• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.10a
• /
• pp.322-325
• /
• 2009

Amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) are expected as new channel materials in TFTs for largearea and/or flexible FPDs, and several prototype displays have been demonstrated in these five years since the first report of AOS TFT. In this paper, we review fundamental materials science of AOSs that have been clarified to date in connection with operation characteristics of AOS TFTs.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.24 no.9
• /
• pp.693-696
• /
• 2011

Recently, amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) based thin-film transistors (TFTs) have received considerable attention for application in the next generation displays industry. The research trends of AOSs based TFTs investigation have focused on the high device performance. The electrical properties of the TFTs are influenced by trap density. In particular, the threshold voltage ($V_{th}$) and subthreshold swing (SS) essentially depend on the semiconductor/gate-insulator interface trap. In this article, we investigated the effects of Ar plasma-treated $SiO_2$ insulator on the interfacial property and the device performances of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFTs. We report on the improvement in interfacial characteristics between a-IGZO channel layer and gate insulator depending on Ar power in plasma process, since the change of treatment power could result in different plasma damage on the interface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2010.08a
• /
• pp.166-166
• /
• 2010

Recently, TFTs based on amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) such as ZnO, InZnO, ZnSnO, GaZnO, TiOx, InGaZnO(IGZO), SnGaZnO, etc. have been attracting a grate deal of attention as potential alternatives to existing TFT technology to meet emerging technological demands where Si-based or organic electronics cannot provide a solution. Since, in 2003, Masuda et al. and Nomura et al. have reported on transparent TFTs using ZnO and IGZO as active layers, respectively, much efforts have been devoted to develop oxide TFTs using aforementioned amorphous oxide semiconductors as their active layers. In this thesis, I report on the performance of thin-film transistors using amorphous indium gallium zinc oxides for an active channel layer at room temperature. $SiO_2$ was employed as the gate dielectric oxide. The amorphous indium gallium zinc oxides were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering. The carrier concentration of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide was controlled by oxygen pressure in the sputtering ambient. Devices are realized that display a threshold voltage of 1.5V and an on/off ration of > $10^9$ operated as an n-type enhancement mode with saturation mobility with $9.06\;cm^2/V{\cdot}s$. The devices show optical transmittance above 80% in the visible range. In conclusion, the fabrication and characterization of thin-film transistors using amorphous indium gallium zinc oxides for an active channel layer were reported. The operation of the devices was an n-type enhancement mode with good saturation characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2011.05a
• /
• pp.1.1-1.1
• /
• 2011

Printed electronics based on the direct writing of solution processable functional materials have been of paramount interest and importance. In this talk, the synthesis of printable inorganic functional materials (conductors and semiconductors) for thin-film transistors (TFTs) and photovoltaic devices, device fabrication based on a printing technique, and specific characteristics of devices are presented. For printable conductor materials, Ag ink is designed to achieve the long-term dispersion stability and good adhesion property on a glass substrate, and Cu ink is sophisticatedly 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. In addition, the organic thin-film transistor based on the printed metal source/drain electrode exhibits the electrical performance comparable to that of a transistor based on a vacuum deposited Au electrode. For printable amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs), I introduce the noble ways to resolve the critical problems, a high processing temperature above $400^{\circ}C$ and low mobility of AOSs annealed at a low temperature below $400^{\circ}C$. The dependency of TFT performances on the chemical structure of AOSs is compared and contrasted to clarify which factor should be considered to realize the low temperature annealed, high performance AOSs. For photovoltaic application, CI(G)S nanoparticle ink for solution processable high performance solar cells is presented. By overcoming the critical drawbacks of conventional solution processed CI(G)S absorber layers, the device quality dense CI(G)S layer is obtained, affording 7.3% efficiency CI(G)S photovoltaic device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2009.06a
• /
• pp.137-137
• /
• 2009

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) that can be prepared at low temperatures have attracted much attention due to the great potential for flexible electronics. One of the mainstreams in this field is the use of organic semiconductors such as pentacene. But device performance of the organic TFTs is still limited by low field effect mobility or rapidly degraded after exposing to air in many cases. Another approach is amorphous oxide semiconductors. Amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) have exactly attracted considerable attention because AOSs were fabricated at room temperature and used lots of application such as flexible display, electronic paper, large solar cells. Among the various AOSs, a-IGZO was considerable material because it has high mobility and uniform surface and good transparent. The high mobility is attributed to the result of the overlap of spherical s-orbital of the heavy pest-transition metal cations. This study is demonstrated the effect of thickness channel layer from 30nm to 200nm. when the thickness was increased, turn on voltage and subthreshold swing were decreased. a-IGZO TFTs have used a shadow mask to deposit channel and source/drain(S/D). a-IGZO were deposited on SiO2 wafer by rf magnetron sputtering. using power is 150W, working pressure is 3m Torr, and an O2/Ar(2/28 SCCM) atmosphere at room temperature. The electrodes were formed with Electron-beam evaporated Ti(30nm) and Au(70nm) structure. Finally, Al(150nm) as a gate metal was evaporated. TFT devices were heat treated in a furnace at $250^{\circ}C$ in nitrogen atmosphere for an hour. The electrical properties of the TFTs were measured using a probe-station to measure I-V characteristic. TFT whose thickness was 150nm exhibits a good subthreshold swing(S) of 0.72 V/decade and high on-off ratio of 1E+08. Field effect mobility, saturation effect mobility, and threshold voltage were evaluated 7.2, 5.8, 8V respectively.

