Effects of nickel incorporation on the growth kinetics and electronic characteristics of metal-induced laterally crystallized polycrystalline silicon

During metal-induced lateral crystallization (MILC) of amorphous silicon, nickel is detected in amorphous silicon near the MILC front. This is found to exert subtle but observable effects on the crystallization kinetics. After MILC, a small amount of nickel remains trapped in the resulting polycrystalline silicon. Transistor leakage current is found to be reduced if such residual nickel is gettered.