http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/5/31324/01456901.pdf

Microelectronic circuits

Swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation in thin films significantly modifies the structure and related properties in a controlled manner. In the present study, the 120 MeV Ag ion irradiation on AgInSe2 nanoparticle thin films prepared by the thermal evaporation method and the induced modifications in the structure and other properties are being discussed. The ion irradiation led to the suppression of GIXRD and Raman peaks with increasing ion fluence, which indicated amorphization of the AgInSe2 structure along the path of 120 MeV Ag ions. The Poisson's fitting of the ion fluence dependence of the normalized area under the GIXRD peak of AgInSe2 gave the radius of the ion track as 5.8 nm. Microstructural analysis using FESEM revealed a broad bi-modal distribution of particles with mean particle sizes of 67.5 nm and 159 nm in the pristine film. The ion irradiation led to the development of uniform particles on the film surface with a mean size of 36 nm at high ion fluences. The composition of the film was checked by the energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometer. The UV-visible spectroscopy revealed the increase of the electronic bandgap of AgInSe2 films with an increase in ion fluence due to quantum confinement. The Hall measurement and EDXRF studies showed that the unirradiated and irradiated AgInSe2 films have n-type conductivity and vary with the ion fluence. The changes in the films were tuned with different ion fluence and are favorable for both optical and electronic applications.

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The impact of fluence dependent 120 MeV Ag swift heavy ion irradiation on the changes in structural, electronic, and optical properties of AgInSe2 nano-crystalline thin films for optoelectronic applications

InSnO (ITO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) attract much attention in fields of displays and low-cost integrated circuits (IC). In the present work, we demonstrate the high-performance, robust ITO TFTs that fabricated at process temperature no higher than 100 °C. The influences of channel thickness (tITO, respectively, 6, 9, 12, and 15 nm) on device performance and positive bias stress (PBS) stability of the ITO TFTs are examined. We found that content of oxygen defects positively correlates with tITO, leading to increases of both trap states as well as carrier concentration and synthetically determining electrical properties of the ITO TFTs. Interestingly, the ITO TFTs with a tITO of 9 nm exhibit the best performance and PBS stability, and typical electrical properties include a field-effect mobility (µFE) of 37.69 cm2/Vs, a Von of −2.3 V, a SS of 167.49 mV/decade, and an on–off current ratio over 107. This work paves the way for practical application of the ITO TFTs.

Effects of Channel Thickness on Electrical Performance and Stability of High-Performance InSnO Thin-Film Transistors

Herein, we investigated the effects of active layer thickness (tS) on the electrical characteristics and stability of high-mobility indium–gallium–tin oxide (IGTO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). IGTO TFTs, with tS values of 7 nm, 15 nm, 25 nm, 35 nm, and 50 nm, were prepared for this analysis. The drain current was only slightly modulated by the gate-to-source voltage, in the case of the IGTO TFT with tS = 50 nm. Under positive bias stress (PBS), the electrical stability of the IGTO TFTs with a tS less than 35 nm improved as the tS increased. However, the negative bias illumination stress (NBIS) stability of these IGTO TFTs deteriorated as the tS increased. To explain these phenomena, we compared the O1s spectra of IGTO thin films with different tS values, acquired using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The characterization results revealed that the better PBS stability, and the low NBIS stability, of the IGTO TFTs with thicker active layers were mainly due to a decrease in the number of hydroxyl groups and an increase in the number of oxygen vacancies in the IGTO thin films with an increase in tS, respectively. Among the IGTO TFTs with different tS, the IGTO TFT with a 15-nm thick active layer exhibited the best electrical characteristics with a field-effect mobility (µFE) of 26.5 cm2/V·s, a subthreshold swing (SS) of 0.16 V/dec, and a threshold voltage (VTH) of 0.3 V. Moreover, the device exhibited robust stability under PBS (ΔVTH = 0.9 V) and NBIS (ΔVTH = −1.87 V).

