• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.715-717
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• 2006

$NiCl_2$ vapor was introduced into conventional furnace to conduct vapor-induced crystallization (VIC) process. We made the metal chloride atmosphere by sublimating the $NiCl_2$ compound. The $NiCl_2$ atmosphere enhanced the crystallization of amorphous silicon thin films. As the result, polycrystalline Si film with large grain size and low metal contamination has been obtained.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 2014

Joule heat is generated by applying an electric filed to a conductive layer located beneath or above the amorphous 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 order to carry out the crystallization of amorphous silicon. Polycrystalline silicon was produced within the range of a millisecond. To investigate the kinetics of Joule-heating induced crystallization (JIC) solid phase crystallization was conducted using amorphous silicon films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and using tube furnace in nitrogen ambient. Microscopic and macroscopic uniformity of crystallinity of JIC poly-Si was measured to have better uniformity compared to that of poly-Si produced by other methods such as metal induced crystallization and Excimer laser crystallization.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.315-318
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• 2004

We developed a vapor induced crystallization (VIC) process for the first time to obtain high quality polycrystalline Si films by sublimating the mixture of $AlCl_3$ and $NiCl_2$. The VIC process enhanced the crystallization of amorphous silicon thin films. The LPCVD amorphous silicon thin films were completely crystallized after 5 hours at 480 $^{\circ}C$. It is known that needle-like grains with very small width grow in the Ni-metal induced lateral crystallization. In our new method, the width of grains is larger because the grain can also grow perpendicular to the needle growth direction. Also the interface between the merging grain boundaries was coherent. As the results, a polycrystalline film with superior microstructure has been obtained.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.58.1-58.1
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• 2010

We have developed a novel crystallization process, where the crystallization temperature is lowered compared to the conventional RTA process and the metal contamination is lowered compared to the conventional VIC process. A very-thin a-Si film was deposited and crystallized at $550^{\circ}C$ for 3 h by the VIC process and then a thick a-Si film was deposited and crystallized by the RTA process at $680^{\circ}C$ for 5 min using the VIC poly-Si layer as a crystallization seed layer. The RTA crystallized temperature could be lowered up to $50^{\circ}C$, compared to RTA process alone. The poly-Si film appeared a needle-like growth front and relatively well-arranged (111) orientation. In addition, the Ni concentration in the poly-Si film was lowered to $3{\times}10^{17}\;cm^{-3}$ and that at the poly-Si/$SiO_2$ interface was lowered to $5{\times}10^{19}\;cm^{-3}$. The reduction in metal contamination could be greatly helpful to achieve a low leakage current in poly-Si TFT, which is the critical parameter for commercialization of AMOLED.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.26-35
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• 1997

The substrate effects on solid-phase crystallization of amorphous silicon (a-Si) films deposited by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) using $Si_2H_6$ gas have been extensively investigated. The a-Si films were prepared on various substrates, such as thermally oxidized Si wafer ($SiO_2$/Si), quartz and LPCVD-oxide, and annealed at 600$^{\circ}C$ in an $N_2$ ambient for crystallization. The crystallization behavior was found to be strongly dependent on the substrate even though all the silicon films were deposited in amorphous phase. It was first observed that crystallization in a-Si films deposited on the $SiO_2$/Si starts from the interface between the a-Si and the substrate, so called interface-interface-induced crystallization, while random nucleation process dominates on the other substrates. The different kinetics and mechanism of solid-phase crystallization is attributed to the structural disorderness of a-Si films, which is strongly affected by the surface roughness of the substrates.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.443-450
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• 2014

Amorphous (a-Si) films were epitaxially crystallized on a very thin large-grained poly-Si seed layer by a silicide-enhanced rapid thermal annealing (SERTA) process. The poly-Si seed layer contained a small amount of nickel silicide which can enhance crystallization of the upper layer of the a-Si film at lower temperature. A 5-nm thick poly-Si seed layer was then prepared by the crystallization of an a-Si film using the vapor-induced crystallization process in a $NiCl_2$ environment. After removing surface oxide on the seed layer, a 45-nm thick a-Si film was deposited on the poly-Si seed layer by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition at $200^{\circ}C$. The epitaxial crystallization of the top a-Si layer was performed by the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process at $730^{\circ}C$ for 5 min in Ar as an ambient atmosphere. Considering the needle-like grains as well as the crystallization temperature of the top layer as produced by the SERTA process, it was thought that the top a-Si layer was epitaxially crystallized with the help of $NiSi_2$ precipitates that originated from the poly-Si seed layer. The crystallinity of the SERTA processed poly-Si thin films was better than the other crystallization process, due to the high-temperature RTA process. The Ni concentration in the poly-Si film fabricated by the SERTA process was reduced to $1{\times}10^{18}cm^{-3}$. The maximum field-effect mobility and substrate swing of the p-channel poly-Si thin-film transistors (TFTs) using the poly-Si film prepared by the SERTA process were $85cm^2/V{\cdot}s$ and 1.23 V/decade at $V_{ds}=-3V$, respectively. The off current was little increased under reverse bias from $1.0{\times}10^{-11}$ A. Our results showed that the SERTA process is a promising technology for high quality poly-Si film, which enables the fabrication of high mobility TFTs. In addition, it is expected that poly-Si TFTs with low leakage current can be fabricated with more precise experiments.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.129-134
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• 2004

The development of fabrication processes of polycrystalline-silicon-thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) at low temperatures is reviewed. Rapid crystallization through laser-induced melt-regrowth has an advantage of formation of crystalline silicon films at a low thermal budget. Solid phase crystallization techniques have also been improved for low temperature processing. Passivation of $SiO_2$/Si interface and grain boundaries is important to achieve high carrier transport properties. Oxygen plasma and $H_2O$ vapor heat treatments are proposed for effective reduction of the density of defect states. TFTs with high performance is reported.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.51.1-51.1
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.16.1-16.1
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• 2007

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2014

We developed a method of growing thin Si film at $600^{\circ}C$ by hot wire CVD using a very thin large-grained poly-Si seed layer for thin-film Si solar cells. The seed layer was prepared by crystallizing an amorphous Si film by vapor-induced crystallization using $AlCl_3$ vapor. The average grain size of the p-type epitaxial Si layer was about $20{\mu}m$ and crystallographic defects in the epitaxial layer were mainly low-angle grain boundaries and coincident-site lattice boundaries, which are special boundaries with less electrical activity. Moreover, with a decreasing in-situ boron doping time, the mis-orientation angle between grain boundaries and in-grain defects in epitaxial Si decreased. Due to fewer defects, the epitaxial Si film was high quality evidenced from Raman and TEM analysis. The highest mobility of $360cm^2/V{\cdot}s$ was achieved by decreasing the in-situ boron doping time. The performance of our preliminary thin-film solar cells with a single-side HIT structure and $CoSi_2$ back contact was poor. However, the result showed that the epitaxial Si film has considerable potential for improved performance with a reduced boron doping concentration.