The electrostatic charging damage on the characteristics and reliability of polysilicon thin-film transistors during plasma hydrogenation

Abstract

In this letter, the impacts of electrostatic charging damage on the characteristics and gate oxide integrity of polysilicon thin-film transistors (TFT's) during plasma hydrogenation were investigated. Hydrogen atoms can passivate trap states in the polysilicon channel, however, plasma processing induced the effect of electrostatic charging damages the gate oxide and the oxide/channel interface. The passivating effect of hydrogen atoms is hence antagonized by the generated interface states. TFT's with different area of antennas were used to study the damages caused by electrostatic field.