Technology, performance and degradation characteristics of SLS ELA thin film transistors

Low temperature polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors (LTPS poly-Si TFTs) are essential for large area electronics and high performance flat panel displays. In recent years, LTPS TFT performance has substantially increased due to the important breakthroughs in the field of polycrystalline silicon crystallization and also due to the optimization of the process steps that differ from those of typical MOSFETs, mainly because of the requirement for low temperature procedures. In this review we present the electrical characteristics of polycrystalline silicon TFTs, crystallized with different variations of the advanced SLS ELA technique, and the determination of process technological parameters that affect the device performance, in order to further optimize the production of such high performance transistors, in terms of poly-Si microstructure, channel dimensions and topology. Also, the effect of these fabrication parameters on device degradation characteristics is studied, with an attempt to model and predict degradation characteristics.