Low-temperature polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors and circuits on flexible substrates

Low-defect-density polycrystalline Si on flexible substrates can be instrumental in realizing the full potential of macroelectronics. Direct deposition or solid-phase crystallization techniques are often incompatible with polymers and produce materials with high defect densities. Excimer-laser annealing is capable of producing films of reasonable quality directly on polymer and metallic substrates. Sequential lateral solidification (SILS) is an advanced pulsed-laser-crystallization technique capable of producing Si films on polymers with lower defect density than can be obtained via excimer-laser annealing. Circuits built directly on polymers using these SILS films show the highest performance reported to date.