A new self-aligned top-gate polysilicon TFT architecture for low temperature processing

Summary form only given. Laser crystallized polysilicon thin film transistors (TFTs) have been found attractive for active matrix addressing with integrated drivers on low temperature glass substrates and more recently on plastic substrates. The TFT process typically uses a top gate self-aligned architecture with a laser crystallization channel anneal and a thermal doping activation anneal. For very low temperature processing, two laser anneal steps are required (Carey et al, 1997). In this work, we have developed a new self-aligned TFT architecture that requires only a single laser process step to achieve simultaneous crystallization and doping. It also has the advantage of allowing an efficient hydrogen passivation step early in the process.