High-mobility and low subthreshold swing amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors byin situH2plasma and neutral oxygen beam irradiation treatment.

In this work, staggered bottom-gate structure amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) with high-k ZrO2gate dielectric were fabricated using low-cost atmospheric pressure-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD) within situhydrogenation to modulate the carrier concentration and improve interface quality. Subsequently, a neutral oxygen beam irradiation (NOBI) technique is applied, demonstrating that a suitable NOBI treatment could successfully enhance electrical characteristics by reducing native defect states and minimize the trap density in the back channel. A reverse retrograde channel (RRGC) with ultra-high/low carrier concentration is also formed to prevent undesired off-state leakage current and achieve a very low subthreshold swing. The resulting a-IGZO TFTs exhibit excellent electrical characteristics, including a low subthreshold swing of 72 mV dec-1and high field-effect mobility of 35 cm2V-1s-1, due to conduction path passivation and stronger carrier confinement in the RRGC. The UV-vis spectroscopy shows optical transmittance above 90% in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The study confirms the H2plasma with NOBI-treated a-IGZO/ZrO2TFT is a promising candidate for transparent electronic device applications.

Role ofin-situhydrogen plasma treatment on gate bias stability and performance of a-IGZO thin-film transistors.

This work investigates the effect of anin situhydrogen plasma treatment on gate bias stability and performance of amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) deposited by using atmospheric-pressure PECVD. The H2plasma-treateda-IGZO channel has shown significant improvement in bias stress induced instability with a minuscule threshold voltage shift (ΔVth) of 0.31 and -0.17 V under positive gate bias stress (PBS) and negative gate bias stress (NBS), respectively. With the aid of the energy band diagram, the proposed work demonstrates the formation of negative species O2-and positive species H2O+in the backchannel under PBS and NBS in addition to ionized oxygen vacancy (Vo) defects ata-IGZO/ZrO2interfaces are the reason for gate bias instability which could be effectively suppressed within situH2plasma treatment. From the experimental result, it is observed that the electrical performance such as field-effect mobility (µFE), on-off current ratio (Ion/Ioff), and subthreshold swing improved significantly byin situH2plasma treatment with passivation of interface trap density and bulk trap defects.

Effects of Microwave and Furnace Annealing for P-Type SnO Thin Film Material in Oxygen Ambient.

Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) semiconductors are attracted considerable attention due to a wide range of applications, such as flat panel display (FPD), touch panels, solar cells, and other optoelectronic devices. Owing to the different carrier conduction paths between n-type and P-type TCOs, the n-type TCO used in TFTs usually have high Ion/Ioff current ratio (>107) and high electron mobility (>10 cm²/V·s), P-type TCO TFTs are both lower than that of n-type one. For complementary circuits design and applications, however, both P-type and n-type semiconductor materials are equally important. For SnO thin films, it is important to adjust the ratio of Sn2+ (SnO P-type) and Sn4+ (SnO2 n-type) in order to modulate the electrical characteristics. In this investigation of post treatment for SnO thin films, both microwave annealing (MWA) and furnace annealing process with 02 ambient are studied. The results show that SnO thin films are optimized at 300 °C, 30 minutes furnace annealing, the P-type SnO/SnO2 thin film shows surface mean roughness 0.168 nm, [Sn2+]/[Sn4+] ratio as 0.838, at least 80% transmittance between 380 nm-700 nm visible light. Withthe results, SnO can be even used to fabricate high performance P-type thin film transistors (TFTs) device for future applications.

Reliability of Atmosphere Pressure-Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Deposited Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide Resistive Random Access Memory Device with Microwave Annealing.

Recently resistive random access memory (RRAM) is considered to be the most promising one to become the next generation memory since its simple Metal/Insulator/Metal (MIM) structure, lower power consumption and fabrication cost (Meena, J.S., et al., 2014. Overview of emerging nonvolatile memory technologies. Nanoscale Research Letters, 9(1), p.526). Due to some bottlenecks for current flash memory, such as high operation voltage, low operation speed, poor retention time and endurance, RRAM device is regarded as an alternative solution (Fuh, C.S., et al., 2011. Role of environmental and annealing conditions on the passivation-free In-Ga-Zn-O TFT. Thin Solid Films, 520, pp.1489-1494). In this investigation, the memory layer of RRAM device is IGZO, and it is deposited with AP-PECVD technique which can operate under atmosphere, reduce cost of the process. Microwave annealing (MWA) is used to enhance the RRAM device reliability (Fuh, C.S., et al., 2011. Role of environmental and annealing conditions on the passivation-free In-Ga-Zn-O TFT. Thin Solid Films, 520, pp.1489-1494). Experiment shows that with appropriate MWA treatment, the IGZO RRAM device exhibits better electrical characteristics, reliability issues such as numbers of switching cycle and data retention time are also improved (Teng, L.F., et al., 2012. Effects of microwave annealing on electrical enhancement of amorphous oxide semiconductor thin film transistor. Applied Physics Letters, 101, p.132901).

