Thin Film Transistor Applications Research Articles

Semiconducting Properties of Delaminated Titanium Nitride Ti4N3Tx MXene with Gate-Tunable Electrical Conductivity.

MXenes have garnered significant attention due to their atomically thin two-dimensional structure with metallic electronic properties. However, it has not yet been fully achieved to discover semiconducting MXenes to implement them into gate-tunable electronics such as field-effect transistors and phototransistors. Here, a semiconducting Ti4N3Tx MXene synthesized by using a modified oxygen-assisted molten salt etching method under ambient conditions, is reported. The oxygen-rich synthesis environment significantly enhances the etching reaction rate and selectivity of Al from a Ti4AlN3 MAX phase, resulting in well-delaminated and highly crystalline Ti4N3Tx MXene with minimal defects and high content of F and O, which led to its improved hydrophobicity and thermal stability. Notably, the synthesized Ti4N3Tx MXene exhibited p-type semiconducting characteristics, including gate-tunable electrical conductivity, with a current on-off ratio of 5 × 103 and a hole mobility of ∼0.008 cm2 V-1 s-1 at 243 K. The semiconducting property crucial for thin-film transistor applications is evidently associated with the surface terminations and the partial substitution of oxygen in the nitrogen lattice, as corroborated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Furthermore, the synthesized Ti4N3Tx exhibits strong light absorption characteristics and photocurrent generation. These findings highlight the delaminated Ti4N3Tx as an emerging two-dimensional semiconducting material for potential electronic and optoelectronic applications.

Highly Sensitive DNA Sensing in Subthreshold Regime with ITO-Based One-Piece Thin Film Transistor

INTRODUCTION Solution-gated field-effect transistors (FETs) with silicon or other semiconductive materials as channels can specifically and selectively detect ions and biomolecules in biological samples by chemically modifying the gate electrode surface, and these are known as biologically coupled FETs (Bio-FETs) [1]. Since Bio-FETs can directly detect the charges of ions and biomolecules, they do not require to label fluorescent dyes and to induce redox reactions based on enzymes. Therefore, Bio-FETs are expected to be used as in vitro diagnostic devices for a label-free monitoring of health conditions in daily life.Our research group is investigating the application of thin-film transistors (TFTs) composed of indium tin oxide (ITO), which has been widely used as an electrode material for displays owing to its transparency and conductivity, to Bio-FETs. Considering the fact that the ITO thin film is not only conductive but also semiconductive, depending on the thickness, we have found that solution-gated FETs can be fabricated by one-step sputtering of ITO [2]. Moreover, by etching a part of the conductive ITO film with the thickness of 100 nm) to the optimal thickness (< 30 nm), which induces semiconductive characteristics, a solution-gated ITO-TFT can be fabricated, which is composed of one piece of ITO thin film and whose shape and properties can be precisely controlled [3]. The ITO-based one-piece TFT has no interface among the source/channel/drain electrodes and exhibits a steep subthreshold slope (SS) of about 80 mV/decade, which is based on the large capacitance of the electric double layer formed by the direct contact of electrolyte solutions with the ITO channel surface,. Therefore, the ITO-based one-piece TFT is expected to be applied to biosensors with high sensitivity.In this study, we demonstrate the possibility of a highly sensitive DNA detection in the steep SS with the ITO-based one-piece TFT for the biosensing application. In particular, DNA probes are chemically modified on the ITO channel surface, and then DNA hybridization is detected in the near subthreshold regime with the ITO-based one-piece TFT.EXPERIMENTAL First, photoresist was patterned on a glass substrate by photolithography. ITO thin film (100 nm thickness) was deposited on the patterned area by sputtering, and photoresist was removed using a solvent. Next, as shown in Figure 1, photolithography was used again to deposit the resist film so that the channel portion was exposed. Subsequently, a drop of 0.1 M hydrochloric acid was dropped onto the exposed channel area, and then the exposed area was etched. Etching was controlled by monitoring the conductivity between the source and drain over time. Moreover, thiolated DNA probes were immobilized on the channel surfaces of the fabricated devices using m-maleimidobenzonyl-N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (MBS) as a crosslinker to the amino groups at the poly-serotonin surface as the anchor layer (Figure 1). Thus, DNA probes were fixed on the surface to detect the target DNA, and various bioaffinity parameters such as detection limit and sensitivity were investigated in the near-subthreshold region of ITO-based one-piece TFTs.A semiconductor parameter analyzer was used to monitor conductivity during etching and to evaluate electrical properties such as gate voltage (VG)-drain current (ID) transfer characteristics of the fabricated ITO-based one-piece TFTs. AFM (Bruker) was used to evaluate the shape of the surface chemical modification.RESULTS and DISCUSSION The ITO-based one-piece TFT functionalized with DNA probes was used to evaluate the potential response to the addition of target DNA. The measurement was conducted in the near-subthreshold regime. As a result, the DNA probe-modified device showed the larger electrical signals than the device without the modification of DNA probes. This suggests that the functionalized ITO-based one-piece TFT enables the highly sensitive detection of biomolecules in the subthreshold regime.CONCLUSIONS In this study, we demonstrated the relatively highly sensitive DNA detection even in the near subthreshold regime with the ITO-based one-piece TFT with DNA probes. This indicates that the functionalized ITO-based one-piece TFT would allow the specific detection of various biomarkers in the subthreshold regime, which has the potential to be applied to biosensors with high sensitivity in the future.REFERENCES[1] Sakata, T. ACS Omega 2019, 4, 11852.[2] Sakata, T.; Nishitani, S.; Saito, A.; Fukasawa, Y. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2021, 13, 38569.[3] Katayama, R.; Sakata, T. ECS Trans. 2023, 111, 37. Figure 1

