High dose-rate hydrogen passivation of polycrystalline silicon CMOS TFTs by plasma ion implantation

Plasma ion implantation (PII) hydrogenation is an efficient method for defect passivation in polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistors (TFTs). We have developed a process that can achieve saturation of device parameter improvement in 30 min, whereas conventional plasma hydrogenation takes approximately 4 h. Our model predicts that much shorter process times are possible. We have analyzed the gate oxide charging which occurs during the PII process and controlled it to the extent that processed devices are damage-free. The long-term reliability of PII hydrogenated devices is superior to that of conventional parallel-plate plasma hydrogenated devices.