An Investigation of Gate Pulse Induced Degradation in a-InGaZnO Thin Film Transistors.

We investigated the effects of pulsed gate bias on degradation of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-InGaZnO) thin film transistors (TFTs). The waveform composed of 0 V and 20 V produced little degradation, but the waveform composed of -20 V and 0 V produced a considerable degradation on the turn-on current in the transfer characteristics. Those instabilities were found mostly in TFTs of which the concentration of Zn is higher than the other metallic components (In, Ga). In order to explain the anomalous degradation behaviors, we propose a possible degradation model which is different from the conventional model of charge trapping. Our proposed model is related to an increase of acceptor-like states in a-InGaZnO near the source and drain electrodes. More electrons can be trapped there, and the increased potential barrier hinders current flow in the channel. The proposed model can also account for the increased frequency dispersion in C-V characteristics of our a-InGaZnO TFTs after the waveform stress.

Simulation for Large-Area, Inductively-Coupled Plasma Systems Using an Ar/Cl2 Gas Mixture.

As research and development of high-performance devices are becoming increasingly important in the flat panel display industry, new structures and processes are essential to improve the performance of the TFT backplane. Also, high-density plasma systems are needed for new device fabrications. Chlorine-based, inductively-coupled plasma systems are widely used for highly-selective, anisotropic etching of polysilicon layers. In this paper, a plasma simulation for a large-area ICP system (8th glass size and 9 planar antenna set) was conducted using Ar/Cl2 gas. Transport models and Maxwell Equations were applied to calculate the plasma parameters such as electron density, electron temperature and electric potential. In addition, the spatial distribution of ions such as Ar+, Cl2+, Cl-, Cl+ were investigated respectively.

Negative gate bias and light illumination-induced hump in amorphous InGaZnO thin film transistor.

While observing the transfer characteristics of a-IGZO TFTs, it was noticed that a hump occurred in the subthreshold regime after light and bias stress. This study analyzes the mechanism of the hump occurrence. It was determined that hump characteristics were related with parasitic TFTs which formed at the peripheral edges parallel with the channel direction. It seems that the negative shift of the transfer characteristics of parasitic TFTs was larger than that of the main TFT under light and bias stress. Therefore, the difference in the negative shift between the main TFT and the parasitic TFT was the origin of the hump occurrence. We investigated the instability of a-IGZO TFTs under negative gate bias with light illumination for various channel structures in order to verify the above mechanism.