Eco‐Friendly Approach to Ultra‐Thin Metal Oxides‐ Solution Sheared Aluminum Oxide for Half‐Volt Operation of Organic Field‐Effect Transistors

AbstractSol–gel‐based solution‐processed metal oxides have emerged as a key fabrication method for applications in thin film transistors both as a semiconducting and a dielectric layer. Here, a low‐temperature, green solvent‐based, non‐toxic, and cost‐effective solution shearing approach for the fabrication of thin aluminum oxide (AlOx) dielectrics is reported. Optimization of sustainability aspects like energy demand, and selection of chemicals used allows to reduce the environmental impact of the life cycle of the resulting product already in the design phase. Using this approach, ultra‐thin, device‐grade AlOx films of 7 nm are coated—the thinnest films to be reported for any solution‐fabrication method. The metal oxide formation is achieved by both thermal annealing and deep ultra‐violet (UV) light exposure techniques, resulting in capacitances of 750 and 600 nF cm−2, respectively. The structural analysis using microscopy and x‐ray spectroscopy techniques confirmed the formation of smooth, ultra‐thin AlOx films. These thin films are employed in organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) resulting in stable, low hysteresis devices leading to high mobilities (6.1 ± 0.9 cm2 V−1 s−1), near zero threshold voltage (−0.14 ± 0.07 V) and a low subthreshold swing (96 ± 16 mV dec−1), enabling device operation at only ±0.5 V with a good Ion/Ioff ratio (3.7 × 105).

P‐19: High Mobility and Reliability Oxide Stacked TFT for Application to Next Generation Display

The stacked structure thin film transistors (TFT) has caused the widespread attention to achieve high mobility and reliability simultaneously. To ensure the stacked structure TFT application to mass production, it is critical to reduce the number of mask‐count. In this paper, 8‐mask‐count stacked TFT‐array process using the first semiconductor layer overlapped with the source and drain layer directly, which is the first layer on the glass substrate, is studied. By adopting this novel process, the device mobility is 25.4 cm2/Vs, which is more than twice that of conventional top‐gate self‐aligned a‐IGZO device. Besides, the ΔVth under the positive bias stress of 30V and negative bias temperature illumination stress of ‐30V for 1 h is +0.41V and ‐0.13V, respectively, achieving the stability to the level of a‐IGZO TFTs.

