• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.329-333
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• 2019

Solution-processed oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) have garnered great attention, owing to their many advantages, such as low-cost, large area available for fabrication, mechanical flexibility, and optical transparency. Negative bias stress (NBS)-induced instability of sol-gel IGZO TFTs is one of the biggest concerns arising in practical applications. Thus, understanding the bias stress effect on the electrical properties of sol-gel IGZO TFTs and proposing an effective recovery method for negative bias stressed TFTs is required. In this study, we investigated the variation of transfer characteristics and the corresponding electrical parameters of sol-gel IGZO TFTs caused by NBS and positive bias recovery (PBR). Furthermore, we proposed an effective PBR method for the recovery of negative bias stressed sol-gel IGZO TFTs. The threshold voltage and field-effect mobility were affected by NBS and PBR, while current on/off ratio and sub-threshold swing were not significantly affected. The transfer characteristic of negative bias stressed IGZO TFTs increased in the positive direction after applying PBR with a negative drain voltage, compared to PBR with a positive drain voltage or a drain voltage of 0 V. These results are expected to contribute to the reduction of recovery time of negative bias stressed sol-gel IGZO TFTs.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.24-27
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• 2009

Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) thin films were deposited onto 300 nm-thick oxidized Si substrates and glass substrates by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering of IGZO targets at room temperature. FESEM and XRD analyses indicate that non-annealed and annealed IGZO thin films exhibit an amorphous structure. To investigate the effect of an annealing treatment, the films were thermally treated at $300^{\circ}C$ for 1hr in air. The IGZO TFTs structure was a bottom-gate type in which electrodes were deposited by the DC magnetron sputtering of Ti and Au targets at room temperature. The non-annealed and annealed IGZO TFTs exhibit an $I_{on}/I_{off}$ ratio of more than $10^5$. The saturation mobility and threshold voltage of nonannealed IGZO TFTs was $4.92{\times}10^{-1}cm^2/V{\cdot}s$ and 1.46V, respectively, whereas these values for the annealed TFTs were $1.49{\times}10^{-1}cm^2/V{\cdot}$ and 15.43V, respectively. It is believed that an increase in the surface roughness after an annealing treatment degrades the quality of the device. The transmittances of the IGZO thin films were approximately 80%. These results demonstrate that IGZO thin films are suitable for use as transparent thin film transistors (TTFTs).

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.143-145
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• 2016

In order to find suitable source and drain (S/D) electrodes for amorphous InGaZnO thin film transistors (a-IGZO TFTs), the specific contact resistance of interface between the channel layers and various S/D electrodes, such as Ti/Au, a-IZO and multilayer of a-IGZO/Ag/a-IGZO, was investigated using the transmission line model. The a-IGZO TFTs with a-IGZO/Ag/a-IGZO of S/D electrodes had good performance and low contact resistance due to the homo-junction with channel layer. The stability was measured with different electrodes by a positive bias stress test. The result shows the a-IGZO TFTs with a-IGZO/Ag/a-IGZO electrodes were more stable than other devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.293.2-293.2
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• 2016

The In this paper, we have fabricated the solution processed In-Ga-ZnO thin film transistors (IGZO TFTs) by varying indium and gallium ratio. The indium ratio of IGZO TFTs was changed from 1 to 5 at fixed gallium and zinc oxide atomic percent of 1:1 and gallium ratio was varied from 1 to 5 at fixed indium and zinc oxide atomic percent of 1:1. When the indium ratio was increased at fixed gallium and zinc oxide ratio of 1:1, threshold voltage was negatively shifted from 1.03 to -6.18 V and also mobility was increased from 0.018 to $0.076cm2/V{\cdot}sec$. It means that the number of carriers in IGZO TFTs were increased due to great formation of the oxygen vacancies which generate electrons. In contrast, when the gallium ratio was increased in IGZO TFTs with indium and zinc oxide ration of 1:1, the on/off current ratio was increased from $1.88{\times}104$ to $2.22{\times}105$. It is because gallium have stronger chemical bonds with oxygen than that with the zinc and indium ions that lead to the decreased in electron concentration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.99-99
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• 2010

