Crystallization of Amorphous Silicon Films Using Joule Heating

Abstract

Joule heat is generated by applying an electric filed to a conductive layer located beneath or above theamorphous silicon film, and is used to raise the temperature of the silicon film to crystallization temperature. An electric field was applied to an indium tin oxide (ITO) conductive layer to induce Joule heating in orderto carry out the crystallization of amorphous silicon. Polycrystalline silicon was produced within the rangeof a millisecond. To investigate the kinetics of Joule-heating induced crystallization (JIC) solid phase crystallizationwas conducted using amorphous silicon films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor depositionand using tube furnace in nitrogen ambient. Microscopic and macroscopic uniformity of crystallinityof JIC poly-Si was measured to have better uniformity compared to that of poly-Si produced by other methodssuch as metal induced crystallization and Excimer laser crystallization.