Experimental Analysis for Low-Temperature Poly-Si Films Produced by Using the Excimer Laser Annealing Method

Abstract

This paper is to investigate the effects on grain size of different working conditions for making poly Si films by using the excimer laser annealing method. In this research, a KrF excimer laser of 248 nm in wavelength is used to irradiate a-Si films of 0.1 μm in thickness on glass substrate to produce poly-Si ones. The control parameters are laser intensity (200~500 mJ/cm2), pulse number (1~10 shots) and coverage fraction (0~100%). Besides, the effect of a SiO2 layer is also studied, which is utilized as a heat-isolated zone located between the Si film and glass substrate. Average grain sizes from SEM photos are used to analyze the effects of these parameters. Purely from the heat transfer view, the Si film obtains more energy would have the slower cooling or solidification rate, which results in the larger grain. From the experimental results, if the melt pool is within the range of Si film or does not contact its neighboring layer (SiO2 layer or glass substrate), the more absorbed energy from the higher energy intensity, the larger pulse number or the bigger coverage fraction can have the larger average grain size. However, with large enough energy, the melt pool could go through the Si film and touch the lower layer. This would induce much more nuclei due to the homogeneous nucleation in the pool and the heterogeneous nucleation near the interface between the film and the neighboring layer. The resulting grain size is much smaller than that of the former one. The transition points of these two cases for different control parameters can be obtained from the experimental results in this study. When the energy from the laser is small, the SiO2 layer acts like a heat absorber and makes the grain size smaller than that of not having the SiO2 layer. On the other hand, when the energy is large, the SiO2 layer becomes a heat insulator and makes the grain size larger.