• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.18.2-18.2
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• 2010

For the past a few years, we have intensively researched the printable inorganic conductors and ZnO-based amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) for thin-film transistors. For printable conductor materials, we have focused on the aqueous Ag and Cu ink which possess a variety of advantages, comparing with the conventional metal inks based on organic solvent system. The aqueous Ag ink was designed to achieve the long-term dispersion stability using a specific polymer which can act as a dispersant and capping agent, and the aqueous Cu ink was carefully formulated to endow the oxidation stability in air and even aqueous solvent system. The both inks were successfully printed onto either polymer or glass substrate, exhibiting the superior conductivity comparable to that of bulk one. For printable ZnO-based AOSs, we have researched the noble way to resolve the critical problem, a high processing-temperature above $400^{\circ}C$, and recently discovered that Ga doping in ZnO-based AOSs promotes the formation of oxide lattice structures with oxygen vacancies at low annealing-temperatures, which is essential for acceptable thin-film transistor performance. The mobility dependence on annealing temperature and AOS composition was analyzed, and the chemical role of Ga are clarified, as are requirements for solution-processed, low-temperature annealed AOSs.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.371-375
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• 2019

Developing a thin-film transistor with characteristics such as a large area, high mobility, and high reliability are key elements required for the next generation on displays. In this paper, we have investigated the research trends related to improving the reliability of oxide-semiconductor-based thin-film transistors, which are the primary focus of study in the field of optical displays. It has been reported that thermal treatment in a high-pressure oxygen atmosphere reduces the threshold voltage shift from -7.1 V to -1.9 V under NBIS. Additionally, a device with a $SiO_2/Si_3N_4$ dual-structure has a lower threshold voltage (-0.82 V) under NBIS than a single-gate-insulator-based device (-11.6 V). The dual channel structure with different oxygen partial pressures was also confirmed to have a stable threshold voltage under NBIS. These can be considered for further study to improve the NBIS problem.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.21-29
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• 2008

We studied both the wavelength and intensity dependent photo-responses (photofield-effect) in amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). During the a-IGZO TFT illumination with the wavelength range from $460\sim660$ nm (visible range), the off-state drain current $(I_{DS_off})$ only slightly increased while a large increase was observed for the wavelength below 400 nm. The observed results are consistent with the optical gap of $\sim$3.05eV extracted from the absorption measurement. The a-IGZO TFT properties under monochromatic illumination ($\lambda$=420nm) with different intensity was also investigated and $I_{DS_off}$ was found to increase with the light intensity. Throughout the study, the field-effect mobility $(\mu_{eff})$ is almost unchanged. But due to photo-generated charge trapping, a negative threshold voltage $(V_{th})$ shift is observed. The mathematical analysis of the photofield-effect suggests that a highly efficient UV photocurrent conversion process in TFT off-region takes place. Finally, a-IGZO mid-gap density-of-states (DOS) was extracted and is more than an order of magnitude lower than reported value for hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), which can explain a good switching properties observed for a-IGZO TFTs.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.329-332
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• 2010

In order to investigate the effect of tail state on the electrical and the optical properties in amorphous IGZO(a-IGZO), a-IGZO films were deposited at room temperature on fused silica substrats using pulsed laser deposition method. The laser pulse energy was used as the processing parameter. In-situ post annealing was carried out at $150^{\circ}C$ right after the film deposition. The $O_2$ partial pressure during the deposition and the post annealing was fixed to 10mTorr. The carrier mobility of the a-IGZO films had a range from 2 to $18\;cm^2/Vs$ at carrier concentrations greater than $10^{18}\;cm^{-3}$. As the laser energy density increased, the Hall mobility increased. And post annealing improved the Hall mobility, as well. The optical property was examined using the ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. The a-IGZO films that have low Hall mobility exhibited stronger and broader absorption tails in >3.0 eV region. Post annealing reduced the intensity of the tail-like absorption. The absorption tail in a-IGZO films is an important factor which affects the electrical and the optical properties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.154-154
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• 2012

