• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.1489-1496
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• 2009

Amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide thin-film-transistors (TFTs) were modeled successfully. Dependence of TFT characteristics on structure, thickness, and equilibrium electron-density of the active layer was studied. For mono-active-layer TFTs, a thinner active layer had higher field-effect mobility. Threshold voltage showed the smallest absolute value for the 20 nm active-layer. Subthreshold swing showed almost no dependence on active-layer thickness. For the double-active-layer case, better switching performances were obtained for TFTs with bottom active layers with higher equilibrium electron density. TFTs with thinner active layers had higher mobility. Threshold voltage shifted in the minus direction as a function of the increase in the thickness of the layer with higher equilibrium electron-density. Subthreshold swing showed almost no dependence on active-layer structure. These data will be useful in optimizing the structure, the thickness, and the doping ratio of the active layers of oxide-semiconductor TFTs.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.55-57
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• 2017

Amorphous oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated with 0.5 wt% silicon doped zinc tin oxide (a-0.5SZTO) thin film deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. In order to investigate the effect of annealing treatment on the electrical properties of TFTs, a-0.5SZTO thin films were annealed at three different temperatures ($300^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$, and $700^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours in a air atmosphere. The structural and electrical properties of a-0.5SZTO TFTs were measured using X-ray diffraction and a semiconductor analyzer. As annealing temperature increased from $300^{\circ}C$ to $500^{\circ}C$, no peak was observed. This provided crystalline properties indicating that the amorphous phase was observed up to $500^{\circ}C$. The electrical properties of a-0.5SZTO TFTs, such as the field effect mobility (${\mu}_{FE}$) of $24.31cm^2/Vs$, on current ($I_{ON}$) of $2.38{\times}10^{-4}A$, and subthreshold swing (S.S) of 0.59 V/decade improved with the thermal annealing treatment. This improvement was mainly due to the increased carrier concentration and decreased structural defects by rearranged atoms. However, when a-0.5SZTO TFTs were annealed at $700^{\circ}C$, a crystalline peak was observed. As a result, electrical properties degraded. ${\mu}_{FE}$ was $0.06cm^2/Vs$, $I_{ON}$ was $5.27{\times}10^{-7}A$, and S.S was 2.09 V/decade. This degradation of electrical properties was mainly due to increased interfacial and bulk trap densities of forming grain boundaries caused by the annealing treatment.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.252-259
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• 2016

In order to form an aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) transparent electrode film on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate used for a flexible display substrate, the AZO transparent electrode was produced at low temperature without substrate heating. Even though the produced electrode showed characteristic optical transmittance of 90 % (at 550 nm) and sheet resistance within $100{\Omega}/sq$, cracks occurred 10 minutes after loading applied 2 mm radius of curvature, and the sheet resistance increased linearly. An insertion layer of ZrCu was formed between the AZO film and the PET substrate to suppress the generation of cracks on the AZO film. It was verified that the crack was not generated 30 minutes after the loading of 2 mm radius of curvature, and no increase in sheet resistance was recorded. There was also not cracks in the dynamic bending test of 4 mm radius, but surface resistance was slightly increased. As a result, the ZrCu insertion film improved the interfacial adhesion between the substrate and AZO film layer without increasing sheet resistance and decreasing transmittance.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.47-49
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• 2012

In this paper, we investigated the anomalous hump in the bottom gate staggered a-IGZO TFTs. During the positive bias stress, a positive threshold voltage shift was observed in the transfer curve and an anomalous hump occurred as the stress time increased. The hump became more serious in higher gate bias stress while it was not observed under the negative bias stress. The analysis of constant gate bias stress indicated that the anomalous hump was influenced by the migration of positively charged mobile interstitial zinc ion towards the top side of the a-IGZO channel layer.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.330-332
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• 2009

Highly stable bottom gate thin film transistors(TFTs) with a zinc indium tin oxide(Zn-In-Sn-O:ZITO) channel layer have been fabricated by rf-magnetron co-sputtering using a indium tin oxide(ITO:90/10), a tin oxide and a zinc oxide targets. The ZITO TFT (W/L=$40{\mu}m/20{\mu}m$) has a mobility of 24.6 $cm^2$/V.s, a subthreshold swing of 0.12V/dec., a turn-on voltage of -0.4V and an on/off ratio of >$10^9$. When gate field of $1.8{\times}10^5$ V/cm was applied with source-drain current of $3{\mu}A$ at $60^{\circ}C$, the threshold voltage shift was ~0.18 V after 135 hours. We fabricated AM-OLED driven by highly stable bottom gate Zn-In-Sn-O TFT array.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.653-659
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• 2009