Recently, amorphous transparent oxide semiconductors (TOS) have been widely studied for many optoelectronic devices such as AM-OLED (active-matrix organic light emitting diodes). The TOS TFTs using a-IGZO channel layers exhibit a high electron mobility, a smooth surface, a uniform deposition at a large area, a high optical transparency, a low-temperature fabrication. In spite of many advantages of the sputtering process such as better step coverage, good uniformity over large area, small shadow effect and good adhesion, there are not enough researches about characteristics of a-IGZO thin films. In this study, therefore, we focused on the electrical properties of a-IGZO thin films as a channel layer of TFTs. TFTs with the a-IGZO channel layers and Y2O3 gate insulators were fabricated. Source and drain layers were deposited using ITO target. TFTs were deposited on unheated non-alkali glass substrates ($5cm{\times}5cm$) with a sintered ceramic IGZO disc (3 inch $\varnothing$, 5mm t), Y2O3 disc (3 inch $\varnothing$, 5mm t) and ITO disc (3 inch $\varnothing$, 5mm t) as a target by magnetron sputtering method. The O2 gas was used as the reactive gas. Deposition was carried out under various sputtering conditions to investigate the effect of sputtering process on the characteristics of a-IGZO thin films. Correlation between sputtering factors and electronic properties of the film will be discussed in detail.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.160-160
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• 2015

InGaZnO (IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) are very promising due to their potential use in high performance display backplane [1]. However, the stability of IGZO TFTs under the various stresses has been issued for the practical IGZO applications [2]. Up to now, many researchers have studied to understand the sub-gap density of states (DOS) as the root cause of instability [3]. Nomura et al. reported that these deep defects are located in the surface layer of the IGZO channel [4]. Also, Kim et al. reported that the interfacial traps can be affected by different RF-power during RF magnetron sputtering process [5]. It is well known that these trap states can influence on the performances and stabilities of IGZO TFTs. Nevertheless, it has not been reported how these defect states are created during conventional RF magnetron sputtering. In general, during conventional RF magnetron sputtering process, negative oxygen ions (NOI) can be generated by electron attachment in oxygen atom near target surface and accelerated up to few hundreds eV by self-bias of RF magnetron sputter; the high energy bombardment of NOIs generates bulk defects in oxide thin films [6-10] and can change the defect states of IGZO thin film. In this study, we have confirmed that the NOIs accelerated by the self-bias were one of the dominant causes of instability in IGZO TFTs when the channel layer was deposited by conventional RF magnetron sputtering system. Finally, we will introduce our novel technology named as Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process [9-10] to eliminate the NOI bombardment effects and present how much to be improved the instability of IGZO TFTs by this new deposition method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.289.2-289.2
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• 2016

In-Ga-Zn-O(IGZO) receive great attention as a channel material for thin film transistors(TFTs) as next-generation display panel backplanes due to its superior electrical and physical properties such as a high mobility, low off-current, high sub-threshold slope, flexibility, and optical transparency. For the purpose of fabricating high performance IGZO TFTs, a thermal recovery process above a temperature of $300^{\circ}C$ is required for recovery or rearrangement of the ionic bonding structure. However diffused metal atoms from source/drain(S/D) electrodes increase the channel conductivity through the oxidation of diffused atoms and reduction of $In_2O_3$ during the thermal recovery process. Threshold voltage ($V_{TH}$) shift, one of the electrical instability, restricts actual applications of IGZO TFTs. Therefore, additional investigation of the electrical stability of IGZO TFTs is required. In this paper, we demonstrate the effect of Ti diffusion and modulation of interface traps by carrying out an annealing process on IGZO. In order to investigate the effect of diffused Ti atoms from the S/D electrode, we use secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, HSC chemistry simulation, and electrical measurements. By thermal annealing process, we demonstrate VTH shift as a function of the channel length and the gate stress. Furthermore, we enhance the electrical stability of the IGZO TFTs through a second thermal annealing process performed at temperature $50^{\circ}C$ lower than the first annealing step to diffuse Ti atoms in the lateral direction with minimal effects on the channel conductivity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.8-8
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• 2009

