Ni-metal-induced lateral crystallization (NILC) of amorphous Si (alpha-Si) has been used to fabricate high-performance low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistors (TFTs). The current crystallization technology, however, often leads to trap Ni and NiSi2 precipitates, which degrade the device performance. In this study, we have used alpha-Si films with a thickness of 100 nm as an Ni-gettering layer, silicon-nitride (SiNx) films with a thickness of 30 nm as the etching stop layers and annealed at 550 degrees C for 90 h to reduce the Ni-metal impurity within the NILC poly-Si film. (c) 2006 The Electrochemical Society.