We have investigated the channel protection layer (PL) effect on the performance of an oxide thin film transistor (TFT) with a staggered top gate ZnO TFT and Al-doped zinc tin oxide (AZTO) TFT. Deposition of an ultra-thin PL on oxide semiconductor films enables TFTs to behave well by protecting the channel from a photo-resist (PR) stripper which removes the depleted surface of the active layer and increases the carrier amount in the channel. In addition, adopting a PL prevents channel contamination from the organic PR and results in high mobility and small subthreshold swings. The PL process plays a critical role in the performance of oxide TFTs. When a plasma process is introduced on the surface of an active layer during the PL process, and as the plasma power is increased, the TFT characteristics degrade, resulting in lower mobility and higher threshold voltage. Therefore, it is very important to form an interface using a minimized plasma process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.248-249
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• 2008

ZnO (Zinc Oxide) thin film can be applied to various devices. Recently, ZnO film has been promoted in transparent TFTs (thin film transistors) because of high transparency and low temperature process. In this paper, ZnO thin films were grown on glass with the three conditions of RF sputtering power, which are 50W, 75W, 100W. Their structural, electrical and optical properties were investigated by using XRD, UV-Visible spectrometer and 4-point probes. In the ZnO film with 50W process, good crystallinity, high transmittance, and high sheet resistance were shown. In conclusion, the ZnO film with 50W can be an optimal channel layer of TFTs.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2008.07a
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• pp.1262-1263
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• 2008

Recently film-typed dye sensitized solar cell(DSC) attracts much attention with increasing applications for its flexibility and transparency. The ZnO:Al thin film, which serves mainly as transparent conducting electrode, Aluminium-doped zinc oxide(ZnO:Al) thin film has emerged as one of the most promising transparent conducting films since it is inexpensive, mechanically stable, and highly resistant to deoxidation. In this paper ZnO:Al thin film was deposited on the polyethylene terephthalate(PET) substrate by the capacitively coupled r. f. magnetron sputtering method. The effects of gas pressure and r. f. discharge power on the morphological, electrical and optical properties of ZnO:Al thin film were studied. Especially the variation in substrate thickness after sputtering and surface morphology of the substrate were investigated and clarified. The results showed that the film deposited on the PET substrate at r. f. discharge power of 180 W showed the minimum resistivity of about $1.5{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}-cm$ and a transmittance of about 93%.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1425_1426
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• 2009

In this study, commercially available polyethylene terephthalate(PET), which is widely used as a substrate of flexible electronic devices, was modified by dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) method in an air condition at atmospheric pressure, and aluminium - doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) transparent conducting film was deposited on PET substrate by r. f. magnetron sputtering method. Surface analysis and characterization of the plasma-treated PET substrate was carried out using contact angle measurements, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy(XPS) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Especially the effect of surface state of PET substrate on some important properties of ZnO:Al transparent conducting film such as electrical and morphological properties and deposition rate of the film, was studied experimentally. The results showed that the contact angle of water on PET film was reduced significantly from $62^{\circ}$ to $43^{\circ}$ by DBD surface treatment at 20 min. of treatment time. The plasma treatment also improved the deposition rate and electrical properties. The deposition rate was increased almost linearly with surface treatment time. The lowest electrical resistivity as low as $4.97{\times}10^{-3}[\Omega-cm]$ and the highest deposition rate of 234[${\AA}m$/min] were obtained in ZnO:Al film with surface treatment time of 5min. and 20min., respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.40-40
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• 2010

Structural, electrical, and optical properties of atomic layer-controlled AI-doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) films grown on glass by atomic layer deposition (ALD) were characterized with various $Al_2O_3$ film contents for use as transparent electrodes. Unlike films made using sputtering methods, the diffraction peak position of the films grown by ALD based on alternate self-limiting surface chemical reactions moved progressively to a wider angle (red shift) with increasing $Al_2O_3$ film content, which seems to be evidence of Zn substitution in the film by layer-by-layer growth. By adjusting the $Al_2O_3$ film content, the electrical resistivity of ZnO:Al film with the $Al_2O_3$ film content of 2.96% reached the lowest electrical resistivity of $9.80{\times}10^{-4}\Omega{\cdot}cm$, in which the carrier mobility, carrier concentration, and optical transmittance were $11.20\;cm^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$, $5.69{\times}10^{20}\;cm^{-3}$, and 94.23%, respectively. Moreover, the estimated figure of merit value for the transparent conductive oxide applications from our best sample was $7.7\;m{\Omega}^{-1}$.