• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.252-253
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• 2011

ZnO-based thin film transistors (TFTs) are of great interest for application in next generation flat panel displays. Most research has been based on amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) TFTs, rather than single binary oxides, such as ZnO, due to the reproducibility, uniformity, and surface smoothness of the IGZO active channel layer. However, recently, intrinsic ZnO-TFTs have been investigated, and TFT- arrayss have been demonstrated as prototypes of flat-panel displays and electronic circuits. However, ZnO thin films have some significant problems for application as an active channel layer of TFTs; it was easy to change the electrical properties of the i-ZnO thin films under external conditions. The variable electrical properties lead to unstable TFTs device characteristics under bias stress and/or temperature. In order to obtain higher performance and more stable ZnO-based TFTs, HZO thin film was used as an active channel layer. It was expected that HZO-TFTs would have more stable electrical characteristics under gate bias stress conditions because the binding energy of Hf-O is greater than that of Zn-O. For deposition of HZO thin films, Hf would be substituted with Zn, and then Hf could be suppressed to generate oxygen vacancies. In this study, the fabrication of the oxide-based TFTs with HZO active channel layer was reported with excellent stability. Application of HZO thin films as an active channel layer improved the TFT device performance and bias stability, as compared to i-ZnO TFTs. The excellent negative bias temperature stress (NBTS) stability of the device was analyzed using the HZO and i-ZnO TFTs transfer curves acquired at a high temperature (473 K).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.180-180
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• 2010

Thin film transistors (TFTs) based on oxide semiconductors have emerged as a promising technology, particularly for active-matrix TFT-based backplanes. Currently, an amorphous oxide semiconductor, such as InGaZnO, has been adopted as the channel layer due to its higher electron mobility. However, accurate and repeatable control of this complex material in mass production is not easy. Therefore, simpler polycrystalline materials, such as ZnO and $SnO_2$, remain possible candidates as the channel layer. Inparticular, ZnO-based TFTs have attracted considerable attention, because of their superior properties that include wide bandgap (3.37eV), transparency, and high field effect mobility when compared with conventional amorphous silicon and polycrystalline silicon TFTs. There are some technical challenges to overcome to achieve manufacturability of ZnO-based TFTs. One of the problems, the stability of ZnO-based TFTs, is as yet unsolved since ZnO-based TFTs usually contain defects in the ZnO channel layer and deep level defects in the channel/dielectric interface that cause problems in device operation. The quality of the interface between the channel and dielectric plays a crucial role in transistor performance, and several insulators have been reported that reduce the number of defects in the channel and the interfacial charge trap defects. Additionally, ZnO TFTs using a high quality interface fabricated by a two step atomic layer deposition (ALD) process showed improvement in device performance In this study, we report the fabrication of high performance ZnO TFTs with a $Si_3N_4$ gate insulator treated using plasma. The interface treatment using electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) $O_2$ plasma improves the interface quality by lowering the interface trap density. This process can be easily adapted for industrial applications because the device structure and fabrication process in this paper are compatible with those of a-Si TFTs.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.26-29
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• 2006

Transparent ZnO thin films were prepared by KrF pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique and applied to a bottom-gate type thin film transistor device as an active channel layer. A high conductive crystalline Si substrate was used as an metal-like bottom gate and SiN insulating layer was then deposited by LPCVD(low pressure chemical vapour deposition). An aluminum layer was then vacuum evaporated and patterned to form a source/drain metal contact. Oxygen partial pressure and substrate temperature were varied during the ZnO PLD deposition process and their influence on the thin film properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction(XRD) and Hall-van der Pauw method. Optical transparency of the ZnO thin film was analyzed by UV-visible phometer. The resulting ZnO-TFT devices showed an on-off ration of $10^6$ and field effect mobility of 2.4-6.1 $cm^2/V{\cdot}s$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.41-41
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• 2009

We utilized atomic layer deposition (ALD) for the growth of the ZnO channel layers in the oxide thin-film-transistors (TFTs) with a bottom-gate structure using a $SiO_2/p-Si$ substrate. For fundamental study, the effect of the channel thickness and thermal treatment on the TFT performance was investigated. The growth modes for the ALD grown ZnO layer changed from island growth to layer-by-layer growth at thicknesses of > 7.5 nm with highly resistive properties. A channel thickness of 17 nm resulted in the good TFT behavior with an onloff current ratio of > $10^6$ and a field effect mobility of 2.9 without the need for thermal annealing. However, further increases in the channel thickness resulted in a deterioration of the TFT performance or no saturation. The ALD grown ZnO layers showed reduced electrical resistivity and carrier density after thermal treatment in oxygen.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.291-294
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• 2015

