• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.107-108
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• 2008

The spectacular development of AMLCDs, been made possible by a-Si:H technology, still faces two major drawbacks due to the intrinsic structure of a-Si:H, namely a low mobility and most important a shift of the transfer characteristics of the TFTs when submitted to bias stress. This has lead to strong research in the crystallization of a-Si:H films by laser and furnace annealing to produce polycrystalline silicon TFTs. While these devices show improved mobility and stability, they suffer from uniformity over large areas and increased cost. In the last decade we have focused on microcrystalline silicon (${\mu}c$-Si:H) for bottom gate TFTs, which can hopefully meet all the requirements for mass production of large area AMOLED displays [1,2]. In this presentation we will focus on the transfer of a deposition process based on the use of $SiF_4$-Ar-$H_2$ mixtures from a small area research laboratory reactor into an industrial gen 1 AKT reactor. We will first discuss on the optimization of the process conditions leading to fully crystallized films without any amorphous incubation layer, suitable for bottom gate TFTS, as well as on the use of plasma diagnostics to increase the deposition rate up to 0.5 nm/s [3]. The use of silicon nanocrystals appears as an elegant way to circumvent the opposite requirements of a high deposition rate and a fully crystallized interface [4]. The optimized process conditions are transferred to large area substrates in an industrial environment, on which some process adjustment was required to reproduce the material properties achieved in the laboratory scale reactor. For optimized process conditions, the homogeneity of the optical and electronic properties of the ${\mu}c$-Si:H films deposited on $300{\times}400\;mm$ substrates was checked by a set of complementary techniques. Spectroscopic ellipsometry, Raman spectroscopy, dark conductivity, time resolved microwave conductivity and hydrogen evolution measurements allowed demonstrating an excellent homogeneity in the structure and transport properties of the films. On the basis of these results, optimized process conditions were applied to TFTs, for which both bottom gate and top gate structures were studied aiming to achieve characteristics suitable for driving AMOLED displays. Results on the homogeneity of the TFT characteristics over the large area substrates and stability will be presented, as well as their application as a backplane for an AMOLED display.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.1459-1462
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• 2008

In this paper we describe solutions to address critical challenges in direct fabrication of amorphous silicon thin film transistor (TFTs) arrays for active matrix flexible displays. For all flexible substrates a manufacturable handling protocol in automated display-scale equipment is required. For metal foil substrates the principal challenges are planarization and electrical isolation, and management of stress (CTE mismatch) during TFT fabrication. For plastic substrates the principal challenge is dimensional instability management.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.816-820
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• 2013

We investigated the characteristics of the silicon oxy-nitride and nitride films grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) at the low temperature with a varying $NH_3/N_2O$ mixing ratio and a fixed $SiH_4$ flow rate. The deposition temperature was held at $150^{\circ}C$ which was the temperature compatible with the plastic substrate. The composition and bonding structure of the nitride films were investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Nitrogen richness was confirmed with increasing optical band gap and increasing dielectric constant with the higher $NH_3$ fraction. The leakage current density of the nitride films with a high NH3 fraction decreased from $8{\times}10^{-9}$ to $9{\times}10^{-11}(A/cm^2$ at 1.5 MV/cm). This results showed that the films had improved electrical properties and could be acceptable as a gate insulator for thin film transistors by deposited with variable $NH_3/N_2O$ mixing ratio.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.56-56
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• 1999

For advanced TFT-LCD manufacturing processes, dry etching of thin-film layers(a-Si, $SiN_x$, SID & gate electrodes, ITO etc.) is increasingly preferred instead of conventional wet etching processes. To dry etch Al gate electrode which is advantageous for reducing propagation delay time of scan signals, high etch rate, slope angle control, and etch uniformity are required. For the Al gate electrode, some metals such as Ti and Nd are added in Al to prevent hillocks during post-annealing processes in addition to gaining low-resistivity($<10u{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$), high performance to heat tolerance and corrosion tolerance of Al thin films. In the case of AI-Nd alloy films, however, low etch rate and poor selectivity over photoresist are remained as a problem. In this study, to enhance the etch rates together with etch uniformity of AI-Nd alloys, magnetized inductively coupled plasma(MICP) have been used instead of conventional ICP and the effects of various magnets and processes conditions have been studied. MICP was consisted of fourteen pairs of permanent magnets arranged along the inside of chamber wall and also a Helmholtz type axial electromagnets was located outside the chamber. Gas combinations of $Cl_2,{\;}BCl_3$, and HBr were used with pressures between 5mTorr and 30mTorr, rf-bias voltages from -50Vto -200V, and inductive powers from 400W to 800W. In the case of $Cl_2/BCl_3$ plasma chemistry, the etch rate of AI-Nd films and etch selectivity over photoresist increased with $BCl_3$ rich etch chemistries for both with and without the magnets. The highest etch rate of $1,000{\AA}/min$, however, could be obtained with the magnets(both the multi-dipole magnets and the electromagnets). Under an optimized electromagnetic strength, etch uniformity of less than 5% also could be obtained under the above conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.130-136
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• 1989

Electrical transport and thermally induced metastability in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film transistors (TFTs) using boron-doped amorphous silicon as an active layer have been studied. The device characteristics n-channel and p-channel operations. The thermal quenching experiments on amorphous silicon-silicon nitride ambipolar TFT give clear evidence for the co-existence of two distinct metastable changes. The densities of metastable active dopants and dangling bonds increase with the quenching temperature. On the other hand, the interface state density appears to decrease with increasing quenching temperature.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.668-672
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• 2003

In order to reach the high electrical quality of organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) such as high mobility and on-off current ratio, it is strongly desirable to study the enhancement of electrical properties in OTFTs. Here, we report the novel method of hydrogen $(H_{2})$ plasma treatment to improve electrical properties in inverted staggered OTFTs based on pentacene as active layer. To certify the effect of this method, we compared the electrical properties of normal device as a reference with those of device using the novel method. In result, the normal device as a reference making no use of this method exhibited a field effect mobility of 0.055 $cm^{2}/Vs$, on/off current ratio of $10^{3}$, threshold voltage of -4.5 V, and subthreshold slope of 7.6 V/dec. While the device using the novel method exhibited a field effect mobility of 0.174 $cm^{2}/Vs$, on/off current ratio of $10^{6}$. threshold voltage of -0.5 V, and subthreshold slope of 1.49 V/dec. According to these results, we have found the electrical performances in inverted staggered pentacene TFT owing to this novel method are remarkably enhanced. So, this method plays a key role in highly improving the electric performance of OTFTs. Moreover, this method is the first time yet reported for any OTFTs

• 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.