Highly stable amorphous indium.gallium.zinc-oxide thin-film transistor using an etch-stopper and a via-hole structure

Highly stable amorphous indium.gallium.zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated with an etchstopper and via-hole structure. The TFTs exhibited 40 $cm^2$/V s field-effect mobility and a 0.21 V/dec gate voltage swing. Gate-bias stress induced a negligible threshold voltage shift (${\Delta}V_{th}$) at room temperature. The excellent stability is attribute to the via-hole and etch-stopper structure, in which, the source/drain metal contacts the active a-IGZO layer through two via holes (one on each side), resulting in minimized damage to the a-IGZO layer during the plasma etching of the source/drain metal. The comparison of the effects of the DC and AC stress on the performance of the TFTs at $60^{\circ}C$ showed that there was a smaller ${\Delta}V_{th}$ in the AC stress compared with the DC stress for the same effective stress time, indicating that the trappin of the carriers at the active layer-gate insulator interface was the dominant degradation mechanism.