Flexible complementary inverters based on thin-film transistors (TFTs) are important because they have low power consumption and high voltage gain compared to single type circuits. We have manufactured flexible complementary inverters using pentacene and amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) for the p-channel and n-channel, respectively. The circuits were fabricated on polyimide (PI) substrate. Firstly, a thin poly-4-vinyl phenol (PVP) layer was spin coated on PI substrate to make a smooth surface with rms surface roughness of 0.3 nm, which was required to grow high quality IGZO layers. Then, Ni gate electrode was deposited on the PVP layer by e-beam evaporator. 400-nm-thick PVP and 20-nm-thick ALD Al2O3 dielectric was deposited in sequence as a double gate dielectric layer for high flexibility and low leakage current. Then, IGZO and pentacene semiconductor layers were deposited by rf sputter and thermal evaporator, respectively, using shadow masks. Finally, Al and Au source/drain electrodes of 70 nm were respectively deposited on each semiconductor layer using shadow masks by thermal evaporator. The characteristics of TFTs and inverters were evaluated at different bending radii. The applied strain led to change in voltage transfer characteristics of complementary inverters as well as source-drain saturation current, field effect mobility and threshold voltage of TFTs. The switching threshold voltage of fabricated inverters was decreased with increasing bending radius, which is related to change in parameters of TFTs. Throughout the bending experiments, relationship between circuit performance and TFT characteristics under mechanical deformation could be elucidated.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.809-815
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• 1996

$Y_2O_3$-based metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure on p-Si(100) has been studied. Films were prepared by UHV reactive ionized cluster beam deposition (r-ICBD) system. The base pressure of the system was about $1 \times 10^{-9}$ -9/ Torr and the process pressure $2 \times 10^{-5}$ Torr in oxygen ambience. Glancing X-ray diffraction(GXRD) and in-situ reflection high energy electron diffracton(RHEED) analyses were performed to investigate the crystallinity of the films. The results show phase change from amorphous state to crystalline one with increasingqr acceleration voltage and substrate temperature. It is also found that the phase transformation from $Y_2O_3$(111)//Si(100) to $Y_2O_3$(110)//Si(100) in growing directions takes place between $500^{\circ}C$ and $700^{\circ}C$. Especially as acceleration voltage is increased, preferentially oriented crystallinity was increased. Finally under the condition of above substrate temperature $700^{\circ}C$ and acceleration voltage 5kV, the $Y_2O_3$films are found to be grown epitaxially in direction of $Y_2O_3$(1l0)//Si(100) by observation of transmission electron microscope(TEM). Capacitance-voltage and current-voltage measurements were conducted to characterize Al/$Y_2O_3$/Si MIS structure with varying acceleration voltage and substrate temperature. Deposited $Y_2O_3$ films of thickness of nearly 300$\AA$ show that the breakdown field increases to 7~8MV /cm at the same conditon of epitaxial growing. These results also coincide with XPS spectra which indicate better stoichiometric characteristic in the condition of better crystalline one. After oxidation the breakdown field increases to 13MV /cm because the MIS structure contains interface silicon oxide of about 30$\AA$. In this case the dielectric constant of only $Y_2O_3$ layer is found to be $\in$15.6. These results have demonstrated the potential of using yttrium oxide for future VLSI/ULSI gate insulator applications.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.239-244
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• 2017

We experimentally investigate the physical mechanism for asymmetrical degradation in amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) under simultaneous gate and drain bias stresses. The transfer curves exhibit an asymmetrical negative shift after the application of gate-to-source ($V_{GS}$) and drain-to-source ($V_{DS}$) bias stresses of ($V_{GS}=24V$, $V_{DS}=15.9V$) and ($V_{GS}=22V$, $V_{DS}=20V$), but the asymmetrical degradation is more significant after the bias stress ($V_{GS}$, $V_{DS}$) of (22 V, 20 V) nevertheless the vertical electric field at the source is higher under the bias stress ($V_{GS}$, $V_{DS}$) of (24 V, 15.9 V) than (22 V, 20 V). By using the modified external load resistance method, we extract the source contact resistance ($R_S$) and the voltage drop at $R_S$ ($V_{S,\;drop}$) in the fabricated a-IGZO TFT under both bias stresses. A significantly higher RS and $V_{S,\;drop}$ are extracted under the bias stress ($V_{GS}$, $V_{DS}$) of (22 V, 20V) than (24 V, 15.9 V), which implies that the high horizontal electric field across the source contact due to the large voltage drop at the reverse biased Schottky junction is the dominant physical mechanism causing the asymmetrical degradation of a-IGZO TFTs under simultaneous gate and drain bias stresses.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.208.1-208.1
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• 2015

