Effects of N2O plasma treatment on the performance of excimer-laser-annealed polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors

The effects of NO plasma treatment on the performance of excimer-laser-annealed (ELA) polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) were investigated. The N2O plasma treatment was conducted following, the deposition of the low-temperature gate oxide. resulting in all Obvious improvement in the performance of the ELA poly-Si TFTs. This improvement is presumably due to the smoothed oxide/poly-Si interface. the improved gate-oxide quality. and the reduced trap states at the interface and in the poly-Si channel. resulting from the incorporation and passivation reaction of the N2O-plasma-generated nitrogen and oxygen radicals. Moreover, the NO plasma treatment also improved the quality of the ELA poly-Si TFTs under dc voltage stress.