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated using amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) channels by rf-magnetron sputtering at room temperature. We have studied the effect of oxygen partial pressure on the threshold voltage($V_{th}$) of a-IGZO TFTs. Interestingly, the $V_{th}$ value of the oxide TFTs are slightly shifted in the positive direction due to increasing $O_2$ ratio from 1.2 to 1.8%. The device performance is significantly affected by varying $O_2$ ratio, which is closely related with oxygen vacancies provide the needed free carriers for electrical conduction.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.249-254
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• 2015

Solution-derived amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film-transistor (TFTs) were developed using a microwave irradiation treatment at low process temperature below $300^{\circ}C$. Compared to conventional furnace-annealing, the a-IGZO TFTs annealed by microwave irradiation exhibited better electrical characteristics in terms of field effect mobility, SS, and on/off current ratio, although the annealing temperature of microwave irradiation is much lower than that of furnace annealing. The microwave irradiated TFTs showed a smaller $V_{th}$ shift under the positive gate bias stress (PGBS) and negative gate bias stress (NGBS) tests owing to a lower ratio of oxygen vacancies, surface absorbed oxygen molecules, and reduced interface trapping in a-IGZO. Therefore, microwave irradiation is very promising to low-temperature process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.344-344
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• 2014

Transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors such as a In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) have advantages for large area electronic devices; e.g., uniform deposition at a large area, optical transparency, a smooth surface, and large electron mobility >10 cm2/Vs, which is more than an order of magnitude larger than that of hydrogen amorphous silicon (a-Si;H).1) Thin film transistors (TFTs) that employ amorphous oxide semiconductors such as ZnO, In-Ga-Zn-O, or Hf-In-Zn-O (HIZO) are currently subject of intensive study owing to their high potential for application in flat panel displays. The device fabrication process involves a series of thin film deposition and photolithographic patterning steps. In order to minimize contamination, the substrates usually undergo a cleaning procedure using deionized water, before and after the growth of thin films by sputtering methods. The devices structure were fabricated top-contact gate TFTs using the a-IGZO films on the plastic substrates. The channel width and length were 80 and 20 um, respectively. The source and drain electrode regions were defined by photolithography and wet etching process. The electrodes consisting of Ti(15 nm)/Al(120 nm)/Ti(15nm) trilayers were deposited by direct current sputtering. The 30 nm thickness active IGZO layer deposited by rf magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The deposition condition is as follows: a rf power 200 W, a pressure of 5 mtorr, 10% of oxygen [O2/(O2+Ar)=0.1], and room temperature. A 9-nm-thick Al2O3 layer was formed as a first, third gate insulator by ALD deposition. A 290-nm-thick SS6908 organic dielectrics formed as second gate insulator by spin-coating. The schematic structure of the IGZO TFT is top gate contact geometry device structure for typical TFTs fabricated in this study. Drain current (IDS) versus drain-source voltage (VDS) output characteristics curve of a IGZO TFTs fabricated using the 3-layer gate insulator on a plastic substrate and log(IDS)-gate voltage (VG) characteristics for typical IGZO TFTs. The TFTs device has a channel width (W) of $80{\mu}m$ and a channel length (L) of $20{\mu}m$. The IDS-VDS curves showed well-defined transistor characteristics with saturation effects at VG>-10 V and VDS>-20 V for the inkjet printing IGZO device. The carrier charge mobility was determined to be 15.18 cm^2 V-1s-1 with FET threshold voltage of -3 V and on/off current ratio 10^9.