• ETRI Journal
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.62-64
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• 2009

We report on the bias stability characteristics of transparent ZnO thin film transistors (TFTs) under visible light illumination. The transfer curve shows virtually no change under positive gate bias stress with light illumination, while it shows dramatic negative shifts under negative gate bias stress. The major mechanism of the bias stability under visible illumination of our ZnO TFTs is thought to be the charge trapping of photo-generated holes at the gate insulator and/or insulator/channel interface.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.57-60
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• 2018

Recently, Thin-film transistors (TFTs) are fundamental building blocks for state-of-the-art microelectronics, such as flat-panel displays and system-on-glass. Zinc oxide thin films have the advantage that they can grow at low temperature and can obtain high charge movility. Also the zinc oxide thin film can be used to control the resistance according to the oxygen content, so it is very easy to obtain the desired physical properties. In this paper, we fabricated a zinc oxide thin film on a polished copper substrate through a solution process, then improved the crystallinity through a geat treatment porcess, and studied to transfer it on a flexible substrate after the heat treatment was completed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.106-106
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• 2011

Recently, zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films have attracted great attention as a promising candidate for various electronic applications such as transparent electrodes, thin film transistors, and optoelectronic devices. ZnO thin films have a wide band gap energy of 3.37 eV and transparency in visible region. Moreover, ZnO thin films can be deposited in a poly-crystalline form even at room temperature, extending the choice of substrates including even plastics. Therefore, it is possible to realize thin film transistors by using ZnO thin films as the active channel layer. In this work, we investigated influence of oxygen partial pressure on ZnO thin films and fabricated ZnO-based thin film transistors. ZnO thin films were deposited on glass substrates by using a pulsed laser deposition technique in various oxygen partial pressures from 20 to 100 mTorr at room temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission line method (TLM), and UV-Vis spectroscopy were employed to study the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the ZnO thin films. As a result, 80 mTorr was optimal condition for active layer of thin film transistors, since the active layer of thin film transistors needs high resistivity to achieve low off-current and high on-off ratio. The fabricated ZnO-based thin film transistors operated in the enhancement mode with high field effect mobility and low threshold voltage.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.32.1-32.1
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.170-170
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• 2010

Thin-film transistors (TFT) have become the key components of electronic and optoelectronic devices. Most conventional thin-film field-effect transistors in display applications use an amorphous or polycrystal Si:H layer as the channel. This silicon layers are opaque in the visible range and severely restrict the amount of light detected by the observer due to its bandgap energy smaller than the visible light. Therefore, Si:H TFT devices reduce the efficiency of light transmittance and brightness. One method to increase the efficiency is to use the transparent oxides for the channel, electrode, and gate insulator. The development of transparent oxides for the components of thin-film field-effect transistors and the room-temperature fabrication with low voltage operations of the devices can offer the flexibility in designing the devices and contribute to the progress of next generation display technologies based on transparent displays and flexible displays. In this thesis, I report on the dc performance of transparent thin-film transistors using amorphous indium tin zinc oxides for an active layer. $SiO_2$ was employed as the gate dielectric oxide. The amorphous indium tin zinc oxides were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering. The carrier concentration of amorphous indium tin zinc oxides was controlled by oxygen pressure in the sputtering ambient. Devices are realized that display a threshold voltage of 4.17V and an on/off ration of ${\sim}10^9$ operated as an n-type enhancement mode with saturation mobility with $15.8\;cm^2/Vs$. In conclusion, the fabrication and characterization of thin-film transistors using amorphous indium tin zinc oxides for an active layer were reported. The devices were fabricated at room temperature by RF magnetron sputtering. The operation of the devices was an n-type enhancement mode with good saturation characteristics.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.07b
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• pp.1276-1279
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• 2005

