The joint impact of the Si/Al layer thickness on the growth kinetics, the crystalline orientation and the size of the poly-Si grains resulting from aluminum-induced crystallization process is analyzed. It is shown that the surface coverage of resulting poly-Si layers rapidly decreases together with annealing temperature and the Si/Al ratio. The surplus of a-Si over the Al needed to ensure continuity of the poly-Si thin film is in the range of 35%-50% for Al layers thicker than 225 nm, but rapidly goes up to 200% as the thickness of the Al layer decreases below 50 nm. It is demonstrated that the angular distribution of grain orientations is discrete and shifts towards the (111) direction as the Si/Al increases. It is reported that during an isothermal annealing, the nucleation of Si grains occurs in two steps. Finally, a simple model of the aluminum-induced crystallization process explaining the two-step nucleation is proposed. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.