Simulating the Geometry Dependence in Heat Generation During Photonic Curing: Enabling High-Temperature Processing of TFTs on Plastic

Flashlamp annealing and photonic curing are gaining increasing interest in enabling high-performance TFTs on low thermal budget substrates due to the transient and non-equilibrium nature of the heating process. However, the photonic curing process is not fully understood due to the limitations of one-dimensional heat transfer models that are typically used to simulate heating. In this work, a three-dimensional model is used to simulate the heat generation during the photonic curing process. The 3D model illustrates interesting and unique phenomena for the first time, such as the influence of the area, aspect ratio, and proximity on the thermal profiles of the gate structures. For example, the maximum curing temperature achieved with a metal gate on a polyimide-coated glass substrate decreases from~ 600 to ~180°c when the area is decreased from 10
⁶
to 10
²
cm
²
. In addition, the maximum temperature increases from~ 500 to 550 °C, when the distance between the gates is reduced from 100 to 2 um. These results demonstrate the importance of a 3D model for photonic curing, and provide an important step towards broader adoption of photonic curing for large-area flexible electronics.