The characteristics and properties of optimised amorphous silicon field effect transistors

Abstract

A series of experiments aimed at improving the performance of amorphous silicon field effect transistors has been carried out. The dc and dynamic characteristics of the optimised devices are described. Stable devices capable of ON-currents of the order of 100 μA with OFF-currents ≃10−11 A can be fabricated which could, in principle, be used to address more than 1000 lines of a liquid crystal display. The properties of the highly conducting ON-state channel have also been studied. The field effect mobility, 0.3 cm2 V−1 s−1 at room temperature, has an activation energy of 0.1 eV at the higher gate voltages. The possible reasons for the improvement in performance over earlier devices are discussed.