• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.519-525
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• 2015

Positive bias stress-induced instability in amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) bottom-gate thin-film transistors (TFTs) was investigated under high $V_{GS}$/low $V_{DS}$ and low $V_{GS}$/high $V_{DS}$ stress conditions through incorporating a forward/reverse $V_{GS}$ sweep and a low/high $V_{DS}$ read-out conditions. Our results showed that the electron trapping into the gate insulator dominantly occurs when high $V_{GS}$/low $V_{DS}$ stress is applied. On the other hand, when low $V_{GS}$/high $V_{DS}$ stress is applied, it was found that holes are uniformly trapped into the etch stopper and electrons are locally trapped into the gate insulator simultaneously. During a recovery after the high $V_{GS}$/low $V_{DS}$ stress, the trapped electrons were detrapped from the gate insulator. In the case of recovery after the low $V_{GS}$/high $V_{DS}$ stress, it was observed that the electrons in the gate insulator diffuse to a direction toward the source electrode and the holes were detrapped to out of the etch stopper. Also, we found that the potential profile in the a-IGZO bottom-gate TFT becomes complicatedly modulated during the positive $V_{GS}/V_{DS}$ stress and the recovery causing various threshold voltages and subthreshold swings under various read-out conditions, and this modulation needs to be fully considered in the design of oxide TFT-based active matrix organic light emitting diode display backplane.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.207-207
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• 2011

Amorphous transparent oxide semiconductors (a-TOS) have been widely studied for many optoelectronic devices such as AM-OLED (active-matrix organic light emitting diodes). Recently, Nomura et al. demonstrated high performance amorphous IGZO (In-Ga-Zn-O) TFTs.1 Despite the amorphous structure, due to the conduction band minimum (CBM) that made of spherically extended s-orbitals of the constituent metals, an a-IGZO TFT shows high mobility.2,3 But IGZO films contain high cost rare metals. Therefore, we need to investigate the alternatives. Because Aluminum has a high bond enthalpy with oxygen atom and Alumina has a high lattice energy, we try to replace Gallium with Aluminum that is high reserve low cost material. In this study, we focused on the electrical properties of IZO:Al thin films as a channel layer of TFTs. IZO:Al were deposited on unheated non-alkali glass substrates (5 cm ${\times}$ 5 cm) by magnetron co-sputtering system with two cathodes equipped with IZO target and Al target, respectively. The sintered ceramic IZO disc (3 inch ${\phi}$, 5 mm t) and metal Al target (3 inch ${\phi}$, 5 mm t) are used for deposition. The O2 gas was used as the reactive gas to control carrier concentration and mobility. Deposition was carried out under various sputtering conditions to investigate the effect of sputtering process on the characteristics of IZO:Al thin films. Correlation between sputtering factors and electronic properties of the film will be discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.293-297
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• 2010

We have studied the optical and electrical properties of a-IGZO thin films on the n-type semiconductor fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering method. The ceramic target was used in which $In_2O_3$, $Ga_2O_3$ and ZnO powder were mixed with 1:1:2 mol% ratio and furnished. The RF power was set at 25 W, 50 W, 75 W and 100 W as a variable process condition. The transmittance of the films in the visible range was above 80%, and it was 92% in the case of 25 W power. AFM analysis showed that the roughness increased as increasing RF power, and XRD showed amorphous structure of the films without any peak. The films are electrically characterized by high mobility above 10 $cm^2/V{\cdot}s$ at low RF power, high carrier concentration and low resistivity. It is required to study further finding the optimal process condition such as lowering the RF power, prolonging the deposition ratio and qualification analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.267.1-267.1
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• 2016

