Hydrogenation of Polycrystalline Silicon Thin‐Film Transistors

Abstract

In this chapter, the behavior of hydrogen (H) atoms in polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film is investigated in detail in order to evaluate and improve the quality of hydrogenated poly-Si thin films. Hydrogenation drastically improves the Hall effect mobility, whereas excessive hydrogenation tends to degrade it. The catalytic method is useful to inhibit excessive hydrogenation and damage suffered by the electric-field acceleration of charged particle. The H-termination of the dangling bonds at grain boundaries can be observed indirectly or directly by chemical etching and Raman microscopy. This H-termination appeared as the 2000 cm-1 local vibrational mode (LVM) in Raman spectra. The breaking of the Si-Si bonds by hydrogenation was detected as the 2100 cm-1 LVM. In addition, the defects generated in the plasma process exhibit multiple fine LVMs after hydrogenation. Moreover, we investigated the hydrogenation of low-temperature (LT) poly-Si thin-film transistors (TFTs) from the perspective of the gettering phenomenon. The most important parameter for effective hydrogenation using H gas annealing is the rate of cooling from 400°C.