Studies on microwave annealing enhanced Al-induced lateral crystallization of amorphous silicon thin films are reported. The crystallized Si films were examined by optical microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and transmission electron diffraction microscopy. After microwave annealing at 480 degreesC for 50 min, the amorphous Si is completely crystallized with large grains having the main (1 1 1) orientation. The rate of lateral crystallization is 0.04 mum/min. Compared with the conventional annealing and rapid thermal annealing, metal-induced lateral crystallized by microwave annealing, labeled MILC-MA, not only lowers the temperature but also reduces the time of crystallization. We have also analyzed the crystallization mechanism during microwave annealing. This MILC-MA process has potential applications in large area electronics. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.