Amorphous silicon: The other silicon

Abstract

While crystalline silicon FET's are the key enablers for the integrated circuit field, amorphous silicon thin film transistors are the key semiconductor of the large-area electronics field, also known as “macroelectronics.” This talk reviews the basic properties of amorphous silicon, and then outlines research trends, driven in large part by new applications. These trends include increased performance, increased stability for analog and high duty cycle applications, flexible substrates for products with new form factors, printing for cost reduction, and crystalline silicon-amorphous silicon interfaces for high performance solar cells.