Effects of defect creation on bidirectional behavior with hump characteristics of InGaZnO TFTs under bias and thermal stress

Abstract

We investigated the hump characteristics of amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide thin-film transistors. The device showed a field effect mobility of 24.3 cm2 V−1 s−1, a threshold voltage (Vth) of 4.8 V, and a subthreshold swing of 120 mV/dec. Under positive gate bias stress, Vth showed bidirectional shift with a hump. Vth was positively and negatively shifted in the above-threshold and subthreshold regions, respectively. At high temperatures, Vth was more positively shifted without bidirectional shift. Under simultaneous drain bias stress (VDS,stress), the hump was maintained. However, the bidirectional shift was not observed with an increasing VDS,stress. The hump and positive shift are related to the defect creation of the shallow donor-like and deep-level acceptor-like states, respectively. We performed a two-dimensional device simulation to further investigate this phenomenon. By varying the peak values of the Gaussian shallow donor-like and deep acceptor-like states, we qualitatively confirmed the relationship between the two states and transfer curve changes.