The long-term stability of pentacene thin-film transistors (TFTs) encapsulated with a transparent $SnO_2$ thin-film prepared by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) was investigated. With a buffer layer of thermally evaporated 100 nm $SnO_2$ film deposited prior to IBAD process, our encapsulated OTFTs sustained its initial field-effect mobility up to one month and then gradually degraded showing only 37% reduction compared to 90% reduction of non-encapsulated OTFTs after 100 days in air ambient. The encapsulated OTFTs also exhibited superior on/off current ratio of over $10^5$ to that of the unprotected devices $({\sim}10^4)$ which was reduced from ${\sim}10^6$ before aging. Therefore, the enhanced long-term stability of our encapsulated OTFTs should be attributed to well protection of permeation of $H_2O$ and $O_2$ into the devices by the IBAD $SnO_2$ thin-film which could be used as an effective inorganic gas barrier for transparent organic electronic devices.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.365-370
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• 2015

Zinc tin oxide transparent thin film transistors (ZTO TTFTs) were fabricated on oxidized $n^+$ Si wafers. The thickness of ~30 nm $Al_2O_3$ films were deposited on the oxidized Si wafers by atomic layer deposition, which acted as the gate insulators of ZTO TTFTs. The $Al_2O_3$ films were rapid-annealed at $400^{\circ}C$, $600^{\circ}C$, $800^{\circ}C$, and $1,000^{\circ}C$, respectively. Active layers of ZTO films were deposited on the $Al_2O_3/SiO_2$ coated $n^+$ Si wafers by rf magnetron sputtering. Mobility and threshold voltage were measured as a function of the rapid-annealing temperature. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were carried out to observe the chemical bindings of $Al_2O_3$ films. The annealing effects of gate-insulator on the properties of TTFTs were analyzed based on the results of XPS.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.382-384
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• 2009

In this study, high stable oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) have been developed by using several approaching techniques, which including a change of the channel composition ratio in multi-component oxide semiconductors, a change of TFT structure with interfacial dielectric layers, a control of interface roughness, a channel-doping method, and so on.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.304-308
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• 2012

Transparent thin film transistors (TTFT) were fabricated using the rf magnetron sputtered ZnO-$SnO_2$ films as active layers. A ceramic target whose Zn atomic ratio to Sn is 2:1 was employed for the deposition of ZnO-$SnO_2$ films. To study the post-annealing effects on the properties of TTFT, ZnO-$SnO_2$ films were annealed at $200^{\circ}C$ or $400^{\circ}C$ for 5 min before In deposition for source and drain electrodes. Oxygen was added into chamber during sputtering to raise the resistivity of ZnO-$SnO_2$ films. The effects of oxygen addition on the properties of TTFT were also investigated. 100 nm $Si_3N_4$ film grown on 100 nm $SiO_2$ film was used as gate dielectrics. The mobility, $I_{on}/I_{off}$, interface state density etc. were obtained from the transfer characteristics of ZnO-$SnO_2$ TTFTs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.334-334
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• 2012

Transparent oxide semiconductors have recently attracted much attention as channel layer materials due to advantageous electrical and optical characteristics such as high mobility, high stability, and good transparency. In addition, transparent oxide semiconductor can be fabricated at low temperature with a low production cost and it permits highly uniform devices such as large area displays. A variety of thin film transistors (TFTs) have been studied including ZnO, InZnO, and InGaZnO as the channel layer. Recently, there are many studies for substitution of Ga in InGaZnO TFTs due to their problem, such as stability of devices. In this work, new quaternary compound materials, tantalum-indium-tin oxide (TaInSnO) thin films were fabricated by using co-sputtering and used for the active channel layer in thin film transistors (TFTs). We deposited TaInSnO films in a mixed gas (O2+Ar) atmosphere by co-sputtering from Ta and ITO targets, respectively. The electric characteristics of TaInSnO TFTs and thin films were investigated according to the RF power applied to the $Ta_2O_5$ target. The addition of Ta elements could suppress the formation of oxygen vacancies because of the stronger oxidation tendency of Ta relative to that of In or Sn. Therefore the free carrier density decreased with increasing RF power of $Ta_2O_5$ in TaInSnO thin film. The optimized characteristics of TaInSnO TFT showed an on/off current ratio of $1.4{\times}108$, a threshold voltage of 2.91 V, a field-effect mobility of 2.37 cm2/Vs, and a subthreshold swing of 0.48 V/dec.