High-Performance Polycrystalline Silicon TFT on the Structure of a Dopant-Segregated Schottky-Barrier Source/Drain

A high-performance polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistor (TFT) with Schottky-barrier (SB) source/drain (S/D) junctions is proposed. A p-channel operation on the intrinsic nickel (Ni) silicided S/D was successfully realized with the aid of a thin active layer, despite the fact that the Ni silicided material shows a high SB height (SBH) for holes. Furthermore, for n-channel operation, the dopant-segregation technique implemented on the intrinsic Ni silicide was utilized to reduce the effective SBH for electrons. The results show a higher on-current due to the lower parasitic resistance as well as superior immunity against short-channel effects, compared to the conventional poly-Si TFT composed of p-n S/D junctions.