Joule-heating Induced Crystallization (JIC) of Amorphous Silicon Films

Abstract

An electric field was applied to a Mo conductive layer in the sandwiched structure of glass/SiO2/Mo/SiO2/ a-Si to induce Joule heating in order to generate the intense heat needed to carry out the crystallization of amorphous silicon. Polycrystalline silicon was produced via Joule heating through a solid state transformation. Blanket crystallization was accomplished within the range of millisecond, thus demonstrating the possibility of a new crystallization route for amorphous silicon films. The grain size of JIC poly-Si can be varied from few tens of nanometers to the one having the larger grain size exceeding that of excimer laser crystallized (ELC) poly-Si according to transmission electron microscopy. We report here the blanket crystallization of amorphous silicon films using the 2nd generation glass substrate.