Enhancing Hot-Carrier Reliability of Dual-Gate Low-Temperature Polysilicon TFTs by Increasing Lightly Doped Drain Length

Abstract

In this article, an n-type double-gate low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) TFT is investigated. Previous work has confirmed that the hot-carrier effect will cause impact ionization. Here we observed that, after hot-carrier stress (HCS), the transfer curve in the saturation region has a negative Vth shift, and a hump is also observed. The reverse output characteristic shows that gate induced drain leakage (GIDL) of the transistor gradually increases and the subthreshold swing (S.S.) has a tendency to collapse. In structures with longer lightly doped drain (LDD) lengths, the electric field at both source/drain side can be effectively dispersed. Thereby, an extended LDD can reduce the overall degradation, and a physical model of explanation is proposed. By using the energy band diagram, we clarify how the additional electron hole pairs affect the output property. Next, Silvaco TCAD simulation is utilized to illustrate the electric field distribution and validate the physical model.