Effects of the electric field on Ni-induced crystallization in field-aided lateral crystallization process

As a crystallization process, the field-aided lateral crystallization (FALC) technique has some outstanding advantages, such as high crystallization rate and low temperature. In this study, an electric field was directly applied between source and drain areas of H shape patterns using the Mo-W interconnecting layer. The effects of the current density and the electrical field strength on the crystallization behavior were investigated. Such crystallization behaviors are attributed to the coexisting effects of electromigration and potential gradient. In addition, the dependence of the degree of crystallization on the current density was studied and the microstructure crystallized by FALC was compared with the microstructure crystallized by metal induced lateral crystallization (MILC) process.