Chan-Yu Liao

Effect of oxygen plasma treatment on horizontally aligned carbon nanotube thin film as pH-sensing membrane of extended-gate field-effect transistor

The high-performance pH-sensing membrane of extended-gate field-effect transistors (EGFET) composed of high-conductivity horizontally aligned carbon nanotube thin films (HACNTFs) after oxygen plasma treatment is successfully demonstrated. The 10-µm-wide catalytic metal lines with 60 µm interspace produced CNT vertical plates, and the plates were mechanically pulled down and densified to form HACNTFs. A large amount of oxygen-containing functional groups are decorated on the CNTs after the oxygen plasma treatment. These functional groups act as the sensing sites and respond to the H+ or OH− ions in solutions with different pH values. Therefore, these functionalized HACNTFs as pH-EGFET-sensing membranes can achieve a high voltage sensitivity of 40 mV/pH and high current sensitivity of 0.78 µA1/2/pH. Moreover, large linearity of 0.998 is measured in a wide sensing range from pH 1 to 13. These results reveal that the oxygen plasma treatment is an effective way to improve the CNT-sensing characteristics in pH-EGFET sensors.

Location-Controlled Single-Crystal-Like Silicon Thin-Film Transistors by Excimer Laser Crystallization on Recessed-Channel Silicon Strip With Under-Layered Nitride

High-performance Si thin-film transistors (TFTs) on the recessed-channel Si strips with the under-layered nitride film have been fabricated using excimer laser crystallization (ELC). A nitride film was added as a light absorption layer to suppress solidification along the edge of the Si strip. Thus, only one primary grain boundary perpendicular to the Si strip formed in the middle of the recessed region during ELC. The single-crystal-like Si TFTs fabricated on one-half of the recessed region are capable of excellent field-effect mobility of 640 cm2/V-s, with only minor deviation.

Densification effects of the carbon nanotube pillar array on field-emission properties

In this study, a simple densification method for carbon nanotube (CNT) pillars is proposed to achieve high-performance field emission characteristics and stable emission. Through capillary force during solution evaporation, the CNT density in each pillar can be increased by about six times without causing damage to the crystallinity of CNTs. The densified CNT pillars exhibit lower series resistance, sharper pillars, better contacts, higher thermal conductivity, and better mechanical stiffness than as-grown ones. Therefore, the threshold field of the field emitter with such CNT pillars of 50 µm height can be reduced to 1.98 V/µm, as compared with 2.2 V/µm for the undensified ones. Moreover, the fluctuation of field-emission current decreases from 15.5 to 9.4% after the stress tests at a field of 2 V/µm for 1800 s. These findings imply that the densified CNT pillars are promising for the field-emission applications.

High-performance resistive switching characteristics of programmable metallization cell with oxidized Cu-Ti electrodes

Programmable metallization cell (PMC) memory devices with oxidized Cu-Ti alloy films as the bottom electrodes have been shown to exhibit a superior on/off state current ratio (memory window) of as high as 103 and endurance of 3000 cycles as compared to conventional pure copper and unoxidized Cu-Ti alloy electrodes. It was conjectured that the Cu-Ti alloy electrodes could obtain the appropriate amount of copper atoms to format and rupture the conductive filaments in the resistive switching layer. Furthermore, the oxidized Cu-Ti alloys could control the Cu cations from the Cu and Cu2O to the appropriate amountto achieve the most favorable PMC characteristics.

High-performance p-channel thin-film transistors with lightly doped n-type excimer-laser-crystallized germanium films

High-performance polycrystalline-germanium (poly-Ge) thin-film transistors (TFTs) fabricated with lightly doped Ge thin films by excimer laser crystallization (ELC) and counter doping (CD) have been demonstrated. High-quality n-type Ge thin films with a grain size as large as 1 µm were fabricated by ELC in the super lateral-growth regime and CD at a dose of 1 × 1013 cm−2 or higher. Consequently, a superior field-effect mobility of 271 cm2 V−1 s−1 and a high on/off current ratio of 2.7 × 103 have been obtained for p-channel Ge TFTs with the channel width and length of both 0.5 µm fabricated by ELC at 300 mJ/cm2 and CD at a dose of 1 × 1013 cm−2. The effects of ELC conditions and CD dose on the electrical characteristics of p-channel Ge TFTs were also investigated.

High-performance p-channel polycrystalline-germanium thin-film transistors via excimer laser crystallization and counter doping

High-quality polycrystalline-germanium (poly-Ge) thin films have been successfully fabricated by excimer laser crystallization (ELC). Grains as large as 1 µm were achieved by ELC at 300 mJ/cm2. Meanwhile, the defect-generated hole concentrations in Ge thin films were significantly reduced. Furthermore, the majority carriers could then be converted to n-type by counter doping (CD) with a suitable dose. Then, high-performance p-channel Ge thin-film transistors (TFTs) with a high on/off current ratio of up to 1.7 × 103 and a high field-effect mobility of up to 208 cm2 V−1 s−1 were demonstrated for a channel width and length both of 0.5 µm. It was revealed that ELC combined with CD is effective for attaining high-performance p-channel poly-Ge TFTs.

High-Performance Single-Crystal-Like Strained-Silicon Nanowire Thin-Film Transistors via Continuous-Wave Laser Crystallization

High-performance polycrystalline-silicon nanowire (NW) thin-film transistors (TFTs) have been demonstrated via continuous-wave laser crystallization (CLC) to exhibit the low subthreshold swing of 216 mV/decade and high ON/OFF ratio of 1.6×10⁹. In addition, the thermal stress of ~800 MPa induced from the CLC process also contributed to the single-crystal-like silicon NW CLC TFTs to achieve an excellent field-effect mobility of up to 900 cm²V^-1s^-1.

High-Performance Recessed-Channel Germanium Thin-Film Transistors via Excimer Laser Crystallization

This letter demonstrates the excimer laser crystallization (ELC) of germanium (Ge) thin films with the recessed-channel (RC) structure for high-performance p-channel Ge thin-film transistors (TFTs). Using ELC, large longitudinal grains with a single perpendicular grain boundary (GB) in the center of the recessed region were formed. This can be attributed to the lateral grain growth from un-melted Ge solid seeds in the thick region toward the complete melting recessed region during ELC. Consequently, the proposed p-channel RC-ELC Ge TFTs possessing large longitudinal grains without the perpendicular GB in the channel region exhibited a superior field-effect hole mobility of 447 cm2V−1s−1 with minor performance deviation.