Laser processing of amorphous silicon for large-area polysilicon imagers

Pulsed excimer-laser processing of amorphous silicon on non-crystalline substrates allows for the fabrication of high-quality polysilicon materials and thin-film transistors (TFTs). Under optimized processing conditions, these polysilicon TFTs have high mobilities, sharp turn-on, low off-state leakage currents and good spatial uniformity. These improved parameters, particularly the low off-state leakage currents and good uniformity, enable, not only displays, but also the more demanding flat-panel imaging arrays to be fabricated in polysilicon, and results on an imager are presented.