Method of controlling crystallographic orientation in laser-annealed polycrystalline silicon films
AssigneeSharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
InventorApostolos Voutsas
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Abstract
A method is provided to produce thin polycrystalline films having a single predominant crystal orientation. The method is well suited to the production of films for use in production of thin film transistors (TFTs). A layer of amorphous silicon is deposited over a substrate to a thickness suitable for producing a desired crystal orientation. Lateral-seeded excimer laser annealing (LS-ELA) is used to crystallize the amorphous silicon to form a film with a preferred crystal orientation. The crystallized film is then polished to a desired thickness for subsequent processing.
Claims13
A method of forming polycrystalline films on a substrate comprising the steps of:
- a) providing a substrate;
- b) depositing an amorphous silicon film on the substrate;
- c) annealing the amorphous silicon film using a lateral crystallization process to produce a polycrystalline film having a predominantly <100> crystallographic orientation;
- and
- d) polishing the polycrystalline film to prepare the film for further processing.
A prepared substrate for forming thin film transistors comprising a region of polycrystalline film less than 60 nm thick having a crystallographic orientation that is predominantly <100> overlying a carrier substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.