Hisato Yabuta

High-mobility thin-film transistor with amorphous InGaZnO4 channel fabricated by room temperature rf-magnetron sputtering

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated using amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) channels by rf-magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The conductivity of the a-IGZO films was controlled from ∼10−3to10−6Scm−1 by varying the mixing ratio of sputtering gases, O2∕(O2+Ar), from ∼3.1% to 3.7%. The top-gate-type TFTs operated in n-type enhancement mode with a field-effect mobility of 12cm2V−1s−1, an on-off current ratio of ∼108, and a subthreshold gate voltage swing of 0.2Vdecade−1. It is demonstrated that a-IGZO is an appropriate semiconductor material to produce high-mobility TFTs at low temperatures applicable to flexible substrates by a production-compatible means.

42.1: Invited Paper: Improved Amorphous In‐Ga‐Zn‐O TFTs

We review the features of amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs), as well as circuit operation based on these TFTs. We also report a novel TFT structure which improves environmental stability of the TFT operation by taking full advantage of the a-IGZO properties, where a conventional PECVD a-SiNX:H films serve not only as an effective barrier layer but also as a hydrogen source to form the coplanar source and drain.

Sputtering formation of p-type SnO thin-film transistors on glass toward oxide complimentary circuits

Thin film transistors (TFTs) using polycrystalline tin oxides (SnO–SnO2) channels were formed on glass by a conventional sputtering method and subsequent annealing treatments. SnO-channel TFTs showed p-type operation with on/off current ratios of ∼102 and field-effect mobilities of 0.24 cm2 V−1 s−1. Incorporation of excess oxygen to SnO channel layers did not generate holes but did electrons, which in turn led to n-type operation. This result is explained by transformation to a local SnO2-like structure and finally to SnO2. We propose a simple method to fabricate complimentary circuits by simultaneous selective formation of p- and n-channel TFTs.

Circuits using uniform TFTs based on amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O

— High-performance and excellent-uniformity thin-film transistors (TFTs) having bottom-gate structures are fabricated using an amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) film and an amorphous-silicon dioxide film as the channel layer and the gate insulator layer, respectively. All of the 94 TFTs fabricated with an area 1 cm2 show almost identical transfer characteristics: the average saturation mobility is 14.6 cm2/(V-sec) with a small standard deviation of 0.11 cm2/(V-sec). A five-stage ring-oscillator composed of these TFTs operates at 410 kHz at an input voltage of 18 V. Pixel-driving circuits based on these TFTs are also fabricated with organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) which are monolithically integrated on the same substrate. It is demonstrated that light emission from the OLED cells can be switched and modulated by a 120-Hz ac signal input. Amorphous-IGZO-based TFTs are prominent candidates for building blocks of large-area OLED-display electronics.

Materials, Devices, and Circuits of Transparent Amorphous-Oxide Semiconductor

This paper presents the following recent investigations of transparent amorphous-oxide semiconductors (TAOS) from materials to devices and circuits. 1) Composition of metals in TAOS are widely explored with the aim of seeking semiconductors suitable for the channel layers of thin-film transistors (TFTs) composing backplanes for flat-panel displays. It is found in combinatorial approaches to the materials exploration that indium-based ternary TAOS (In-X-O) and their TFTs show the properties and the performance as good as those of the most popular material of amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (alpha-IGZO) when X = Zn or Ge. 2) Defects and impurities in TAOS are investigated by theoretical approaches. The first-principle calculation of the electron states reveals that charge-neutral oxygen vacancy or interstitial forms the density of states around mid-gap level and does not generate carriers directly, while hydrogen impurity raises the Fermi level beyond the conduction-band minimum and acts as a donor in TAOS. 3) Device structures of TAOS-TFTs are also investigated extensively for better performance and stability. It is found in channel-etch type TFTs with bottom-gate inverse-stagger structures that the TFT characteristics and stability are significantly improved by chemically removing the back-channel layer in a wet-etching process. Coplanar homojunction (CH) structure is proposed as a novel device structure where conductive alpha-IGZO regions work as the source and drain electrodes to the channel region of semiconductor alpha-IGZO. The CH TFTs show excellent characteristics and stability, with low series resistance without any difficulty in making good electrical contact between metals and TAOS. 4) Circuits using TAOS-TFTs are demonstrated. A ring oscillator composed of fifteen-stage inverters with a buffer circuit operates as designed by circuit simulation with a TFT model for hydrogenated amorphous Si TFTs. Pixel circuits composed of three TFTs and one transparent capacitor successfully drive organic light-emission diode cells without a planarization layer on a 2-in diagonal panel having 176 times144 times 3 pixels.

