Comparison of structural and electrical properties of Lu2O3 and Lu2TiO5 gate dielectrics for α-InGaZnO thin-film transistors

Abstract

We compared the structural properties and electrical characteristics of high-κ Lu2O3 and Lu2TiO5 gate dielectrics for amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (α-InGaZnO) thin-film transistor (TFT) applications. The Lu2O3 film has a strong Lu2O3 (400) peak in the X-ray diffraction pattern, while the Lu2TiO5 sample shows a relatively weak Lu2TiO5 (102) peak. Atomic force microscopy reveals that the Lu2O3 dielectric exhibits a rougher surface (about three times) than Lu2TiO5 one. In X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis, we found that the intensity of the O 1s peak corresponding to Lu(OH)x for Lu2O3 film was higher than that of Lu2TiO5 film. Furthermore, compared with the Lu2O3 dielectric, the α-InGaZnO TFT using the Lu2TiO5 gate dielectric exhibited a lower threshold voltage (from 0.43 to 0.25 V), a higher Ion/Ioff current ratio (from 3.5 × 106 to 1.3 × 108), a smaller subthreshold swing (from 276 to 130 mV/decade), and a larger field-effect mobility (from 14.5 to 24.4 cm2/V s). These results are probably due to the incorporation of TiOx into the Lu2O3 film to form a Lu2TiO5 structure featuring a smooth surface, a low moisture absorption, a high dielectric constant, and a low interface state density at the oxide/channel interface. Furthermore, the stability of Lu2O3 and Lu2TiO5 α-InGaZnO TFTs was investigated under positive gate-bias stress (PGBS) and negative gate-bias stress (NGBS). The threshold voltage of the TFT performed under NGBS is more degradation than that under PGBS. This behavior may be attributed to the electron charge trapping at the dielectric–channel interface under PGBS, whereas the oxygen vacancies occurred in the InGaZnO under NGBS.