본 연구에서는 nematic 액정의 종류 중 하나인 5CB (4-Cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl) 물질을 박막 트랜지스터 (TFT)의 passivation 층으로 사용했을 때 그 전기적 특성향상을 확인하였다. RF-magnetron sputtering법으로 증착된 비정질 InGaZnO 박막을 활성층으로 사용한 TFT를 제작하여 그 활성층 위에 drop형식으로 passivation 하였다. 그 결과, drain current (I_DS)가 약 10배 정도 증가하고, linear region(V_D=0.5V)에서 mobility와 subthreshold slope(SS)이 각각 6.7에서 12.2, 0.3에서 0.2로 향상되는 것이 보였다. 이것은 gate bias가 인가되었을 때 freedericksz 전이를 통한 액정의 배향과 이때 형성된 dipole 형성에 의한 것으로 보이며, 이러한 LC의 배향은 편광현미경을 통하여 표면과 수직으로 배향한다는 사실을 확인 할 수 있었고 이 LC-passivation된 a-IGZO TFT의 전기적 특성의 향상에 대한 mechanism을 제시하였다. 그리고 배향한 LC가 가지는 dipole에 의해 bias stress 상황에서 독특한 electron trapping과 recovery의 증폭효과가 나타났다. V_G=+20V의 positive gate bias stress를 1000s동안 가했을 때, passivation되지 않은 a-IGZO TFT의 경우 +4V의 threshold voltage shift(${\Delta}V$_TH)가 발생되었고, 바로 -20V의 negative gate bias를 30s간 가해주었을 때 -2.5V의 ${\Delta}V$_TH가 발생하였다. 반면 LC-passivation된 a-IGZO TFT의 경우 각각 +5V와 -4V의 ${\Delta}V$_TH로 더 큰 변화를 가져왔다. 이러한 LC에 의한 electron trapping/recovery 증폭효과에 대한 model을 제시하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.420-420
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• 2014

최근, 과학 기술이 발달함에 따라 현장에서의 실시간 검사 및 자가 지단 등 질병 치유에 대한 사람들의 관심이 증가하고 있으며, 이에 따라 의료, 환경, 산업과 같은 많은 분야에서 바이오 센서에 대한 연구가 활발하게 이루어지고 있다. 그 중, EGFET는 전해질 속의 각종 이온 농도를 전기적으로 측정하는 바이오 센서로, 외부 환경으로부터 안전하고, 제작이 쉬우며, 재활용이 가능하여 비용을 절감 할 수 있다는 장점을 가지고 있다 [1]. EGFET는 감지부와 FET부로 분리된 구조를 가지고 있으며, 감지부의 감지막으로는 Al2O3, HfO2, $TiO_2$, SnO2 와 같은 다양한 물질들이 사용되고 있다. 그 중, SnO2는 우수한 감도와 안정성을 가지고 있는 물질로 추가적인 열처리 공정 없이도 우수한 감지 특성을 나타내기 때문에 본 연구에서 감지막으로 사용하였다. 한편, EGFETs 의 FET부로는 기존의 비정질 실리콘 TFTs 에 비해 10배 이상의 높은 이동도와 온/오프 전류비를 갖는 InGaZnO 를 채널층으로 사용한 TFTs 를 사용하였다. a-IGZO 는 넓은 밴드 갭으로 인해 가시광 영역에서 투명하며, 향후 투명 바이오센서 제작 시, 물질들 사이의 반응을 전기적 신호뿐만 아니라 광학적인 분석 방법으로도 검출이 가능하기에 고 신뢰성을 갖는 센서의 제작이 가능할 것으로 기대된다. 한편, a-IGZO TFTs 의 경우 우수한 전기적 특성을 나타냄에도 불구하고 소자 동작 시 문턱 전압이 불안정하다는 단점이 있으며 [2], 이러한 문제의 개선과 향후 투명 기판 위에서의 소자 제작을 위해서는 저온 열처리 공정이 필수적이다. 따라서, 본 연구에서는 저온 열처리 공정인 u-wave 열처리를 통하여 a-IGZO TFTs 의 전기적 특성 및 안정성을 향상시켰으며, 9.51 [$cm2/V{\cdot}s$]의 이동도와 135 [mV/dec] 의 SS값, 0.99 [V]의 문턱 전압, 1.18E+08의 온/오프 전류 비를 갖는 고성능 스위칭 TFTs 를 제작하였다. 최종적으로, 제작된 a-IGZO TFTs 를 SnO2 감지막을 갖는 EGFETs 에 적용함으로써 우수한 감지 특성과 안정성을 갖는 바이오 센서를 제작하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.281-285
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• 2020

