Indium
oxide (InO
x
) thin films have
attractive carrier transport properties for oxide semiconductors because
of the large isotropic 5 s orbital overlap. In this study, InO
x
films were deposited by plasma-enhanced
atomic layer deposition (PEALD). We evaluated the effects of the ALD
process conditions such as the process temperature, plasma power,
and plasma duration time on the microstructure, physical, chemical,
and electrical properties of the as-deposited InO
x
films. The InO
x
film deposited
at an even growth temperature of 100 °C exhibited a polycrystalline
structure without impurities. As the growth temperature increased,
the (222) orientation became favorable and the surface morphology
of the as-deposited films improved. In addition, staggered-bottom
gate structure thin-film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated to examine
the feasibility of the ALD-processed InO
x
film as a channel material for TFTs. As the growth temperature increased
from 100 to 250 °C, the mobility increased from 3.4 to 12.6 cm2/V s and the hysteresis value decreased from 1.85 to 0.94
V due to increasing carrier concentrations and decreasing defect states,
respectively. Finally, a flexible device was fabricated on a polyethylene
naphthalate substrate; the device parameters of V
th and μsat were determined to be 2.21
V and 16.6 cm2/V s, respectively. These results demonstrate
the potential for fabricating flexible TFT applications using PEALD.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.