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This paper presents a novel approach to make high-performance CMOS at low temperatures. Fully functional devices are manufactured using back-end compatible substrate temperatures after the deposition of the amorphous-silicon starting material. The amorphous silicon is pretextured to control the location of grain boundaries. Green-laser annealing is employed for crystallization and dopant activation. A high activation level of As and B impurities is obtained. The main grain boundaries are found at predictable positions, allowing transistor definition away from these boundaries. The realized thin-film transistors (TFTs) exhibit high field-effect carrier mobilities of 405 cm²/V · s (NMOS) and 128 cm²/V · s (PMOS). CMOS inverters and fully functional 51-stage ring oscillators were fabricated in this process and characterized. The process can be employed for large-area TFT electronics as well as a functional stack layer in 3-D integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The infrared light emission of forward-biased silicon diodes is studied. Through ion implantation and anneal, dislocation loops were created near the diode junction. These loops suppress the light emission at the band-to-band peak around 1.1 µm. The so-called D1 line at 1.5 µm is strongly enhanced by these dislocation loops. We report a full study of photoluminescence and electroluminescence of these diodes. The results lead to new insights for the manufacturing approach of practical infrared light sources in integrated circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]