Characteristics of thin film transistors fabricated employing various sequential lateral solidification poly-Si microstructures

Sequential lateral solidification (SLS) is known to be a promising method to make low-temperature poly-Si thin film transistors (LTPS TFTs) with superior performance for fabrication of highly circuit-integrated flat panel displays such as TFT liquid crystal display and TFT organic light-emitting diode. The dependence of TFT characteristics on the details of the SLS poly-Si microstructures was studied by varying the size, direction, and shape of the grains by applying different SLS crystallization mask patterns and processing details. The TFTs results demonstrated that various device properties and characteristics are obtained depending on the specifics of the microstructures. Nearly direction-insensitive TFTs of mobility about 300 cm2/V·s (within 5% variation of average value) were successfully fabricated by controlling the microstructures. Such a characteristic is recognized as being desirable for an optimal integration of the peripheral circuits.