Effects of P-Type SnOx Thin-Film Transistors with N2 and O2 Ambient Furnace Annealing.

Recently oxide-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) are investigated for emerging applications of the next generation display devices and other electronic circuits (Fortunato, E., et al., 2012. Oxide semiconductor thin-film transistors: A review of recent advances. Advanced Materials, 24, pp.2945-2986). Despite of the great success in n-type oxide semiconductors with high transparency and high field-effect mobility, high performance P-type oxide TFTs are so highly desired that complementary circuits can be realized with low power and high performance (Ou, W.C., et al., 2008. Anomalous P-channel amorphous oxide transistors based on tin oxide and their complementary circuits. Applied Physics Letters, 92, p.122113). There are some oxides such as SnO, CuO, Cu2O and NiO are regarded as promising P-type semiconductor materials. In this investigation, tin oxide SnOx is fabricated to be active layer for TFTs device, and furnace annealing with several combinations of nitrogen and oxygen ambient is compared to enhance the electrical characteristics of P-type SnOx TFTs (Park, K.S., et al., 2009. High performance solution-processed and lithographically patterned zinc-tin oxide thin-film transistors with good operational stability. Electrochemical and Solid-State Lett., 12, pp.H256-H258). The results show that with N2+O2 ambient, 30 minutes furnace annealing, the P-type SnOx TFTs device shows better performance with mobility (µFE) 0.883 cm²/V · S, threshold voltage (VT) -4.63 V, subthreshold swing (SS) 1.15 V/decade, and Ion/Ioff ratio 1.01×103.

Study of Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Fabricated Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide Thin Film Transistors with In-Situ Hydrogen Plasma Treatment.

Amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) has been studied extensively for their perspective applications in next generation active-matrix displays such as liquid crystal displays and flat-panel displays, due to its better field-effect mobility (>10 cm²/V · S), larger Ion/Ioff ratio (>106), and better stability electrical. Hydrogen is known as shallow donors for n-type (channel) oxide semiconductors (Dong, J.J., et al. 2010. Effects of hydrogen plasma treatment on the electrical and optical properties of Zno films: Identification of hydrogen donors in ZnO. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2, pp.1780-1784), and it is also effective passivator for traps (Tsao, S.W., et al., 2010. Hydrogen-induced improvements in electrical characteristics of a-IGZO thin-film transistors. Solid-State Electron, 54, pp.1497-1499). In this study, In-Situ hydrogen plasma is applied to deposit IGZO channel. With atmospheric-pressure PECVD (AP-PECVD), IGZO thin film can be deposited without vacuum system, large area manufacturing, and cost reducing (Chang, K.M., et al., 2011. Transparent conductive indium-doped zinc oxide films prepared by atmospheric pressure plasma jet. Thin Solid Films, 519, pp.5114-5117). The results show that with appropriate flow ratio of Ar/H2 plasma treatment, the a-IGZO TFT device exhibits better performance with mobility (µFE) 19.7 cm²/V · S, threshold voltage (VT) 1.18 V, subthreshold swing (SS) 81 mV/decade, and Ion/Ioff ratio 5.35×107.

Investigation of Microwave Annealing on Resistive Random Access Memory Device with Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Deposited IGZO Layer.

Non-volatile memory (NVM) is essential in almost every consumer electronic products. The most prevalent NVM used nowadays is flash memory (Meena, J.S., et al., 2014. Overview of emerging nonvolatile memory technologies. Nanoscale Res. Letters, 9(1), p.526). However, some bottlenecks of flash memory have been identified, such as high operation voltage, low operation speed, and poor retention time. Resistive random access memory (RRAM) is considered to be the most promising one to become the next generation NVM device since its simple structure, fast program/erase speed, and low power consumption. In this experiment, the RRAM device is fabricated, and its IGZO (memory) layer is deposited with AP-PECVD technique which can reduce cost of the process. Microwave annealing (MWA) is used to enhance electrical characteristics of the RRAM device (Fuh, C.S., et al., 2011. Role of environmental and annealing conditions on the passivation-free In-Ga- Zn-O TFT. Thin Solid Films, 520, pp.1489-1494). Experiment results show that with appropriate MWA treatment, the IGZO RRAM device exhibits better electrical characteristics under bipolar operation, all forming/set/reset voltage for RRAM device is simultaneously lowered.

The Effect of Microwave Annealing of Reliability Characteristics on Amorphous IGZO Thin Film Transistors.

Amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) are attracted much attention due to high mobility, low temperature deposition, flexible, transmission, and uniformity. The thin film transistors (TFTs) with a-IGZO thin film as active layer perform higher field-effect mobility (>10 cm²/V·S), larger Ion/Ioff ratio (106), smaller subthreshold swing and better stability against electrical stress. LaAlO3/ZrO2 is employed as gate electrode and gate dielectric layer for a-IGZO TFTs, under the premise that performance of a-IGZO TFTs without decreasing. Due to the good selectivity of energy transformation and rapid heating rate, microwave annealing is applied to improve the device reliability in the investigation. With adjusting the parameter of microwave annealing, the effect on reliability characteristics of a-IGZO TFTs is studied.

Investigation of Electrical Characteristics on LaAlO3/ZrO2/IGZO TFTs with Microwave Annealing.

Conventional thin film transistor suffered from high threshold voltage, poor subthreshold swing, and high operation voltage. These shortcomings make the traditional thin film transistor does not meet the needs with the high-performance, high-resolution, low temperature and energy conservation nowadays. Due to the good selectivity of energy transformation and rapid heating rate, microwave annealing is promising to replace conventional furnace annealing and applied in the investigation. LaAlO3/ZrO2 is employed as gate electrode and gate dielectric layer for a-IGZO TFTs, under the premise that performance of a-IGZO TFTs without decreasing. With adjusting the power/time of microwave annealing, the effect on electrical characteristics of a-IGZO TFTs is investigated.

Investigation of Electrical Characteristics on AP-PECVD Fabricated Amorphous IGZO TFTs with Hydrogen Plasma Treatment.

TFT panel production process can be divided into three kinds of technology. There have amorphous silicon (a-Si), low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) and amorphous IGZO (a-IGZO) oxide. Traditional amorphous silicon (a-Si) silicon has a lot of advantages such as good productivity, short process and low-cost. It also has a lot of shortcomings on these applications on TFTs such as photosensitivity, light degradation, and opacity, etc. The dispute of the material based on a-Si:H as an active layer in TFT is low field effect mobility (~1 cm²/V·S) (M. Shur and M. Hack, J. Appl. Phys. 55, 3831 (1984)), photo sensitivity (low band gap about 1.7 V) and high deposition temperature (~400 °C) (M. Shur, et al., J. Appl. Phys. 66, 3371 (1989); K. khakzar and E. H. Lueder, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 39, 1438 (1992)). Amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (IGZO) had attracted attention that compared with the conventional a-Si:H, in the past three years, a-IGZO thin film transistors is more popular which compared with the other oxide semiconductors, because of its larger Ion/Ioff ratio (>106, smaller subthreshold swing (SS), better field-effect mobility and better stability against electrical stress. Hydrogen plasma treatment is applied in improving a-IGZO TFTs active layer, which is fabricated by atmospheric pressure-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD), the electrical characteristics of a-IGZO TFTs is investigated.

Study of In-Situ Hydrogen Plasma Treatment on InGaZnO with Atmospheric Pressure-Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition.

In the past few years, thin film transistors have a wide range of applications on display technology, material selection and quality for its active layer is critical for device performance. Traditional amorphous silicon (a-Si) silicon has a lot of advantages such as good productivity, short process and low-cost. It also has a lot of shortcomings on these applications on TFTs such as photosensitivity, light degradation, and opacity, etc. The dispute of the material based on a-Si:H as an active layer in TFT is low field effect mobility (~1 cm²/V·S) (M. Shur and M. Hack, J. Appl. Phys. 55, 3831 (1984)), photo sensitivity (low band gap about 1.7 V) and high deposition temperature (~400 °C) (M. Shur, et al., J. Appl. Phys. 66, 3371 (1989); K. Khakzar and E. H. Lueder, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 39, 1438 (1992)). Amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (IGZO) had attracted attention that compared with the conventional a-Si:H, due to its good properties of simultaneously high/low conductivity with high visual transparency via doping level. Oxide-based semiconductors, such as ZnO (G. Adamopoulos, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 133507-3 (2009); H.-C. Cheng, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 012113-3 (2007)) and IGZO (C. J. Chiu, et al., Electron Device Letters, IEEE 31, 1245 (2010); L. Linfeng and P. Junbiao, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 58, 1452 (2011)) have been reported for the active channel layer. These oxide-based materials offer good electrical properties and high transparency for thin film transistors, its high transmittance can be applied to fabricate the full transparent TFT on flexible substrate. With In-Situ hydrogen plasma treatment on a-IGZO produced by atmospheric pressure-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD), the material characteristics of a-IGZO is studied.

