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A low‐cost dehydrogenation system of amorphous silicon thin films used for fabricating low‐temperature polycrystalline silicon
Author(s) -
Chil-Chyuan Kuo
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
materialwissenschaft und werkstofftechnik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.285
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1521-4052
pISSN - 0933-5137
DOI - 10.1002/mawe.201400210
Subject(s) - dehydrogenation , materials science , amorphous silicon , thin film , chemical vapor deposition , silicon , polycrystalline silicon , amorphous solid , crystalline silicon , thin film transistor , analytical chemistry (journal) , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , chemistry , organic chemistry , layer (electronics) , catalysis
Low‐temperature polycrystalline silicon thin‐film transistors were widely employed in active‐matrix flat‐panel displays and giant microelectronics. In general, a‐Si thin films prepared by plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition contain hydrogen. To prevent the ablation caused by sudden hydrogen eruption during excimer laser crystallization (ELC), two dehydrogenation systems are developed in this study to reduce hydrogen content before excimer laser crystallization. One is a ceramic heater‐based dehydrogenation system and the other is a quartz tube radiant heater‐based dehydrogenation system. The hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a‐Si : H) thin films prepared by plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition are dehydrogenated by both systems. Fourier‐transform infrared absorption spectra revealed that the hydrogen content reduces after dehydrogenation processing. Raman measurements confirmed that the a‐Si : H thin films are still amorphous phase. The major potential advantages of quartz tube radiant heater‐based dehydrogenation system include rapid heating speed, good dehydrogenation quality, small footprint and low cost. Two‐steps temperature rise method is a good candidate for dehydrogenation processing because it provides sample with low thermal distortion.