Effect of ELA Energy Density on Self-Heating Stress in Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-Film Transistors

The extent of the poly-silicon crystalline protrusion, a result of differences in excimer laser annealing (ELA), affects the performance and reliability of thin-film transistors (TFTs). This study investigates the degradation mechanism of the low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) TFT devices with differences in crystalline protrusion under self-heating stress (SHS). Higher ELA energy will induce higher protrusion height in the interface between the poly-silicon and gate insulator (GI). This surface morphology leads to serious charge trapping into the GI layers; in contrast, the smallest degradation after SHS can be seen in the devices with the lowest protrusion height. This indicates that the degradation is caused by the surface morphology between the poly-Si and GI interface. In addition, the COMSOL simulation results confirm that the large electric field in the GI layer appears in the rough surface morphology devices; therefore, choosing the appropriate ELA energy of the poly-Si is beneficial for the applications of the driving TFT in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display in the manufacturing industry.