Search Results (7)

This study reveals the pronounced density of oxygen vacancies (Vo) at the back channel of back-channel-etched (BCE) a-InGaZnO (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) results from the sputtered deposition rather than the wet etching process of the source/drain metal, and they are distributed within approximately 25 nm of the back surface. Furthermore, the existence and distribution depth of the high density of Vo defects are verified by means of XPS spectra analyses. Then, the mechanism through which the above Vo defects lead to the instability of BCE a-IGZO TFTs is elucidated. Lastly, it is demonstrated that the device instability under high-humidity conditions and negative bias temperature illumination stress can be effectively alleviated by etching and thus removing the surface layer of the back channel, which contains the high density of Vo defects. In addition, this etch method does not cause a significant deterioration in the uniformity of electrical characteristics and is quite convenient to implement in practical fabrication processes. Thus, a novel and effective solution to the device instability of BCE a-IGZO TFTs is provided. Full article

In this work, an electrical stability model based on surface potential is presented for amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) under positive-gate-bias stress (PBS) and light stress. In this model, the sub-gap density of states (DOSs) are depicted by exponential band tails and Gaussian deep states within the band gap of a-IGZO. Meanwhile, the surface potential solution is developed with the stretched exponential distribution relationship between the created defects and PBS time, and the Boltzmann distribution relationship between the generated traps and incident photon energy, respectively. The proposed model is verified using both the calculation results and experimental data of a-IGZO TFTs with various distribution of DOSs, and a consistent and accurate expression of the evolution of transfer curves is achieved under PBS and light illumination. Full article

An analytical surface-potential-based drain current model for amorphous indium–gallium–zinc–oxide (a-InGaZnO) thin film transistors (TFTs) is proposed by introducing an effective charge density approach in this paper. This approach gives two initial approximate values of the effective state density and the effective thermal voltage by using the dominant state of the free charge density in total charge density, and then obtains a high-precision one-exponent equivalent transformation for three-exponent total charge density. Based on this approach, we have solved the problem that the physical meaning of the transition area in the regional method is not clear and a one-piece analytical surface potential solution to Poisson’s equation is successfully derived. Furthermore, the drain current is also explicitly derived from the charge sheet model and I-V characteristics of a-InGaZnO TFTs are reproduced from the above obtained model. Finally, accurate and effective surface-potential model and drain current model are obtained and verified by experimental data, respectively. Good verification results prove that the proposed model could become an accurate and suitable tool for being embedded into a circuit simulation. Full article

Amorphous InGaZnO (a-InGaZnO) is currently the most prominent oxide semiconductor complement to low-temperature polysilicon for thin-film transistor (TFT) applications in next-generation displays. However, balancing the transmission performance and low-temperature deposition is the primary obstacle in the application of a-InGaZnO TFTs in the field of ultra-high resolution optoelectronic display. Here, we report that a-InGaZnO:O TFT prepared at room temperature has high transport performance, manipulating oxygen vacancy (V_O) defects through an oxygen-doped a-InGaZnO framework. The main electrical properties of a-InGaZnO:O TFTs included high field-effect mobility (µ_FE) of 28 cm²/V s, a threshold voltage (V_th) of 0.9 V, a subthreshold swing (SS) of 0.9 V/dec, and a current switching ratio (I_on/I_off) of 10⁷; significant improvements over a-InGaZnO TFTs without oxygen plasma. A possible reason for this is that appropriate oxygen plasma treatment and room temperature preparation technology jointly play a role in improving the electrical performance of a-InGaZnO TFTs, which could not only increase carrier concentration, but also reduce the channel-layer surface defects and interface trap density of a-InGaZnO TFTs. These provides a powerful way to synergistically boost the transport performance of oxide TFTs fabricated at room temperature. Full article

We prepared amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin films with various Ga content ratios and investigated their feasibility as the active channel layers of top-gate thin-film transistors (TFT). First, the 2-inch IGZO sputtering targets with stoichiometric ratios of InGaZn₂O₅, InGaZnO₄, and InGa₂ZnO_5.5 were fabricated using In₂O₃, Ga₂O₃, and ZnO oxide powders as raw materials via sintering treatments at temperatures ranging from 900 °C to 1300 °C for 6 h or 8 h. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the InGaZn₂O₅ and InGaZnO₄ targets are single-phase structures whereas the InGa₂ZnO_5.5 target is a two-phase structure. Hall effect measurement indicated that the a-InGaZn₂O₅ and a-InGaZnO₄ layers possess a carrier concentration (N) of about 10¹⁹ cm⁻³ and a resistivity (ρ) of about 10⁻² Ω·cm; however, the N of the a-InGa₂ZnO_5.5 layer is only 10¹⁷ cm⁻³, and the ρ is about 1 to 4 Ω·cm. Moreover, the a-InGaZn₂O₅ layer exhibited the highest Hall-effect mobility (μ_Hall) of 21.17 cm²·V⁻¹·sec⁻¹. This indicated that the impedance of Ga³⁺ ions to carrier migration is the main factor affecting the electrical properties of a-IGZO layers. Ga content in the a-IGZO channel similarly affects the performance of the TFT devices prepared in this study. The annealing at 300 °C for 1 h in an ambient atmosphere was found to significantly improve the electrical properties of the TFT devices. The best performance was observed in the a-InGaZnO₄ TFT sample subjected to post-annealing at 300 °C with V_th = −0.85 V, μ_FE = 8.46 cm², V⁻¹·sec⁻¹, SS = 2.31, V·decade⁻¹, and I_on/I_off = 2.9 × 10⁴. Full article

The low–temperature poly–Si oxide (LTPO) backplane is realized by monolithically integrating low–temperature poly–Si (LTPS) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) thin–film transistors (TFTs) in the same display backplane. The LTPO–enabled dynamic refreshing rate can significantly reduce the display’s power consumption. However, the essential hydrogenation of LTPS would seriously deteriorate AOS TFTs by increasing the population of channel defects and carriers. Hydrogen (H) diffusion barriers were comparatively investigated to reduce the H content in amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide (a–IGZO). Moreover, the intrinsic H–resistance of a–IGZO was impressively enhanced by plasma treatments, such as fluorine and nitrous oxide. Enabled by the suppressed H conflict, a novel AOS/LTPS integration structure was tested by directly stacking the H–resistant a–IGZO on poly–Si TFT, dubbed metal–oxide–on–Si (MOOS). The noticeably shrunken layout footprint could support much higher resolution and pixel density for next–generation displays, especially AR and VR displays. Compared to the conventional LTPO circuits, the more compact MOOS circuits exhibited similar characteristics. Full article

The electrical characteristics of amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) deposited with different N₂/O₂ partial pressure ratios (P_N/O) are investigated. It is found that the device with 20% P_N/O exhibits enhanced electrical stability after positive-bias-stress temperature (PBST) and negative-bias-stress illumination (NBSI), presenting decreased threshold voltage drift (ΔV_th). Compared to the N-free TFT, the average effective interface barrier energy (E_τ) of the TFT with 20% P_N/O is increased from 0.37 eV to 0.57 eV during the bias-stress process, which agrees with the suppressed ΔV_th from 3.0 V to 1.12 V after the PBS at T = 70 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed that the enhanced stability of the a-IGZO TFT with 20% P_N/O should be ascribed to the control of oxygen vacancy defects at the interfacial region. Full article