Plasma-Induced Damage on the Performance and Reliability of Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-Film Transistors

Abstract

We have investigated the impact of plasma-induced damage on the performance and reliability of low-temperature polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (LTPS TFTs). The LTPS TFTs having different antenna structures were used to study the effects of the plasma-etching process. We observed that performance instability occurred for the devices having a relatively large-area antenna. Plasma damage mainly caused nonuniform distribution of the threshold voltages in the LTPS TFTs, presumably because of charge trapping in the gate dielectric during the plasma-etching process. The reliabilities of the LTPS TFTs having larger antenna areas were found to be more degraded under gate-bias stress and hot-carrier stress than those of the samples having smaller antenna areas. Because of their enhanced plasma damage, we speculate that the LTPS TFTs having larger antenna areas possess more trap states in the gate dielectrics. During gate-bias stress or hot-carrier stress, therefore, charges can be injected into the gate dielectric through trap-assisted tunneling, resulting in significant degradation of both the performance and reliability.