최근, 차세대 투명 디스플레이 구동소자로서 산화물 반도체를 이용한 Transparent Amorphous Oxide Semiconductor (TAOS) 기술이 큰 주목을 받고 있다. 산화물 반도체는 기존의 a-Si에 비해 우수한 전기적인 특성과 낮은 구동전압 그리고 넓은 밴드 갭으로 인한 투명성의 장점들이 있다. 그리고 낮은 공정 온도에서도 제작이 가능하기 때문에 유리나 플라스틱과 같은 다양한 기판에서도 박막 증착이 가능하다. 하지만 기존의 furnace를 이용한 열처리 방식은 낮은 온도에서 우수한 전기적인 특성을 내기 어려우며, 공정 시간이 길어지는 단점들이 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 산화물 반도체중 In-Ga-Zn-O (IGZO)와 In-Sn-O(ITO)를 각각 채널 층과 게이트 전극으로 이용하였다. 또한 마이크로웨이브 열처리 기술을 이용하여 기존의 열처리 방식에 비해 에너지 전달 효율이 높고 짧은 시간동안 저온 공정이 가능하며 우수한 전기적인 특성을 가지는 투명 박막 트랜지스터를 구현 하였다. 본 실험은 glass 기판위에서 진행되었으며, RF sputter를 이용하여 ITO를 150 nm 증착한 후, photo-lithography 공정을 통하여 하부 게이트 전극을 형성하였다. 이후에 RF sputter를 이용하여 SiO2 와 IGZO 를 각각 300, 50 nm 증착하였고, patterning 과정을 통하여 채널 영역을 형성하였다. 또한 소자의 전기적인 특성 향상을 위해 마이크로웨이브 열처리를 1000 Watt로 2 분간 진행 하였고, 비교를 위하여 기존 방식인 furnace 를 이용하여 N2 분위기에서 $400^{\circ}C$로 30분간 진행한 소자도 병행하였다. 그 결과 마이크로웨이브를 통해 열처리한 소자는 공정 온도가 $100^{\circ}C$ 이하로 낮기 때문에 glass 기판에 영향을 주지 않고 기존 furnace 열처리 한 소자보다 전체적으로 전기적인 특성이 우수한 것을 확인 하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.45-49
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• 2001

We have investigated physical and electrical properties of the Hf $O_2$/HfS $i_{x}$/ $O_{y}$ thin film for alternative gate dielectrics in the metal-oxide-semiconductor device. The oxidation of Hf deposited directly on the Si substrate results in the H $f_{x}$/ $O_{y}$ interfacial layer and the high-k Hf $O_2$film simultaneously. Interestingly, the post-oxidation N2 annealing of the H102/H1Si70y thin films reduces(increases) the thickness of an amorphous HfS $i_{x}$/ $O_{y}$ layer(Hf $O_2$ layer). This phenomenon causes the increase of the effective dielectric constant, while maintaining the excellent interfacial properties. The hysteresis window in C-V curves and the midgap interface state density( $D_{itm}$) of Hf $O_2$/HfS $i_{x}$/ $O_{y}$ thin films less than 10 mV and ~3$\times$10$^{11}$ c $m^{-2}$ -eV without post-metallization annealing, respectively. The leakage current was also low (1$\times$10-s A/c $m^2$ at $V_{g}$ = +2 V). It is believed that these excellent results were obtained due to existence of the amorphous HfS $i_{x}$/ $O_{y}$ buffer layer. We also investigated the charge trapping characteristics using Fowler-Nordheim electron injection: We found that the degradation of Hf $O_2$/HfS $i_{x}$/ $O_{y}$ gate oxides is more severe when electrons were injected from the gate electrode.e electrode.e.e electrode.e.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.99-103
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• 2009

HBr and $O_2$ in $Cl_2$ gas ambient for the high density plasma gate etching has been used to increase the performance of gate electrode in semiconductor devices. When an un-doped amorphous silicon layer was used for a gate electrode material, the notching profile was observed at the outer sidewall foot of the outermost line. This phenomenon can be explained by the electron shading effect: i.e., electrons are captured at the photoresist sidewall while ions pass through the photoresist sidewall and reach the oxide surface at a narrowly spaced pattern during the over etch step. The potential distribution between gate lines deflects the ions trajectory toward the gate sidewall. In this study, an appropriate mechanism was proposed to explain the occurrence of notching in the gate electrode of un-doped amorphous silicon.