Quantitative analysis of defect states in InGaZnO within 2 eV below the conduction band via photo-induced current transient spectroscopy.

This work investigates the function of the oxygen partial pressure in photo-induced current measurement of extended defect properties related to the distribution and quantity of defect states in electronic structures. The Fermi level was adjusted by applying a negative gate bias in the TFT structure, and the measurable range of activation energy was extended to < 2.0 eV. Calculations based on density functional theory are used to investigate the changes in defect characteristics and the role of defects at shallow and deep levels as a function of oxygen partial pressure. Device characteristics, such as mobility and threshold voltage shift under a negative gate bias, showed a linear correlation with the ratio of shallow level to deep level defect density. Shallow level and deep level defects are organically related, and both defects must be considered when understanding device characteristics.

Nanocrystalline ZnON; high mobility and low band gap semiconductor material for high performance switch transistor and image sensor application.

Interest in oxide semiconductors stems from benefits, primarily their ease of process, relatively high mobility (0.3-10 cm(2)/vs), and wide-bandgap. However, for practical future electronic devices, the channel mobility should be further increased over 50 cm(2)/vs and wide-bandgap is not suitable for photo/image sensor applications. The incorporation of nitrogen into ZnO semiconductor can be tailored to increase channel mobility, enhance the optical absorption for whole visible light and form uniform micro-structure, satisfying the desirable attributes essential for high performance transistor and visible light photo-sensors on large area platform. Here, we present electronic, optical and microstructural properties of ZnON, a composite of Zn3N2 and ZnO. Well-optimized ZnON material presents high mobility exceeding 100 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), the band-gap of 1.3 eV and nanocrystalline structure with multiphase. We found that mobility, microstructure, electronic structure, band-gap and trap properties of ZnON are varied with nitrogen concentration in ZnO. Accordingly, the performance of ZnON-based device can be adjustable to meet the requisite of both switch device and image-sensor potentials. These results demonstrate how device and material attributes of ZnON can be optimized for new device strategies in display technology and we expect the ZnON will be applicable to a wide range of imaging/display devices.

Anion control as a strategy to achieve high-mobility and high-stability oxide thin-film transistors.

Ultra-definition, large-area displays with three-dimensional visual effects represent megatrend in the current/future display industry. On the hardware level, such a "dream" display requires faster pixel switching and higher driving current, which in turn necessitate thin-film transistors (TFTs) with high mobility. Amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOS) such as In-Ga-Zn-O are poised to enable such TFTs, but the trade-off between device performance and stability under illumination critically limits their usability, which is related to the hampered electron-hole recombination caused by the oxygen vacancies. Here we have improved the illumination stability by substituting oxygen with nitrogen in ZnO, which may deactivate oxygen vacancies by raising valence bands above the defect levels. Indeed, the stability under illumination and electrical bias is superior to that of previous AOS-based TFTs. By achieving both mobility and stability, it is highly expected that the present ZnON TFTs will be extensively deployed in next-generation flat-panel displays.

Density of states-based design of metal oxide thin-film transistors for high mobility and superior photostability.

A novel method to design metal oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) devices with high performance and high photostability for next-generation flat-panel displays is reported. Here, we developed bilayer metal oxide TFTs, where the front channel consists of indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) and the back channel material on top of it is hafnium-indium-zinc-oxide (HIZO). Density-of-states (DOS)-based modeling and device simulation were performed in order to determine the optimum thickness ratio within the IZO/HIZO stack that results in the best balance between device performance and stability. As a result, respective values of 5 and 40 nm for the IZO and HIZO layers were determined. The TFT devices that were fabricated accordingly exhibited mobility values up to 48 cm(2)/(V s), which is much elevated compared to pure HIZO TFTs (∼13 cm(2)/(V s)) but comparable to pure IZO TFTs (∼59 cm(2)/(V s)). Also, the stability of the bilayer device (-1.18 V) was significantly enhanced compared to the pure IZO device (-9.08 V). Our methodology based on the subgap DOS model and simulation provides an effective way to enhance the device stability while retaining a relatively high mobility, which makes the corresponding devices suitable for ultradefinition, large-area, and high-frame-rate display applications.