallization) in which an electric field is applied during the crystallization was explored. Among possible alloying elements with Si, Ni and Al were selected to compare the effects of these impurities on the FALC.A trace of Ni lowered the crystallization temperature of a-Si down to 5001C and induced lateral crystal growth along the electric field into the metal free region. But Al exhibited no such effect. A new crystallization method, FALC, showed considerably enhanced speed of lateral crystallization and a strong preferred orientation in crystallized Si-films.