The plastic substrates are thinner, lighter, shatterproof,
flexible, rollable and foldable, making Silicon-on-Plastic an enabling
technology for new applications/products. This paper studies the
development of Silicon on Plastic technology. Advances in poly-silicon
technology have expanded TFT (THIN FILM TRANSISTORS) technology to
high-speed electronics applications such as Smart Cards, RFID tags,
portable imaging devices, photo-voltaic devices and solid-state lighting
and other integrated circuit functions.
The challenge of Silicon-on-Plastic technology is to overcome the fact
that plastic melts at the temperature required to build transistors in
conventional TFT processes. Technological innovations have been made to
accommodate silicon processing at low temperatures. T his paper
describes an innovative ultra-low temperature poly-silicon TFT process
on plastic substrates , Key technologies includes near room-temperature
silicon and oxide deposition steps, laser crystallization and dopant
activation. Manufacturing issues related to plastic material
compatibility in a TFT process are reviewed. Lamination and
de-lamination of plastic wafers to glass carrier wafers for
manufacturability is discussed. An active matrix TFT backplane will be
fabricated with an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display to
demonstrate this technology.
Silicon on Plastic:
Currently, amorphous silicon thin film transistors (TFT’s) on
glass are predominantly used in the flat panel display industry for
notebook computers, mobile phones, PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistant),
and other handheld devices. Today, flat panels made by amorphous TFT
technology are replacing desktop computer CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)
monitors at an ever-increasing rate. Amorphous TFT technology
applications are limited due to its inherently low electron mobility.
Applications that require integration of display drivers such as
hand-held camcorder and cell phone displays are using poly-silicon based
TFT’s for cost and space savings. This eliminates the need for costly
assembly of conventional silicon chips onto the amorphous TFT display
panels. Advances in poly-silicon technology have expanded TFT technology
to high-speed electronics applications such as Smart Cards, RFID tags
and other integrated circuit functions.
Recently developed ultra low-temperature polysilicon TFT technology
can be applaid on both glass and plastic substrates. The plastic
substrates are thinner, lighter, shatterproof, flexible, rollable and
foldable, making silicon-on-plastic an enabling technology for new
applications/products. Some of the possibilities are roll-up/down
displays, lightweight, thin wall-mounted TVs, electronic newspapers, and
wearable display/computing devices. Moreover, plastic substrates offer
the potential of roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing which can reduce
manufacturing cost substantially compared to conventional plate-to-plate
(P2P) methods. Other possibilities include smart cards, RFID tags, and
portable imaging devices, photo-voltaic devices and solid-state
lighting.
The challenge of silicon-on-plastic technology is to overcome the
fact that plastic melts at the temperature required to build transistors
in conventional TFT processes. The ultra low-temperature process is
compatible with plastic substrates and offers good TFT performance.
Technological innovations have been made to accommodate silicon
processing at low temperatures.
A proprietary deposition machine and a compatible process were
developed to deposit high quality TFT gate oxides at sub-100º C
temperatures. It is a special PECVD (Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor
Deposition) system with an added plasma source configuration akin to ECR
(Electron Cyclotron Resonance) to generate high-density plasma at low
temperature. The process is optimized to provide high-density plasma for
silicon dioxide deposition using SiH4 and O2. The gate oxide film at
100 nm thickness has a breakdown voltage of more than 70V, while the
gate leakage current density is less than 60 nA/cm2 at 20-V
bias.As-deposited gate oxideshows good C-V characterstics .
1. A small amount of hysteresis is observed before annealing takes
place. A pre-oxidation plasma treatment step using a mixture of H2 and
O2 to grow a very thin oxide at the interface between the deposited
silicon and the gate oxide with acceptable interface states was added to
the process flow. Sufficiently high-density plasma must be generated in
order to grow oxide with any significant thickness. The chuck is cooled
to 20º C to keep the plastic temperature below 100º C during the entire
pre-oxidation and deposition process. The cleanliness of the Si surface
is critical prior to the oxidation process.
The result exhibits the difference between gate oxides with and
without pre-oxidation. With pre-oxidation, we obtain an oxide C-V curve
very close to the one calculated theoretically.
A Xe-Cl excimer laser is used to crystallize sputtered silicon on
plastic, thereby forming large polysilicon grains for TFT’s with much
higher mobility than its amorphous counterpart. The extremely short
laser pulses provide sufficient energy to melt the deposited Si, while
the subsequent cooling forms a polycrystalline structure. This
crystallization technique is similar to polysilicon formation on glass.
The challenge with plastic substrates is to melt the deposited silicon
while preserving the structural quality of
the underlying base material