Fabrication and Characterization of Zinc-Tin-Oxide Thin Film Transistors Prepared through RF-Sputtering

Oxide-based thin film transistors have been attempted as powerful candidates for driving circuits for active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes and transparent electronics. The oxide TFTs are based on the amorphous multi-component oxides involving zinc, indium, and/or tin elements as main cation sources. The current work employed RF sputtering in order to deposit zinc-tin oxide thin films applicable to transparent oxide thin film transistors. The deposited thin film was characterized and probed in terms of materials and devices. The physical/chemical characterizations were performed using X-ray diffraction, Atomic Force Microscopy, Spectroscopic Ellipsometry, and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. The thin film transistors were fabricated using a bottom-gated structure where thermally-grown silicon oxide layers were applied as gate-dielectric materials. The inherent properties of oxide thin films are combined with the corresponding device performances with the aim to fabricating the multi-component oxide thin films being optimized towards transparent electronics.