Spike annealing effect on Cu-field aided lateral crystallization

In this study, the influence of spike anneal on the crystallization of amorphous silicon films in the field aided rapid thermal annealing (FARTA) process was investigated. The base temperature was maintained at 450degreesC and the spike anneal temperatures ranged from 530degreesC to 750degreesC. By this process, the crystallization was accomplished in a significantly reduced time frame compared to that required by the conventional field aided lateral crystallization (FALC), although the portion of thermal budget for the spike anneal in the total thermal budget is at most 8.7%. In addition, the comparison of the degree of crystallization between the typical FALC process and the 700degreesC spike anneal FARTA process revealed a 13% higher degree of crystallization in the latter process. Consequently, it was demonstrated that the FARTA process, which combines the FALC and spike anneal, could realize not only the usage of a cost-effective, low-temperature softening substrate because of its low thermal budget and fast crystallization, but also high-quality polysilicon formation.