A Method for Fabricating Practically Channel-Corner-Free Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-Film Transistors

The influences of metal-induced laterally crystallized silicon channel corners on the performance and reliability of thin-film transistors (TFTs) were investigated. It was found that the TFT with the channel width, mostly applied to active matrix organic light-emitting diodes, had weak immunity to electrical stresses because of the heaviest weight of silicide-rich channel corner on the channel width by the geometric effect. The proposed TFT fabrication, which is composed of two consecutive adjacent step switches, makes TFTs practically channel-corner-free, resulting in high reliability. Moreover, it enables TFTs to have more current flow paths that maintain a high performance.