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

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.02a
• /
• pp.95-95
• /
• 2011

비정질 산화물 반도체(Amorphous oxide semiconductors: AOSs)는 대면적화에도 불구하고 높은 이동도를 가지고, 상온에서도 제작할 수 있고, 투명 플렉시블 디스플레이 소자에 사용할 수 있기 때문에 최근 들어 각광받고 있는 연구 분야이다. 본 연구에서는 스퍼터링을 이용하여 활성층을 Amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide(a-IGZO)로 증착할 시에 스퍼터의 파워와 챔버내의 Ar/O2 비율을 다르게 했을 때 소자에 미치는 영향을 MIS구조를 이용하여 분석했다. 또한 같은 조건의 a-IGZO 활성층을 사용한 박막트랜지스터(TFT) 소자의 절연막의 종류를 바꿔가며 제작했을때의 소자의 특성 변화에 대해서도 분석하였다. 먼저 60 nm 두께의 a-IGZO층을 Heavily doped된 N형 실리콘 기판위에 스퍼터링 파워와 가스 분압비를 달리하여 증착하였다. 그 후 30 nm두께의 SiO2, Al2O3, SiNx 절연막을 증착하고, 마지막으로 열 증발 증착장비(Thermal Evaporator)를 이용하여 Al 전극을 150nm 증착하였다. 소자의 전기적 특성 분석은 HP4145와 Boonton 720을 사용하여 I-V와 C-V를 측정하였다. 위의 실험으로부터 스퍼터에서의 증착 rf파워가 증가할수록 a-IGZO 박막 트랜지스터에서의 캐리어 이동도가 감소하는 것을 볼 수 있었고, 챔버내의 가스분압비와 소자의 절연막의 종류가 변하면 a-IGZO 박막 트랜지스터의 전기적 특성이 변하는 것을 볼 수 있었다. 이러한 캐리어 이동도의 감소와 전기적 특성의 변화의 이유는 a-IGZO 활성층의 bulk trap과 절연막, 활성층 사이의 interface trap에 의한 것으로 보여진다.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.10a
• /
• pp.546-549
• /
• 2009

In this paper, we investigated the effects of different source/drain (S/D) electrode materials in thin film transistors (TFTs) based on indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO) semiconductor. A transfer length and effective resistances between S/D electrodes and amorphous IGZO thin-film transistors were examined. Intrinsic TFT parameters were extracted by the transmission line method (TLM) using a series of TFTs with different channel lengths measured at a low drain voltage. The TFTs fabricated with Cu S/D electrodes showed the lowest contact resistance and transfer length indicating good ohmic characteristics, and good transfer characteristics with a field-effect mobility (${\mu}_{FE}$) of 10.0 $cm^2$/Vs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2009.11a
• /
• pp.5-5
• /
• 2009

Thin-film-transistors (TFTs) that can be prepared at low temperatures have attracted much attention because of the great potential for transparent and flexible electronics. One of the mainstreams in this field is the use of organic semiconductors such as pentacene. But device performance of the organic TFTs is still limited due to low field-effect mobility and rapid degradation after exposing to air. Alternative approach is the use of amorphous oxide semiconductors as a channel. Amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) based TFTs showed the fast technological development, because AOS films can be fabricated at room temperature and exhibit the possibility in application like flexible display, electronic paper, and larges solar cells. Among the various AOSs, a-IGZO has lots of advantages because it has high channel mobility, uniform surface roughness and good transparency. [1] The high mobility is attributed to the overlap of spherical s-orbital of the heavy post-transition metal cations. This study demonstrated the effect of the variation in channel thickness from 30nm to 200nm on the TFT device performance. When the thickness was increased, turn-on voltage and subthreshold swing was decreased. The a-IGZO channels and source/drain metals were deposited with shadow mask. The a-IGZO channel layer was deposited on $SiO_2$/p-Si substrates by RF magnetron sputtering, where RF power is 150W. And working pressure is 3m Torr, at $O_2/Ar$ (2/28 sccm) atmosphere. The electrodes were formed with electron-beam evaporated Ti (30 nm) and Au (70 nm) bilayer. Finally, Al (150nm) as a gate metal was thermal-evaporated. TFT devices were heat-treated in a furnace at 250 $^{\circ}C$ and nitrogen atmosphere for 1hour. The electrical properties of the TFTs were measured using a probe-station. The TFT with channel thickness of 150nm exhibits a good subthreshold swing (SS) of 0.72 V/decade and on-off ratio of $1{\times}10^8$. The field effect mobility and threshold voltage were evaluated as 7.2 and 8 V, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.02a
• /
• pp.199-199
• /
• 2011

Recently, Thin film transistors (TFTs) with amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) can offer an important aspect for next generation displays with high mobility. Several oxide semiconductor such as ZnO, $SnO_2$ and InGaZnO have been extensively researched. Especially, as a well-known binary metal oxide, tin oxide ($SnO_2$), usually acts as n-type semiconductor with a wide band gap of 3.6eV. Over the past several decades intensive research activities have been conducted on $SnO_2$ in the bulk, thin film and nanostructure forms due to its interesting electrical properties making it a promising material for applications in solar cells, flat panel displays, and light emitting devices. But, its application to the active channel of TFTs have been limited due to the difficulties in controlling the electron density and n-type of operation with depletion mode. In this study, we fabricated staggered bottom-gate structure $SnO_2$-TFTs and patterned channel layer used a shadow mask. Then we compare to the performance intrinsic $SnO_2$-TFTs and doping hafnium $SnO_2$-TFTs. As a result, we suggest that can be control the defect formation of $SnO_2$-TFTs by doping hafnium. The hafnium element into the $SnO_2$ thin-films maybe acts to control the carrier concentration by suppressing carrier generation via oxygen vacancy formation. Furthermore, it can be also control the mobility. And bias stability of $SnO_2$-TFTs is improvement using doping hafnium. Enhancement of device stability was attributed to the reduced defect in channel layer or interface. In order to verify this effect, we employed to measure activation energy that can be explained by the thermal activation process of the subthreshold drain current.