Carbon-nanotube electron-beam (C-beam) crystallization technique for silicon TFTs

Abstract

We introduced a carbon-nanotube (CNT) electron beam (C-beam) for thin film crystallization and thin film transistor (TFT) applications. As a source of electron emission, a CNT emitter which had been grown on a silicon wafer with a resist-assisted patterning (RAP) process was used. By using the C-beam exposure, we successfully crystallized a silicon thin film that had nano-sized crystalline grains. The distribution of crystalline grain size was about 10 ∼ 30 nm. This nanocrystalline silicon thin film definitely had three crystalline directions which are (111), (220) and (311), respectively. The silicon TFTs crystallized by using a C-beam exposure showed a field effect mobility of 20 cm2/Vs and an on/off ratio of more than 107. The C-beam exposure can modify the bonding network of amorphous silicon with its proper energy.