High-performance poly-Si thin-film transistors with excimer-laser annealed silicon-nitride gate

We report, for the first time, that ArF excimer laser annealing can improve silicon-nitride film properties. It is shown that the 15-nm-thick top region of the laser preannealed film had a lower hydrogen content and a much lower etching rate than the as-deposited film. The laser preannealed film is very useful as the gate insulator of high-performance bottom-gate thin-film transistors fabricated with the laser-recrystallized poly-Si film. The field-effect mobility of electrons was as high as 200 cm 2 /V·s, while the mobility was as low as 40 cm 2 /V·s without preannealing the silicon-nitride film.