A comparative study of thin-film transistors based on mist-CVD deposited InAlZnO with different Al contents

In this study, amorphous InAlZnO thin films with varying In:Al:Zn mole ratios of 2:1:2, 4:1:4, and 8:1:8 are deposited using mist chemical vapor deposition (mist-CVD). The X-ray diffraction patterns suggest that these InAlZnO thin films are amorphous. Besides, the O 1s binding energy spectra observed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and Tauc plots indicate that oxygen vacancy within the InAlZnO films decreases and bandgap energy of the InAlZnO films increases when the InAlZnO films have higher Al content. The 2:1:2 ratio yields insufficient electrical performance, while the 4:1:4 ratio obtains higher field-effect mobility of 11.42 ± 2.09 cm2V−1s−1, the steepest subthreshold swing of 168.57 ± 27.66 mV/dec, the largest on/off current ratio of (1.76 ± 0.3) × 106, and more stable behavior under negative/positive bias illumination stress. The 8:1:8 ratio reaches the highest field-effect mobility of 27.31 ± 5.13 cm2V−1s−1 while scarifying the stability. This study highlights the impact of Al content on InAlZnO for thin-film transistor applications.

Specific contact resistivity reduction in amorphous IGZO thin-film transistors through a TiN/IGTO heterogeneous interlayer

Oxide semiconductors have gained significant attention in electronic device industry due to their high potential for emerging thin-film transistor (TFT) applications. However, electrical contact properties such as specific contact resistivity (ρC) and width-normalized contact resistance (RCW) are significantly inferior in oxide TFTs compared to conventional silicon metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors. In this study, a multi-stack interlayer (IL) consisting of titanium nitride (TiN) and indium-gallium-tin-oxide (IGTO) is inserted between source/drain electrodes and amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO). The TiN is introduced to increase conductivity of the underlying layer, while IGTO acts as an n+-layer. Our findings reveal IGTO thickness (tIGTO)-dependent electrical contact properties of IGZO TFT, where ρC and RCW decrease as tIGTO increases to 8 nm. However, at tIGTO > 8 nm, they increase mainly due to IGTO crystallization-induced contact interface aggravation. Consequently, the IGZO TFTs with a TiN/IGTO (3/8 nm) IL reveal the lowest ρC and RCW of 9.0 × 10−6 Ω·cm2 and 0.7 Ω·cm, significantly lower than 8.0 × 10−4 Ω·cm2 and 6.9 Ω·cm in the TFTs without the IL, respectively. This improved electrical contact properties increases field-effect mobility from 39.9 to 45.0 cm2/Vs. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of this multi-stack IL approach in oxide TFTs.

Poling induced changes in polarization domain structure of polymer ferroelectrics for application in organic thin film transistors

While electrical poling of organic ferroelectrics has been shown to improve device properties, there are challenges in visualizing accompanying structural changes. We observe poling induced changes in ferroelectric domains by applying differential phase contrast (DPC) imaging in the scanning transmission electron microscope, a method that has been used to observe spatial distributions of electromagnetic fields at the atomic scale. In this work, we obtain DPC images from unpoled and electrically poled polyvinylidene fluoride trifluorethylene films and compare their performance in polymer thin film transistors. The vertically poled films show uniform domains throughout the bulk compared to the unpoled film with a significantly higher magnitude of the overall polarization. Thin film transistors comprising a donor–acceptor copolymer as the active semiconductor layer show improved performance with the vertically poled ferroelectric dielectric film compared with the unpoled ferroelectric dielectric film. A poling field of 80–100 MV/m for the dielectric layer yields the best performing transistors; higher than 100 MV/m is seen to degrade the transistor performance. The results are consistent with a reduction in deleterious charge carrier scattering from ferroelectric domain boundaries or interfacial dipoles arising from electrical poling.

