Kyeong Min Yu

Trap States of the Oxide Thin Film Transistor

We investigated the temperature dependent recovery of the threshold voltage shift observed in both ZnO and indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) after application of gate bias and light illumination. Two types of recovery were observed for both the ZnO and IGZO TFTs; low temperature recovery (below 110 °C) which is attributed to the trapped charge and high temperature recovery (over 110 °C) which is related to the annihilation of trap states generated during stresses. From a comparison study of the recovery rate with the analysis of hydrogen diffusion isochronal annealing, a similar behavior was observed for both TFT recovery and hydrogen diffusion. This result suggests that hydrogen plays an important role in the generation and annihilation of trap states in oxide TFTs under gate bias or light illumination stresses.

Stabilities of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide thin films under light illumination with various wavelengths and intensities

We investigated the photo responses of an amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin film under light illumination with various wavelengths and intensities. By using the measured photo-conductivities of a-IGZO thin films, we extracted the photo excitation activation energy and dark relaxation activation energy through extended stretched exponential analysis. The stretched exponential analysis was found to describe well both the photoexcitation and the dark-relaxation characteristics. These analyses indicated that recombination takes place more slowly and through activation processes that are more deeply bound with the broader distribution of activation energies (Eac) than those corresponding to the photo-generation process. The longer wavelength of the incident light, the slower the dark-relaxation occurs because of the formation of higher Eac for the ionized oxygen vacancy (Vo2+) states. For the dark-relaxation process, we also observed that the stretching exponent increases and the distribution of energy levels became narrower for longer wavelengths. This suggests that the neutralization of Vo2+ to Vo is slower for longer wavelengths due to the higher energy barrier height (Eac) for the neutralization of Vo2+.

Influences of Gate Bias and Light Stresses on Device Characteristics of High-Energy Electron-Beam-Irradiated Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide Based Thin Film Transistors

Under white light illumination, amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide (a-IGZO)-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) showed a large negative shift of threshold voltage of more than -15 V depending on the process conditions. We investigated the influences of both gate bias and white light illumination on device properties of IGZO-based TFTs untreated and treated with high-energy electron beam irradiation (HEEBI). The TFTs were treated with HEEBI in air at room temperature (RT), electron beam energy of 0.8 MeV, and a dose of 1×1014 electrons/cm2. The HEEBI-treated TFTs showed an improved stability under negative bias illumination stress (NBIS) and positive bias illumination stress (PBIS) compared with non-HEEBI-treated TFTs, suggesting that the acceptor-like defects might be generated by HEEBI treatment near the valence band edge.