Recently, ZnO based oxide TFTs used in the flexible and transparent display devices are widely studied. To apply to OLED display switching devices, electrical performance and stability are important issues. In this study, to improve these electrical properties, we fabricated TFTs having Al doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) layer inserted between the gate insulator and ZnO layer. The AZO and ZnO layers are deposited by Atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. I-V transfer characteristics and stability of the suggested devices are investigated under the positive gate bias condition while the channel defects are also analyzed by the photoluminescence spectrum. The TFTs with AZO layer show lower threshold voltage ($V_{th}$) and superior sub-threshold slop. In the case of $V_{th}$ shift after positive gate bias stress, the stability is also better than that of ZnO channel TFTs. This improvement is thought to be caused by the reduced defect density in AZO/ZnO stack devices, which can be confirmed by the photoluminescence spectrum analysis results where the defect related deep level emission of AZO is lower than that of ZnO layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.138-139
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• 2013

본 연구는 ZnO-TFT 소자에 Hf의 첨가에 따른 소자 특성 및 게이트 바이어스 스트레스에 대한 특성에 대해 분석을 하였다. Hf-Zn-O 박막은 Hf의 조성이 증가함에 따라 작아지는 grain size로 인해 TFT 소자의 전계효과 이동도와 게이트 바이어스 스트레스에서의 문턱전압의 변화가 더 커지는 것을 확인하였다. 한편, Hf이 14at% 함유된 HZO-TFT에서는 이동도는 현저히 저하되었지만, 게이트 바이어스 스트레스에서의 문턱전압의 변화가 현저히 개선되는 것을 확인하였는데, 이는 Hf의 조성이 증가함에 따라 비정질화 되어 grain boundaries에 의한 trap의 영향이 줄어든 결과를 확인하였다. 또한, 전계효과 이동도와 소자의 안정성을 확보하기 위해, poly-ZnO와 amorphous-HZO로 구성된 다중층 채널 구조를 이용한 TFT소자에서는 전계효과 이동도과 소자의 안정성이 개선된 결과를 보였다. 이는 채널과 게이트 산화물의 interface charge trap의 감소와 back-channel effect가 감소한 결과임을 확인하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.222-222
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• 2010

Transparent semiconductor oxide thin films have been attracting considerable attention as potential channel layers in thin film transistors (TFTs) owing to their several advantageous electrical and optical characteristics such as high mobility, high stability, and transparency. TFTs with ZnO or similar metal oxide semiconductor thin films as the active layer have already been developed for use in active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED). Of late, there have been several reports on TFTs fabricated with InZnO, AlZnSnO, InGaZnO, or other metal oxide semiconductor thin films as the active channel layer. These newly developed TFTs were expected to have better electrical characteristics than ZnO TFTs. In fact, results of these investigations have shown that TFTs with the new multi-component material have excellent electrical properties. In this work, we present TFTs with inverted coplanar geometry and with a novel HfInZnO active layer co-sputtered at room temperature. These TFTs are meant for use in low voltage, battery-operated mobile and flexible devices. Overall, the TFTs showed good performance: the low sub-threshold swing was low and the $I_{on/off}$ ratio was high.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.08a
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• pp.849-852
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• 2007

We studied ZnO thin films deposited with DC magnetron sputtering for channel layer of TFTs. After analyzing of the basic physical and chemical properties of ZnO thin films, we fabricated a TFTunit test cell. The field effect mobility of $1.8\;cm^2/Vs$ and threshold voltage of -0.7 V were obtained.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.280-283
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• 2012

By inserting $H_2O$ treatment steps during atomic layer deposition of a ZnO layer, the turn-on voltage shift from negative bias stress (NBS) under illumination was reduced considerably compared to that of a device that has a continuously grown ZnO layer without any treatment steps. Meanwhile, treatment steps without introducing reactive gases, and simply staying under a low working pressure, aggravated the instability under illuminated NBS due to an increase of oxygen vacancy concentration in the ZnO layer. From the experiment results, additional oxidation of the ZnO channel layer is proven to be effective in improving the stability against illuminated NBS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.63-63
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• 2009

Many researchers have been studied as active and transparent electrode using ZnO (Zinc oxide) inorganic semiconductor material due to their good properties such as wide band-gap and high electrical properties compared with amorphous-Si. In this study, we fabricated ZnO films by the RF magnetron sputtering method at a low temperature for a channel layer in thin-film transistor (TFT) and investigated the characteristics of sputtered ZnO films. Also, the electrical properties of TFT using ZnO channel layer such as field effect mobility(${\mu}$), threshold voltage ($V_{th}$), and $I_{on/off}$ ratio are investigated for the application of the display and electronic devices.