Using KrF ELA to Improve Gate-Stacked LaAlO3/ZrO2 Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide Thin-Film Transistors with Novel Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Technique.

Atmospheric pressure plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD) technique and KrF excimer laser annealing (ELA) were employed for the fabrication of indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistors (IGZO-TFTs). Device with a 150 mJ/cm2 laser annealing densities demonstrated excellent electrical characteristics with improved on/off current ratio of 4.7×107, high channel mobility of 10 cm2/V-s, and low subthreshold swing of 0.15 V/dec. The improvements are attributed to the adjustment of oxygen vacancies in the IGZO channel to an appropriate range of around 28.3% and the reduction of traps at the high-k/IGZO interface.

Investigation of Gate-Stacked In-Ga-Zn-O TFTs with Ga-Zn-O Source/Drain Electrodes by Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition.

Atmospheric pressure plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD) was employed for the fabrication of indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistors (IGZO TFTs) with high transparent gallium zinc oxide (GZO) source/drain electrodes. The influence of post-deposition annealing (PDA) temperature on GZO source/drain and device performance was studied. Device with a 300 °C annealing demonstrated excellent electrical characteristics with on/off current ratio of 2.13 × 108, saturation mobility of 10 cm2/V-s, and low subthreshold swing of 0.2 V/dec. The gate stacked LaAlO3/ZrO2 of AP-IGZO TFTs with highly transparent and conductive AP-GZO source/drain electrode show excellent gate control ability at a low operating voltage.

Investigation of Defect Free SiGe Nanowire Biosensor Modified by Dual Plasma Technology.

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) have been extensively investigated and discussed in various fields due to their unique physical properties. In this paper, we successfully produce SiGe NWs biosensor by VLSI technology. We propose the dual plasma technology with CF4 plasma pre-treatment and N2 plasma post-treatment for repairs of defects as well as optimization of SiGe NWs biosensor. The results indicate that sensitivity (S) of the biosensor with dual plasma technology has significantly improved at least 32.8%, suitable for producing industrial SiGe NWs biosensor in the future.

The Performance Improvement of N2 Plasma Treatment on ZrO2 Gate Dielectric Thin-Film Transistors with Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition IGZO Channel.

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the N2 plasma treatment for high-κ ZrO2 gate dielectric stack (30 nm) with indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). Experimental results reveal that a suitable incorporation of nitrogen atoms could enhance the device performance by eliminating the oxygen vacancies and provide an amorphous surface with better surface roughness. With N2 plasma treated ZrO2 gate, IGZO channel is fabricated by atmospheric pressure plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD) technique. The best performance of the AP-PECVD IGZO TFTs are obtained with 20 W-90 sec N2 plasma treatment with field-effect mobility (µ(FET)) of 22.5 cm2/V-s, subthreshold swing (SS) of 155 mV/dec, and on/off current ratio (I(on)/I(off)) of 1.49 x 10(7).

A novel pH-dependent drift improvement method for zirconium dioxide gated pH-ion sensitive field effect transistors.

A novel compensation method for Zirconium dioxide gated Ion Sensitive Field Effect Transistors (ISFETs) to improve pH-dependent drift was demonstrated. Through the sequential measurements for both the n-channel and p-channel ISFETs, 75-100% pH-dependent drift could be successfully suppressed for the first seven hours. As a result, a nearly constant drift rate versus pH value was obtained, which increases the accuracy of pH measurements. Meanwhile, the drawback of the hyperbolic-like change with time of the common drift behavior for ISFETs was improved. A state-of-the-art integrated scheme adopting this method was also illustrated.

Development of an ion sensitive field effect transistor based urea biosensor with solid state reference systems.

Ion sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) based urease biosensors with solid state reference systems for single-ended and two-ended differential readout electronics were investigated. The sensing membranes of the biosensors were fabricated with urease immobilized in a conducting polymer-based matrix. The responses of 12.9∼198.1 mV for the urea concentrations of 8∼240 mg/dL reveal that the activity of the enzyme was not significantly decreased. Biosensors combined with solid state reference systems were fabricated, and the evaluation results demonstrated the feasibility of miniaturization. For the differential system, the optimal transconductance match for biosensor and reference field-effect transistors (REFET) pair was determined through the modification of the membranes of the REFETs and enzyme field-effect transistors (EnFETs). The results show that the transconductance curve of polymer based REFET can match with that of the EnFET by adjusting the photoresist/Nafion™ ratio. The match of the transconductance curves for the differential pairs provides a wide dynamic operating measurement range. Accordingly, the miniaturized quasi-reference electrode (QRE)/REFET/EnFET combination with differential arrangement achieved similar urea response curves as those measured by a conventional large sized discrete sensor.