• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.329-333
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• 2019

Solution-processed oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) have garnered great attention, owing to their many advantages, such as low-cost, large area available for fabrication, mechanical flexibility, and optical transparency. Negative bias stress (NBS)-induced instability of sol-gel IGZO TFTs is one of the biggest concerns arising in practical applications. Thus, understanding the bias stress effect on the electrical properties of sol-gel IGZO TFTs and proposing an effective recovery method for negative bias stressed TFTs is required. In this study, we investigated the variation of transfer characteristics and the corresponding electrical parameters of sol-gel IGZO TFTs caused by NBS and positive bias recovery (PBR). Furthermore, we proposed an effective PBR method for the recovery of negative bias stressed sol-gel IGZO TFTs. The threshold voltage and field-effect mobility were affected by NBS and PBR, while current on/off ratio and sub-threshold swing were not significantly affected. The transfer characteristic of negative bias stressed IGZO TFTs increased in the positive direction after applying PBR with a negative drain voltage, compared to PBR with a positive drain voltage or a drain voltage of 0 V. These results are expected to contribute to the reduction of recovery time of negative bias stressed sol-gel IGZO TFTs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.256-256
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• 2012

Oxide semiconductors such as zinc tin oxide (ZTO) or indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) have attracted a lot of research interest owing to their high potential for application as thin film transistors (TFTs) [1,2]. However, the instability of oxide TFTs remains as an obstacle to overcome for practical applications to electronic devices. Several studies have reported that the electrical characteristics of ZnO-based transistors are very sensitive to oxygen, hydrogen, and water [3,4,5]. To improve the reliability issue for the amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) thin-film transistor, back channel passivation layer is essential for the long term bias stability. In this study, we investigated the instability of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) by the back channel contaminations. The effect of back channel contaminations (humidity or oxygen) on oxide transistor is of importance because it might affect the transistor performance. To remove this environmental condition, we performed vacuum seasoning before the deposition of hybrid passivation layer and acquired improved stability. It was found that vacuum seasoning can remove the back channel contamination if a-IGZO film. Therefore, to achieve highly stable oxide TFTs we suggest that adsorbed chemical gas molecules have to be eliminated from the back-channel prior to forming the passivation layers.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.24-27
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• 2009

Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) thin films were deposited onto 300 nm-thick oxidized Si substrates and glass substrates by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering of IGZO targets at room temperature. FESEM and XRD analyses indicate that non-annealed and annealed IGZO thin films exhibit an amorphous structure. To investigate the effect of an annealing treatment, the films were thermally treated at $300^{\circ}C$ for 1hr in air. The IGZO TFTs structure was a bottom-gate type in which electrodes were deposited by the DC magnetron sputtering of Ti and Au targets at room temperature. The non-annealed and annealed IGZO TFTs exhibit an $I_{on}/I_{off}$ ratio of more than $10^5$. The saturation mobility and threshold voltage of nonannealed IGZO TFTs was $4.92{\times}10^{-1}cm^2/V{\cdot}s$ and 1.46V, respectively, whereas these values for the annealed TFTs were $1.49{\times}10^{-1}cm^2/V{\cdot}$ and 15.43V, respectively. It is believed that an increase in the surface roughness after an annealing treatment degrades the quality of the device. The transmittances of the IGZO thin films were approximately 80%. These results demonstrate that IGZO thin films are suitable for use as transparent thin film transistors (TTFTs).

• ETRI Journal
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.966-969
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• 2012

From a practical viewpoint, the topic of electrical stability in oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) has attracted strong interest from researchers. Positive bias stress and constant current stress tests on indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO)-TFTs have revealed that an IGZO-TFT with a larger Ga portion has stronger stability, which is closely related with the strong binding of O atoms, as determined from an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.143-145
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• 2016

In order to find suitable source and drain (S/D) electrodes for amorphous InGaZnO thin film transistors (a-IGZO TFTs), the specific contact resistance of interface between the channel layers and various S/D electrodes, such as Ti/Au, a-IZO and multilayer of a-IGZO/Ag/a-IGZO, was investigated using the transmission line model. The a-IGZO TFTs with a-IGZO/Ag/a-IGZO of S/D electrodes had good performance and low contact resistance due to the homo-junction with channel layer. The stability was measured with different electrodes by a positive bias stress test. The result shows the a-IGZO TFTs with a-IGZO/Ag/a-IGZO electrodes were more stable than other devices.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.546-549
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• 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 Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.497-497
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• 2013

