Meyer–Neldel Rule for Effective Channel Mobility in the Subthreshold Region of Poly-Si Thin-Film Transistors

Abstract

It is verified that the entire subthreshold region of poly-Si thin film transistors (TFTs) is a pseudo-subthreshold region dominated by drift current, where the carrier effective channel mobility is found to follow the Meyer–Neldel rule (MNR). Characteristic MN energies extracted from both metal-induced laterally crystallized poly-Si TFTs and excimer laser annealed TFTs are all close to the optical phonon energy of Si, providing strong evidence to the MNR. Carrier thermionic emission over grain boundary barriers activated by multiphonon absorption process is the origin of the MNR.