Research on correlation between metal oxide semiconductor target and magnetron sputtered film based on TFT application

The research on the intrinsic relationship between target quality and TFT (thin film transistor) performance is not perfect for magnetron sputtering processes. The systematic analysis of target-film-device still needs to be improved. This paper studied the internal relationship between metal oxide semiconductor targets, thin films, and TFT devices for the deterioration problem of device performance caused by the failure of the aging target. The experimental results showed that the target surface with a long cumulative sputtering time had apparent macroscopic concave, related to the electromagnetic field distribution. The concave region was the primary source of thin film composition, so the research object of this work was mainly the concave region. A multi-oxide target was used in this work, and its selective sputtering phenomenon was serious, mainly reflected in the sputtering rate of In2O3 grains with higher electrical conductivity than other components. There were many failure sites on the surface of the target, including nodules, holes, coating layers, and cracks. The failure sites would hinder the normal sputtering process and eventually form a vicious circle, failing the target. Due to the decline of target quality, sputtering particles would be in a state of insufficient kinetic energy, resulting in particle agglomeration, element segregation, weak M-O (metal-oxide) bonds, loose accumulation, and surface or block defects. Ultimately, the TFT performance with the aging target showed lower mobility, larger subthreshold swing, increased off-state current, and poorer stability. Clarifying the relationship between target quality and device performance is beneficial for the development of electronic devices.

Low-voltage operating, high mobility top-gate structural flexible organic thin-film transistor with a one-step spin-coated binary polymer gate dielectric

Low-voltage operation is one of the prerequisites for the practical applications of the organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). Up to date, the most reported low-voltage operatable OTFTs use a bottom-gate structure, and are fabricated by several different technologies in the whole process, in which the organic semiconductors and/or gate dielectrics are prepared in the expensive vacuum equipment. The simple fabricating technologies and fewer processes can better demonstrate the inherent advantages, and enhance the commercial competitiveness of OTFTs. Here, we propose a strategy to fabricate the binary polymers gate dielectric by one-step spin-coating in the top-gate structured flexible OTFTs, by which not only the device performances are prominently improved, but also the fabricating process of the OTFTs is minimized. As a result, the flexible OTFTs exhibit a high mobility over 0.5 cm2 Vs−1, low threshold voltage near to −0.5 V, and excellent mechanical bending durability with a very slightly performances degradation after the tensile and compressive bending at a small curvature radius of 3.0 mm over 1000 cycles.

Low voltage-driven, high-performance TiO2 thin film transistors with MHz switching speed.

High-speed circuits based on thin film transistors (TFTs) show promising potential applications in biomedical imaging and human-machine interactions. One of the critical requirements for high-speed electronic devices lies in high-frequency switching or amplification at low voltages, typically driven by batteries (∼3.0 V). To date, however, most electrical performances of metal oxide TFTs are measured under direct current (DC) conditions, and their dynamic switching behaviour is scarcely explored and studied systematically. Here in this work, we present low voltage-driven, high-performance TiO2 thin film transistors, which can be operated at a switching speed of MHz. Our proposed TiO2 TFTs demonstrated a high on-off ratio of 107, together with a subthreshold swing (SS) of ∼150 mV Dec-1 averaged over four orders of magnitude, which can be further reduced below 100 mV Dec-1 when the temperature cools to 77 K. Additionally, the TiO2 TFTs exhibit excellent gate-pulse switching at various frequencies ranging from 1.0 Hz to 1.0 MHz. We also explored the potential application of the TiO2 TFTs as logic gates by constructing a resistive-loaded inverter, which shows stable operation at 10 kHz frequency and various temperatures. Thus, our results show the great potential of TiO2 TFTs as a new platform for high-speed electronic applications.

Z-shaped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with embedded five-membered rings and their application in organic thin-film transistors

Z-shaped polycyclic hydrocarbons with embedded five-membered rings as well as their diaza-analogues have been synthesized and showed charge carrier mobilities up to 0.4 cm2 V−1 s−1 in organic p-channel thin-film transistors.

The impact of thickness-related grain boundary migration on hole concentration and mobility of p-type transparent conducting CuI films.

