Crystalline Si Films for Integrated Active-Matrix Liquid-Crystal Displays

Abstract

The fabrication of thin-film-transistor (TFT) devices on a transparent substrate lies at the heart of active-matrix-liquid-crystal-display (AMLCD) technology. This is both good and bad. On one hand it is a difficult task to manufacture millions of intricate semiconductor devices reliably over such large display substrates. On the positive side, AMLCD technology can aspire to become much more than a “display” technology. The idea is as follows: It is possible for one to readily fabricate additional transistors to execute various electronic functions—those that would otherwise be handled by separate large-scale-integration (LSI) and very large-scale-integration (VLSI) circuits—on the periphery of the display. Since this can be done, in principle, with no—or a minimal number of—additional processing steps, substantial cost reduction is possible and significant value can be added to the final product.Doing so and doing it well can ultimately lead to “system-on-glass” products in which the entire electronic circuitry needed for a product is incorporated directly onto a glass substrate. This means that integrated active-matrix liquid-crystal displays (IAMLCDs) have the potential to bypass conventional Si-wafer-based products and may lead TFT technology to compete directly against Si-wafer-based monolithic integrated circuits.

Microcrystalline/micromorph silicon thin-film solar cells prepared by VHF-GD technique

“…Beside these`cauli#owera-like bunches one can identify some large (50 nm diameter) leaf-like grains with a central stacking fault axis. Such leaf-like grains are similar to those found in thermally recrystallised a-Si:H material as used for current TFT applications [19,20]. This sample reveals that the VHF-GD technique may allow to deposit directly such TFT-like material at low temperatures (200}2503C); thus, the substrate choice is free and di!usion contaminations of underlying structures are considerably reduced.…”

Evolution of the microstructure in microcrystalline silicon prepared by very high frequency glow-discharge using hydrogen dilution

“…A surprisingly similar microstructure had already been observed in different thermally recrystallized amorphous silicon samples for TFT applications. 10,11 ͑CMOS͒ transistors. 4 This microstructure results from a specific recrystallisation mechanism: dendritic growth with a pronounced ͑220͒ crystallographic texture has been suggested in Ref.…”

Thickness dependence of properties of excimer laser crystallized nano-polycrystalline silicon

“…2 The multiple pulses based scanning method is considered to be the conventional approach. 13 With the advent of high power excimer lasers, the single pulse scheme has become an attractive alternative, due to its ability to crystallize a large area with a single pulse. 14 A laser threshold energy density exists for the conversion of a-Si:H to polycrystalline silicon, corresponding to the threshold intensity for surface melting.…”