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Mobility–stability trade-off in oxide thin-film transistors

Nature Electronics volume 4, pages 800–807 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Thin-film transistors based on amorphous oxide semiconductors could be used to create low-cost backplane technology for large flat-panel displays. However, a trade-off between mobility and stability has limited the ability of such devices to replace current polycrystalline silicon technologies. Here we show that the sensitivity of amorphous oxide semiconductors to externally introduced impurities and defects is determined by the location of the conduction-band minimum and the relevant doping ability. Using bilayer-structured thin-film transistors, we identify the exact charge-trapping position under bias stress, which shows that the Fermi-level shift in the active layer can occur via electron donation from carbon-monoxide-related impurities. This mechanism is highly dependent on the location of the conduction-band minimum and explains why carbon-monoxide-related impurities greatly affect the stability of high-mobility indium tin zinc oxide transistors but not that of low-mobility indium gallium zinc oxide transistors. Based on these insights, we develop indium tin zinc oxide transistors with mobilities of 70 cm2 (V s)–1 and low threshold voltage shifts of –0.02 V and 0.12 V under negative- and positive-bias temperature stress, respectively.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of two possible NBS mechanisms.
Fig. 2: Identification of NBTS mechanism utilizing bilayer TFT.
Fig. 3: Universal tendency of electronic structure and electrical properties of AOSs.
Fig. 4: CO-related impurities introduced by photolithography.
Fig. 5: Correlation between CO-related impurity and bias stability.
Fig. 6: Stability test results of ITZO TFTs with different chemical compositions.

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Data availability

The datasets analysed in this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the MEXT Element Strategy Initiative: To Form Core Research Centers (no. JPMXP0112101001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Research Center for Element Strategy, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan

    Yu-Shien Shiah, Kihyung Sim, Yuhao Shi, Masato Sasase, Junghwan Kim & Hideo Hosono

  2. Silvaco, Kyoto, Japan

    Katsumi Abe

  3. WPI-MANA, National Institute for Materials Science, Ibaraki, Japan

    Shigenori Ueda & Hideo Hosono

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  1. Yu-Shien Shiah
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Contributions

H.H. and J.K. supervised the project. Y.-S.S., K.S. and Y.S. fabricated and characterized the samples with support from J.K. M.S. performed the transmission electron microscopy observations. S.U. performed the HAXPES measurements and analyses. K.A. performed the device simulation and analyses. Y.-S.S. wrote the manuscript with contributions mainly from H.H. and J.K. All the authors have given their approval to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Junghwan Kim or Hideo Hosono.

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Peer review information Nature Electronics thanks Sang-Hee Park and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–18 and Tables 1 and 2.

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Shiah, YS., Sim, K., Shi, Y. et al. Mobility–stability trade-off in oxide thin-film transistors. Nat Electron 4, 800–807 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00671-0

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