A stacked capacitor technology with ECR plasma MOCVD (Ba,Sr)TiO/sub 3/ and RuO/sub 2//Ru/TiN/TiSi/sub x/ storage nodes for Gb-scale DRAMs

A Gb-scale DRAM stacked capacitor technology with (Ba,Sr)TiO/sub 3/ thin films is described, The four-layer RuO/sub 2//Ru/TiN/TiSi/sub x/, storage node configuration allows 500/spl deg/C processing and fine-patterning down to the 0.20 /spl mu/m size by electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching. Good insulating (Ba/sub 0.4/Sr/sub 0.6/)TiO/sub 3/ (BST) films with an SiO/sub 2/ equivalent thickness of 0.65 nm on the electrode sidewalls and leakage current of 1/spl times/10/sup -/6 A/cm/sup 2/ at 1 V are obtained by ECR plasma MOCVD without any post-deposition annealing, A lateral step coverage of 50% for BST is observed on the 0.2 /spl mu/m size storage node pattern, and the BST thickness on the sidewalls is very uniform, thanks to the ECR downflow plasma. Using this stacked capacitor technology, a sufficient cell capacitance of 25 fF for 1 Gb DRAMs can be achieved in a capacitor area of 0.125 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ with only the 0.3 /spl mu/m high-storage electrodes.

Low temperature deposition of (Ba, Sr)TiO3 films by electron cyclotron resonance plasma chemical vapor deposition

(Ba, Sr)TiO 3 films deposited by electron cyclotron resonance plasma chemical vapor deposition at 450°C and 500°C are investigated. The crystallinity, evaluated by X-ray diffraction and by measuring grain size, and electrical properties of films were evaluated for changes in deposition temperature, deposition rate, and Ba content, without a post-deposition annealing. Slower deposition rates as well as higher deposition temperatures were found to improve film crystallinity. Evaluation of electrical properties and film crystallinity revealed that the optimum Ba content of a film deposited at 500°C was 0.4. A 27nm thick film deposited on a Pt substrate at 500°C and at 1.1 nm/min with a Ba content of 0.4 exhibited a SiO 2 equivalent thickness of 0.65 nm and a leakage current density of 4.6 x 10 -7 A/cm 2 at 1V. The film composition was found to be sufficiently uniform throughout, i.e., from the top to the side of the films on a stacked bottom electrode.

Structure and Magnetic Properties of BiFe1–xCoxO3 and Bi0.9Sm0.1Fe1–xCoxO3

BiFe(1-x)Co(x)O3 and Bi0.9Sm0.1Fe(1-x)Co(x)O3 were synthesized under a high pressure of 4 GPa; 10% Sm substitution for Bi in BiFe(1-x)Co(x)O3 (x ≤ 0.20) drastically destabilized the ferroelectric BiFeO3-type structure and changed it to an antiferroelectric PbZrO3-type superstructure. In comparison, a ferroelectric BiCoO3-type tetragonal structure (x ≥ 0.40) was insensitive to the Sm substitution. No decrease in the ferroelectric Curie temperature (TC) was observed. Weak ferromagnetism with a spontaneous moment of 0.025 μB/formula unit (f.u.) was observed for BiFe(1-x)Co(x)O3 (x = 0.10 and 0.20) samples, suggesting the change in the spin structure from a cycloidal one. Because of the coexistence of ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism at room temperature, this compound is a promising multiferroic material.

Sequential Phase Transitions in Sm Substituted BiFeO3

The compositional and thermal evolution of the crystal structure of the solid solution Bi1-xSmxFeO3 synthesized at a high pressure of 4 GPa was investigated. It was found that Bi1-xSmxFeO3 with x = 0.10 and 0.15 had an antipolar PbZrO3-type structure with a √2a×2√2a×4a perovskite superstructure at room temperature, while that with x = 0.05 had the same structure as the parent BiFeO3 (x = 0). The x = 0.10 sample transforms from an antipolar PbZrO3-type orthorhombic structure to a polar BiFeO3-type rhombohedral structure and eventually to a nonpolar GdFeO3-type structure on heating as Zr-rich PZT.

Microscopic structure and electrical transport property of sputter-deposited amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide semiconductor films

We report on microscopic structures and electrical and optical properties of sputter-deposited amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) films. From electron microscopy observations and an x-ray small angle scattering analysis, it has been confirmed that the sputtered a-IGZO films consist of a columnar structure. However, krypton gas adsorption measurement revealed that boundaries of the columnar grains are not open-pores. The conductivity of the sputter-deposited a-IGZO films shows a change as large as seven orders of magnitude depending on post-annealing atmosphere; it is increased by N2-annealing and decreased by O2-annealing reversibly, at a temperature as low as 300°C. This large variation in conductivity is attributed to thermionic emission of carrier electrons through potential barriers at the grain boundaries, because temperature dependences of the carrier density and the Hall mobility exhibit thermal activation behaviours. The optical band-gap energy of the a-IGZO films changes between before and after annealing, but is independent of the annealing atmosphere, in contrast to the noticeable dependence of conductivity described above. For exploring other possibilities of a-IGZO, we formed multilayer films with an artificial periodic lattice structure consisting of amorphous InO, GaO, and ZnO layers, as an imitation of the layer-structured InGaZnO4 homologous phase. The hall mobility of the multilayer films was almost constant for thicknesses of the constituent layer between 1 and 6 A, suggesting rather small contribution of lateral two-dimensional conduction It increased with increasing the thickness in the range from 6 to 15 A, perhaps owing to an enhancement of two-dimensional conduction in InO layers.