Oxide semiconductor devices have become increasingly important because of their high mobility and good uniformity. The channel length of oxide semiconductor thin film transistors (TFTs) also shrinks as the display resolution increases. It is well known that reducing the channel length of a TFT is detrimental to the current saturation because of drain-induced barrier lowering, as well as the movement of the pinch-off point. In an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), the lack of current saturation in the driving TFT creates a major problem in the control of OLED current. To obtain improved current saturation in short channels, we fabricated indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) TFTs with single gate and double gate structures, and evaluated the electrical characteristics of both devices. For the double gate structure, we connected the bottom gate electrode to the source electrode, so that the electric potential of the bottom gate was fixed to that of the source. We denote the double gate structure with the bottom gate fixed at the source potential as the BGFP (bottom gate with fixed potential) structure. For the BGFP TFT, the current saturation, as determined by the output characteristics, is better than that of the conventional single gate TFT. This is because the change in the source side potential barrier by the drain field has been suppressed.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.594-600
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• 2014

A threshold voltage compensation pixel circuit was developed for active-matrix organic light emitting diodes (AMOLEDs) using amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide thin-film transistors (a-IGZO-TFTs). Oxide TFTs are n-channel TFTs; therefore, we developed a circuit for the n-channel TFT characteristics. The proposed pixel circuit was verified and proved by circuit analysis and circuit simulations. The proposed circuit was able to compensate for the threshold voltage variations of the drive TFT in AMOLEDs. The error rate of the OLED current for a threshold voltage change of 3 V was as low as 1.5%.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.1193-1196
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• 2009

Low resistivity interconnection and high-mobility channel are required to realize ultrahigh-definition LCDs such as 4k ${\times}$ 2k TVs. We evaluated fully Cu-based gate and Source/Drain interconnections, consisting of stacked pure-Cu/Cu-Mn layers for TFT-LCDs, and found the underlying Cu-Mn alloy film has superior adhesion to glass substrates and CVD-SiOx films. It was also confirmed that wet etching of the Cu/Cu-Mn films without residues and low contact resistance with both channel IGZO and pixel ITO films can be obtained. It is thus considered that the stacked Cu/Cu-Mn structure is one of candidates to replacing conventionally pure-Cu/refractory metal.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.179-183
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• 2012

In this paper, a gate driver circuit for In-Ga-Zn-O thin-film transistors (TFTs) driven by only two clock signals is reported. In this circuit, the TFTs are turned off with a negative $V_{GS}$ by the two clock signals. As a result, it works properly and suppresses power consumption increase even though the TFT $V_T$ shifts in the negative direction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.252-253
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• 2011

ZnO-based thin film transistors (TFTs) are of great interest for application in next generation flat panel displays. Most research has been based on amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) TFTs, rather than single binary oxides, such as ZnO, due to the reproducibility, uniformity, and surface smoothness of the IGZO active channel layer. However, recently, intrinsic ZnO-TFTs have been investigated, and TFT- arrayss have been demonstrated as prototypes of flat-panel displays and electronic circuits. However, ZnO thin films have some significant problems for application as an active channel layer of TFTs; it was easy to change the electrical properties of the i-ZnO thin films under external conditions. The variable electrical properties lead to unstable TFTs device characteristics under bias stress and/or temperature. In order to obtain higher performance and more stable ZnO-based TFTs, HZO thin film was used as an active channel layer. It was expected that HZO-TFTs would have more stable electrical characteristics under gate bias stress conditions because the binding energy of Hf-O is greater than that of Zn-O. For deposition of HZO thin films, Hf would be substituted with Zn, and then Hf could be suppressed to generate oxygen vacancies. In this study, the fabrication of the oxide-based TFTs with HZO active channel layer was reported with excellent stability. Application of HZO thin films as an active channel layer improved the TFT device performance and bias stability, as compared to i-ZnO TFTs. The excellent negative bias temperature stress (NBTS) stability of the device was analyzed using the HZO and i-ZnO TFTs transfer curves acquired at a high temperature (473 K).