Fabrication and characterization of low temperature polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors by ink-jet printed nickel-mediated lateral crystallization

High-performance polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) were fabricated by using ink-jet printed nickel on large area glass substrates. Direct-printed Ni dots were used as a catalyst to crystallize the amorphous silicon into poly-Si for use in the channel region of TFT devices by metal-induced lateral crystallization. The fabricated poly-Si TFTs showed high field-effect mobility and on-off ratio that are comparable to the TFTs prepared using conventional semiconductor processes. The method presented here is a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches and has a potential to be used in next generation high-performance poly-Si TFT fabrication.