Poly-Si Thin-Film Transistors: An Efficient and Low-Cost Option for Digital Operation

In this paper, we propose an optimization methodology to design low-temperature polycrystalline-silicon thin-film transistors (LTPS TFTs) for submicrometer ultralow-power digital operation. LTPS TFTs incur low fabrication cost and can be fabricated on a variety of substrates (flexible such as polymer, glass, etc.). LTPS TFT has significantly reduced mobility, resulting in reduced driving current; however, we show that, for ultralow-power subthreshold operation (V_dd < V_th) , LTPS TFTs can be optimized to achieve comparable performance as a single-crystalline silicon (c-Si) silicon-on-insulator (SOI). For LTPS TFTs with T_S1 < 10 nm , ring oscillators (operating in subthreshold region) show significant reduction in intrinsic delay when the midgap trap density gets properly controlled (< 10¹² cm^-2) after hydrogenation with less dynamic energy consumption under isostatic power consumption compared to a c-Si SOI MOSFET. We also address the inherent variations in grain boundaries at device and circuit levels to gain practical insights.