An empirical model to determine the grain size of metal-induced lateral crystallized film

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) have been fabricated using the nickel-seeded metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILC), in which an amorphous silicon is crystallized to form a large grain polysilicon film. Single crystal SOI, solid phase crystallization (SPC), and MILC TFTs were fabricated and the carrier mobilities extracted. Different types of devices have different variations in electrical properties. An empirical model based on the presence of the grain boundaries is proposed to explain the experimental results. The experimental data was used to extract the model parameters and the number of grains and grain size present in the device channel. The results can be further used to optimize the crystallization process and the device design.