Thin-film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated using amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) channels by rf-magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The conductivity of the a-IGZO films was controlled from ∼10−3to10−6Scm−1 by varying the mixing ratio of sputtering gases, O2∕(O2+Ar), from ∼3.1% to 3.7%. The top-gate-type TFTs operated in n-type enhancement mode with a field-effect mobility of 12cm2V−1s−1, an on-off current ratio of ∼108, and a subthreshold gate voltage swing of 0.2Vdecade−1. It is demonstrated that a-IGZO is an appropriate semiconductor material to produce high-mobility TFTs at low temperatures applicable to flexible substrates by a production-compatible means.

A combinatorial approach was applied to thin-film transistors (TFTs) using amorphous In–Ga–Zn–O semiconductor channels. A large number of TFTs, having n-type channels with different chemical compositions, were fabricated simultaneously on a substrate. A systematic relation was clarified among the compositional ratio of In:Ga:Zn, oxygen partial pressure in film deposition atmosphere, and TFT characteristics. The results provide an experimental basis to understand the roles of each metallic element in the In–Ga–Zn–O system. This information leads to a guideline to tune the metallic compositions for required TFT specifications.

We reported on a two-dimensional simulation of electrical properties of the radio frequency ͑rf͒ sputter amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O ͑a-IGZO͒ thin-film transistors ͑TFTs͒. The a-IGZO TFT used in this work has the following performance: field-effect mobility ͑ eff ͒ of ϳ12 cm 2 / V s, threshold voltage ͑V th ͒ of ϳ1.15 V, subthreshold swing ͑S͒ of ϳ0.13 V / dec, and on/off ratio over 10 10. To accurately simulate the measured transistor electrical properties, the density-of-states model is developed. The donorlike states are also proposed to be associated with the oxygen vacancy in a-IGZO. The experimental and calculated results show that the rf sputter a-IGZO TFT has a very sharp conduction band-tail slope distribution ͑E a = 13 meV͒ and Ti ohmic-like source/drain contacts with a specific contact resistance lower than 2.7ϫ 10 −3 ⍀ cm 2 .

Thin film transistors (TFTs) using polycrystalline tin oxides (SnO–SnO2) channels were formed on glass by a conventional sputtering method and subsequent annealing treatments. SnO-channel TFTs showed p-type operation with on/off current ratios of ∼102 and field-effect mobilities of 0.24 cm2 V−1 s−1. Incorporation of excess oxygen to SnO channel layers did not generate holes but did electrons, which in turn led to n-type operation. This result is explained by transformation to a local SnO2-like structure and finally to SnO2. We propose a simple method to fabricate complimentary circuits by simultaneous selective formation of p- and n-channel TFTs.

A fabrication process of coplanar homojunction thin-film transistors (TFTs) is proposed for amorphous In–Ga–Zn–O (a-IGZO), which employs highly doped contact regions naturally formed by deposition of upper protection layers made of hydrogenated silicon nitride (SiNX:H). The direct deposition of SiNX:H reduced the resistivity of the semiconductive a-IGZO layer down to 6.2×10−3 Ω cm and formed a nearly ideal Ohmic contact with a low parasitic source-to-drain resistance of 34 Ω cm. Simple evaluation of field-effect mobilities (μsat) overestimated their values especially for short-channel TFTs, while the channel resistance method proved that μsat was almost constant at 9.5 cm2 V−1 s−1.

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We report an experimental evidence that some hydrogens passivate electron traps in an amorphous oxide semiconductor, a-In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO). The a-IGZO thin-film transistors (TFTs) annealed at 300 °C exhibit good operation characteristics; while those annealed at ≥400 °C show deteriorated ones. Thermal desorption spectra (TDS) of H2O indicate that this threshold annealing temperature corresponds to depletion of H2O desorption from the a-IGZO layer. Hydrogen re-doping by wet oxygen annealing recovers the good TFT characteristic. The hydrogens responsible for this passivation have specific binding energies corresponding to the desorption temperatures of 300–430 °C. A plausible structural model is suggested.