CuI films present promising optoelectronic properties for transparent conductors. However, the high hole concentration in CuI films hinders the controllable modulation of hole mobility, limiting their application in low-dimensional thin-film transistors. In this study, CuI films were prepared through a Cu film iodination method at room temperature, and a systematic investigation was conducted on the modulation of hole concentration and mobility with varying film thickness. The films exhibited a zinc blende structure (γ-phase) with increasing grain size as the thickness increased. The transmittance and optical bandgap of the films decreased with increasing thickness. The correlation of vacancy concentration with changing film thickness was analyzed through photoluminescence spectroscopy, revealing the influence of grain boundary migration on vacancy formation. The reduction in film thickness diminishes the migration of CuI grain boundaries, consequently reducing the probability of Cu vacancy and I vacancy formation, resulting in diminished hole concentration and enhanced hole mobility and film conductivity. The film with a thickness of 20 nm demonstrated optimal performance, with a transmittance of 90%, hole concentration of 4.09 × 1017 cm-3, hole mobility of 506.50 cm2 V-1 s-1, and conductivity of 33.19 S cm-1. This work deepens the understanding of hole transport such as hole concentration and mobility modulation in CuI films, highlighting the importance of controlling grain boundary migration during the film growth process.

Stretchable Semiconducting Polymers with Hydrogen-Bonding-Capable Conjugation Breakers: Synthesis and Application in Organic Thin-Film Transistors.

Diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based conjugated copolymers are important organic semiconductors for applications in high-efficiency organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). However, the direct application of these polymers with rigid backbones in stretchable devices has limitations. In this study, we designed and synthesized three kinds of DPPBT-based copolymers, DPPBT-A1, DPPBT-A3, and DPPBT-A5, which have amide-coupled alkylene conjugation breakers capable of hydrogen bonding. Linkers with different segment lengths were copolymerized with DPP and bithiophene (BT) backbone units. A DPP-based copolymer with alternating BT moieties, DPPBT, was synthesized as a reference fully conjugated copolymer. The synthesized polymers with freely rotational backbone linkers have sufficient flexibility to develop ordered phase domains, even in thin films, in comparison to the reference copolymer. However, the introduction of the conjugation breakers, which disconnect the intramolecular π-π overlapping, tends to decrease the hole mobility (μ) from 0.76 to 0.20 cm2 V-1 s-1 in the corresponding OTFT devices. The TFT fabricated using DPPBT-A3 showed a mobility of 0.50 cm2 V-1 s-1, and the mobility value did not show a significant change even when elongated by more than 50%. Therefore, the molecular design strategy of introducing amide-coupled alkylene conjugation breakers into conjugated polymer chains can contribute significantly to the development of high-mobility stretchable conjugated polymers in future.

Fluorination-mitigated high-current degradation of amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors

As growing applications demand higher driving currents of oxide semiconductor thin-film transistors (TFTs), severe instabilities and even hard breakdown under high-current stress (HCS) become critical challenges. In this work, the triggering voltage of HCS-induced self-heating (SH) degradation is defined in the output characteristics of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFTs, and used to quantitatively evaluate the thermal generation process of channel donor defects. The fluorinated a-IGZO (a-IGZO:F) was adopted to effectively retard the triggering of the self-heating (SH) effect, and was supposed to originate from the less population of initial deep-state defects and a slower rate of thermal defect transition in a-IGZO:F. The proposed scheme noticeably enhances the high-current applications of oxide TFTs.

Thin Film Transistors Incorporating Ultrapure Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes and Green Dielectrics

