Influence of AC-voltage on the crystallization of amorphous silicon thin film during field aided lateral crystallization process

摘要

In field aided lateral crystallization process which is one of the low temperature crystallization processes for the amorphous silicon films, the effect of the alternating field (AC voltage) instead of the static field (DC voltage) was investigated. Following the deposition of 2 nm thick Cu catalyst outside of the 5 mm bar patterns in the PECVD amorphous silicon film, the specimen was heated at 500℃ in N_2 ambient for 5 hours with applying 5 V/cm AC-field along with 30 V/cm DC-field. As compared to the case of 35 V/cm DC-field only, the specimen from both the 30 V/cm DC and 5 V/cm AC resulted in 1.5 times faster crystallization velocity, regardless of the experimental frequency ranges of 100 Hz ～ 50 MHz. Presumably, the enhancement of the crystallization velocity under the combined field is associated with the increase in the flux of the crucial diffusion species, Cu atoms, which govern the overall crystallization velocity due to the agitation effect by the AC-field.