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Impact of humidity on the electrical performance of amorphous oxide semiconductor thin‐film transistors
Author(s) -
Hoshino Ken,
Yeh Bao,
Wager John F.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of the society for information display
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.578
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1938-3657
pISSN - 1071-0922
DOI - 10.1002/jsid.184
Subject(s) - thin film transistor , materials science , subthreshold slope , optoelectronics , amorphous solid , oxide thin film transistor , relative humidity , hysteresis , transistor , subthreshold conduction , threshold voltage , semiconductor , oxide , layer (electronics) , voltage , composite material , electrical engineering , metallurgy , chemistry , condensed matter physics , physics , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , engineering
An indium–gallium–zinc oxide or a zinc–tin oxide thin‐film transistor (TFT) fabricated when the relative humidity in the laboratory is less than 50% is found to exhibit good electrical performance, with an abrupt, distortion‐free transfer curve and a turn‐on voltage close to 0 V. In contrast, when such an amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) TFT is fabricated at a relative humidity greater than 50%, its “as‐fabricated” electrical performance is very poor, typically characterized by a large amount of hysteresis, a strongly negative turn‐on voltage, and a kink‐like distortion in the subthreshold region of its transfer curve. However, the electrical performance of such a poor‐quality TFT is observed to improve over time, if it is simply stored in the dark at room temperature without being subjected to electrical stress. This recovery usually requires weeks (months) for an unpassivated (passivated) AOS TFT. Recovery is tentatively ascribed to the gradual removal of moisture from the AOS TFT channel layer.