Printed electronics is a burgeoning field that has received intense research interest and is beginning to experience commercial successes. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are a unique and promising building block for incorporation into next generation superfast electronic devices. SWNTs have very high carrier mobilites, with band gaps compatible for integration into logic circuits. Their excellent mechanical flexibility allows for potential incorporation into flexible printed electronics, enabling fully-printed transistors and circuits with performances that support low cost, large area fabrication. Progress in incorporating SWNTs into commercial devices has been hindered by the presence of metallic SWNTs, which are produced alongside semiconducting SWNTs during synthesis, and negatively impact device performance. Fabrication of ambipolar SWNT organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) with high carrier mobilities and high on/off ratios remains particularly challenging; many examples in the literature required high temperature, expensive and energy-demanding processes.Since the initial discovery of conjugated polymer-assisted dispersion and purification of SWNTs in 2008, several polymer families have been successfully shown to selectively disperse semiconducting SWNTs. However, only a relatively small number of these supramolecular complexes have been incorporated into OTFTs. We used a novel conjugated polymer to exclusively disperse semiconducting SWNTs. The dispersal procedure requires a simple sonication and centrifugation, during which the metallic SWNTs sediment out. Solution purity was evaluated using UVVis- NIR and Raman spectroscopies. The resulting dispersions are amenable to solution processing techniques such drop casting and spin coating, allowing for the potential for large area device fabrication at room temperature. Ambipolar OTFTs were fabricated under ambient conditions using this solution and tested in both air and under inert atmosphere. The presence of excess conjugated polymer, solution deposition techniques, SWNT density, surface treatment, and post-fabrication treatment were all investigated to determine which parameters facilitated the production of OTFTs with high mobilities (>20 cm2V-1s-1), high on/off ratios (10^6-10^8), negligeble hysteresis, controlled threshold voltages, and high bias stability.[1] Protocols for sorting and dispersing ultrapure sc-SWNTs with conjugated polymers for thin-film transistor (TFT) applications have been well refined. Conventional wisdom dictates that removal of excess unbound polymer through filtration or centrifugation is necessary to produce high- erformance TFTs. However, this is time-consuming, wasteful, and resource-intensive. We challenge this paradigm and demonstrate that excess unbound polymer during semiconductor film fabrication is not necessarily detrimental to device performance.[2] With focus on further improving device performance, we look to green, compostable dielectrics to pair with SWCNTs. We report a tri-layer dielectric using poly (lactic acid) (PLA), poly(vinyl alcohol)/cellulose nanocrystals (PVAc) and toluene diisocyanate terminated poly(caprolactone) (TPCL) which we integrated into SWCNT based TFTs in a top gate bottom contact architecture. The PVA provides a high dielectric constant due to the hydroxy groups, the cellulose is used to optimize the viscosity, the TPCL layer provides a robust hydrophobic surface[3], and the PLA eliminates the interfacial charge traps present in the PVAc. This leads to a decrease in leakage currents and reduced the polarity at the dielectric/semiconductor interface. The TFTs fabricated using tri-layer dielectrics led to air stable and balanced hole and electron mobilities which was not observed for the PVAc/TPCL bilayer systems with supressed hole mobility. These TFTs were then used to study the impact of electrochemical doping on the performance of sc-SWCNT TFTs when switching from n-type, where an electrical double layer is formed, to p-type, where the TFSI anions are free to interact with the sc-SWCNTs.[4]The following presentation will focus on the engineering of sc-SWNTs based electronic devices. The choice of conjugated wrapping polymer, dielectric and processing conditions on film formation and the TFT device performance.

Solution-processed high entropy metal oxides as dielectric layers with high transmittance and performance and application in thin film transistors

High entropy metal oxides (HEMOs) are emerging materials with unique structures and functional properties, but it's barely researched as dielectric materials. This paper investigates solution-processed HEMOs as the dielectric material. Six HEMOs systems were compared and the role of various metal oxides in the high entropy system is revealed. It turns out that the (HfMgTiYZr)Ox system has the most excellent dielectric properties with a low leakage current density of 2.9 × 10−7A/cm2@2MV/cm and a high dielectric constant of 13.0. Moreover, the transmittance of the films is over 88% in the range of the visible light. The high performances of the HEMOs derive from the complex internal structure and the single solid solution phase. Applying (HfMgTiYZr)Ox as dielectric layers, the thin film transistors attain an Ion/off of 6.3 × 108, a mobility of 14.2cm2/vs, a ss of 0.34 V, and a Vth of 1.3 V. In this paper, we demonstrate that HEMOs have good dielectric properties and can be used in thin film transistors which implies a promising future in the application of electronic devices.

Enhancing photodetection performance of UV photodetectors with stacked Pt/NiO dual capping layers on IGZO thin-film transistors

This paper proposes a solution to mitigate the trade-off between dark and photocurrents in the indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) thin-film transistor (TFT) applications, such as ultraviolet photodetectors, by using a stacked Pt/NiO dual capping layer (CL). The Pt CL forms a Schottky contact with the IGZO channel, which maximizes the depletion width on the channel layer and allows the use of a thicker channel to suppress both dark current and channel resistance. On the other hand, the NiO CL forms a pn heterojunction with the IGZO channel, which provides additional space for generating electron–hole pairs and is forward biased by the photovoltaic voltage under UV irradiation, resulting in a further negative shift in the threshold voltage and a significant increase in photocurrent. Experimental results show that the proposed CL scheme exhibits excellent photoresponsivity, photosensitivity, and specific detectivity in a 40 nm-thick IGZO TFT, with the values of 1888 A/W, 3.37 × 108 A/A, and 3.99 × 1016 Jones, respectively, which are about 55%, 83%, and 68% higher than a traditional 30 nm-thick IGZO TFT using only NiO CL under 275 nm UV irradiation.