Semiconducting amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) has attracted significant research attention as improved deposition techniques have made it possible to make high-quality a-IGZO thin films. IGZO thin films have several advantages over thin film transistors (TFTs) based on other semiconducting channel layers.The electron mobility in IGZO devices is relatively high, exceeding amorphous Si (a-Si) by a factor of 10 and most organic devices by a factor of $10^2$. Moreover, in contrast to other amorphous semiconductors, highly conducting degenerate states can be obtained with IGZO through doping, yet such a state cannot be produced with a-Si. IGZO thin films are capable of mobilities greaterthan 10 $cm^2$/Vs (higher than a-Si:H), and are transparent at visible wavelengths. For oxide semiconductors, carrier concentrations can be controlled through oxygen vacancy concentration. Hence, adjusting the oxygen partial pressure during deposition and post-deposition processing provides an effective method of controlling oxygen concentration. In this study, we deposited IGZO thinfilms at optimized conditions and then analyzed the film's electrical properties, surface morphology, and crystal structure. Then, we explored how to generate IGZO thin films using DC magnetron sputtering. We also describe the construction and characteristics of a bottom-gate-type TFT, including the output and transfer curves and bias stress instability mechanism.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.56-63
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• 2023

In this paper, we studied the effect of electron beam irradiation on sol-gel indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO) thin films under air and nitrogen atmosphere and carried out the electrical characterization of the s ol-gel IGZO thin film transistors (TFTs). To investigate the optical properties, crystalline structure and chemical state of the sol-gel IGZO thin films after electron beam irradiation, UV-Visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were carried out. The sol-gel IGZO thin films exhibited over 80% transmittance in the visible range. The XRD analysis confirmed the amorphous nature of the sol-gel IGZO films regardless of electron beam irradiation. When electron beam irradiation was conducted in a nitrogen (N₂) atmosphere, we observed an increased proportion of peaks related to M-O bonding contributed to the improved quality of the thin films. Sol-gel IGZO TFTs subjected to electron beam exposure in a nitrogen atmosphere exhibited enhanced electrical characteristics in terms of on/off ratio and electron mobility. In addition, the electrical parameters of the transistor (on/off ratio, threshold voltage, electron mobility, subthreshold swing) remained relatively stable over time, indicating that the electron beam exposure process in a nitrogen atmosphere could enhance the reliability of IGZO-based thin-film transistors in the fabrication of sol-gel processed TFTs.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.153-161
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• 2011

In this work, we report the physics-based SPICE model of amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) thin-film transistors (TFTs) and demonstrate the SPICE simulation of amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) TFT inverter by using Verilog-A. As key physical parameter, subgap density-of-states (DOS) is extracted and used for calculating the electric potential, carrier density, and mobility along the depth direction of active thin-film. It is confirmed that the proposed DOS-based SPICE model can successfully reproduce the voltage transfer characteristic of a-IGZO inverter as well as the measured I-V characteristics of a-IGZO TFTs within the average error of 6% at $V_{DD}$=20 V.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.289.2-289.2
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• 2016

In-Ga-Zn-O(IGZO) receive great attention as a channel material for thin film transistors(TFTs) as next-generation display panel backplanes due to its superior electrical and physical properties such as a high mobility, low off-current, high sub-threshold slope, flexibility, and optical transparency. For the purpose of fabricating high performance IGZO TFTs, a thermal recovery process above a temperature of $300^{\circ}C$ is required for recovery or rearrangement of the ionic bonding structure. However diffused metal atoms from source/drain(S/D) electrodes increase the channel conductivity through the oxidation of diffused atoms and reduction of $In_2O_3$ during the thermal recovery process. Threshold voltage ($V_{TH}$) shift, one of the electrical instability, restricts actual applications of IGZO TFTs. Therefore, additional investigation of the electrical stability of IGZO TFTs is required. In this paper, we demonstrate the effect of Ti diffusion and modulation of interface traps by carrying out an annealing process on IGZO. In order to investigate the effect of diffused Ti atoms from the S/D electrode, we use secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, HSC chemistry simulation, and electrical measurements. By thermal annealing process, we demonstrate VTH shift as a function of the channel length and the gate stress. Furthermore, we enhance the electrical stability of the IGZO TFTs through a second thermal annealing process performed at temperature $50^{\circ}C$ lower than the first annealing step to diffuse Ti atoms in the lateral direction with minimal effects on the channel conductivity.