ELECTROSTATIC PRINTING OF A METALLIC TONER TO PRODUCE A POLYCRYSTALLINE SEMICONDUCTOR FROM AN AMORPHOUS SEMICONDUCTOR

摘要

A catalytic liquid toner (16) is electrostatically printed on an amorphous silicon layer (20) (or a substrate (22) that is to support such a layer), in an image-wise fashion. After the liquid toner is dried, the amorphous silicon layer (20) is heated, preferably using rapid thermal annealing, to approximately 550 DEG C for about 2 minutes to cause the toned areas to be converted to polysilicon. The toner used during the printing action is a dispersion of resin particles which contain a metallic catalyst, such as palladium, nickel or chromium.