Homojunction structure amorphous oxide thin film transistors with ultra-high mobility

Amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOS) have unique advantages in transparent and flexible thin film transistors (TFTs) applications, compared to low-temperature polycrystalline-Si (LTPS). However, intrinsic AOS TFTs are difficult to obtain field-effect mobility (μ FE) higher than LTPS (100 cm2/(V·s)). Here, we design ZnAlSnO (ZATO) homojunction structure TFTs to obtain μ FE = 113.8 cm2/(V·s). The device demonstrates optimized comprehensive electrical properties with an off-current of about 1.5 × 10–11 A, a threshold voltage of –1.71 V, and a subthreshold swing of 0.372 V/dec. There are two kinds of gradient coupled in the homojunction active layer, which are micro-crystallization and carrier suppressor concentration gradient distribution so that the device can reduce off-current and shift the threshold voltage positively while maintaining high field-effect mobility. Our research in the homojunction active layer points to a promising direction for obtaining excellent-performance AOS TFTs.

Effects of High-Energy X-ray Irradiation on the Electrical and Chemical Properties of In–Ga–Sn–O Thin Films with Al2O3Passivation Layer for Thin-Film Transistor Applications

Effects of High-Energy X-ray Irradiation on the Electrical and Chemical Properties of In–Ga–Sn–O Thin Films with Al₂O₃Passivation Layer for Thin-Film Transistor Applications

Optimization of electrical performance and stability of fully solution-driven α-InGaZnO thin-film transistors by graphene quantum dots

• Fully solution-derived GQDs-IGZO TFTs based on ZrO 2 as gate dielectrics have been achieved. • GQDs-IGZO TFTs devices with optimized doping content have demonstrated improved performances, including a μ FE of 35.91 cm 2 V –1 s –1 , a higher I ON / I OFF of 5.04 × 10 8 , a smaller subthreshold swing (SS) of 0.11 V dec –1 and a smaller interfacial trap states of 1.57 × 10 12 cm −2 . • Resistor-loaded unipolar inverter based on GQDs-IGZO/ZrO x has been integrated, demonstrating good dynamic behavior and a high gain of 9.3. • LFN characteristics of GQDs-IGZO/ZrO x TFTs have suggested that the fluctuations in mobility are the noise source. This work presents solution-processed high-performance graphene quantum dots (GQDs) decorated amorphous InGaZnO (α-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on ZrO x as gate dielectrics. Compare with pure IGZO TFTs, GQDs-modified α-IGZO TFTs devices with optimized doping content have demonstrated better performances, including a larger field-effect mobility ( μ FE ) of 35.91 cm 2 V –1 s –1 , a higher on/off current ratio ( I ON / I OFF ) of 5.04 × 10 8 , a smaller subthreshold swing (SS) of 0.11 V dec –1 and a smaller interfacial trap states ( D it , 1.57 × 10 12 cm −2 ). Moreover, the GQDs-doped IGZO TFTs with a doping concentration of 0.5 mg ml –1 have shown excellent stability under bias stress and illumination stress conditions. To demonstrate the potential applications of α-IGZO TFTs in logic circuits, a resistor-loaded unipolar inverter based on GQDs-IGZO/ZrO x has been integrated, demonstrating good dynamic behavior and a high gain of 9.3. Low-frequency noise (LFN) characteristics of GQDs-IGZO/ZrO x TFTs have suggested that the fluctuations in mobility are the noise source. Based on all the experimental findings, it can be concluded that solution-processed GQDs-IGZO/ZrO x TFT may envision promising applications in optoelectronics.