Low temperature processes of poly-Si TFT backplane for flexible AM-OLEDs

Low temperature deposition of silicon and silicon nitride films by catalytic CVD technique was studied for application to thin film transistors on plastic substrates for flexible AMOLEDs. The substrate temperature initially held at room temperature, and was controlled successfully below 150°C during the entire deposition process. Amorphous silicon films having good adhesion, good surface morphology and sufficiently low content of atomic hydrogen were obtained and could be successfully crystallized using excimer laser without a prior dehydrogenation step. SiN_x films showed a good refractive index, a high deposition rate, a moderate breakdown field and a dielectric constant. The Cat-CVD silicon and silicon nitride films can be good candidates for fabricating thin films transistors on plastic substrates to drive active-matrix organic light emitting display.