Effects of Active Layer Thickness on the Electrical Characteristics and Stability of High-Mobility Amorphous Indium–Gallium–Tin Oxide Thin-Film Transistors

Wearable bio-sensing devices are considered promising for ubiquitous heath monitoring. To accurately read out small bio-signals, the development of high-performance flexible front-end circuits is crucial. Oxide semiconductors are considered one of the most promising active channel materials for on-polymeric-foil electronics. In this article, a high-gain flexible complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) inverter with a beta ratio of 1, a desirable feature for device miniaturization, was demonstrated by monolithically integrating a top-gated n-type indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) thin-film transistor (TFT) and a bottom-gated p-type SnO TFT on a 5.5- $\mu \text{m}$ -thick polyimide substrate. The influence of atomic layer deposited (ALD)-HfO2 capping layer on the properties of oxide active channels has been analyzed. The flexible inverter exhibited a high static voltage gain of 370 V/V and balanced noise margins (noise margin high of 4.8 V, noise margin low of 4.7 V) for a supply voltage of 10 V. In addition, the voltage transfer characteristics remained virtually unchanged when the device was subjected to an outward or an inward bending radius of 2.5 mm, indicating the complementary oxide-TFT-based inverter is practical for flexible electronics applications.

Flexible Complementary Oxide Thin-Film Transistor-Based Inverter With High Gain

Effects of proton beam irradiation on the physical and chemical properties of IGTO thin films with different thicknesses for thin-film transistor applications

We examined the effects of aluminum (Al) capping layer thickness on the electrical performance and stability of high-mobility indium–gallium–tin oxide (IGTO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). The Al capping layers with thicknesses (tAls) of 3, 5, and 8 nm were deposited, respectively, on top of the IGTO thin film by electron beam evaporation, and the IGTO TFTs without and with Al capping layers were subjected to thermal annealing at 200 °C for 1 h in ambient air. Among the IGTO TFTs without and with Al capping layers, the TFT with a 3 nm thick Al capping layer exhibited excellent electrical performance (field-effect mobility: 26.4 cm2/V s, subthreshold swing: 0.20 V/dec, and threshold voltage: −1.7 V) and higher electrical stability under positive and negative bias illumination stresses than other TFTs. To elucidate the physical mechanism responsible for the observed phenomenon, we compared the O1s spectra of the IGTO thin films without and with Al capping layers using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses. From the characterization results, it was observed that the weakly bonded oxygen-related components decreased from 25.0 to 10.0%, whereas the oxygen-deficient portion was maintained at 24.4% after the formation of the 3 nm thick Al capping layer. In contrast, a significant increase in the oxygen-deficient portion was observed after the formation of the Al capping layers having tAl values greater than 3 nm. These results imply that the thicker Al capping layer has a stronger gathering power for the oxygen species, and that 3 nm is the optimum thickness of the Al capping layer, which can selectively remove the weakly bonded oxygen species acting as subgap tail states within the IGTO. The results of this study thus demonstrate that the formation of an Al capping layer with the optimal thickness is a practical and useful method to enhance the electrical performance and stability of high-mobility IGTO TFTs.

Electrical Performance and Stability Improvements of High-Mobility Indium–Gallium–Tin Oxide Thin-Film Transistors Using an Oxidized Aluminum Capping Layer of Optimal Thickness

We utilized Ni as a floating capping layer in p-channel SnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) to improve their electrical performances. By utilizing the Ni as a floating capping layer, the p-channel SnO TFT showed enhanced mobility as high as 10.5 cm2·V−1·s−1. The increase in mobility was more significant as the length of Ni capping layer increased and the thickness of SnO active layer decreased. The observed phenomenon was possibly attributed to the changed vertical electric field distribution and increased hole concentration in the SnO channel by the floating Ni capping layer. Our experimental results demonstrate that incorporating the floating Ni capping layer on the channel layer is an effective method for increasing the field-effect mobility in p-channel SnO TFTs.

Floating Ni Capping for High-Mobility p-Channel SnO Thin-Film Transistors

Numerous studies have addressed the utilization of oxide thin-film transistor (TFT)-based complementary logic circuits that are based on two-dimensional (2D) planar structures. However, there are fundamental limits to the 2D planar structured complementary logic circuits, such as a large dimension and a large parasitic resistance. This work demonstrated a vertically stacked three-dimensional complementary inverter composed of a p-channel tin monoxide (SnO) TFT and an n-channel indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO) TFT. A bottom-gate p-channel SnO TFT was formed on the top-gate n-channel IGZO TFT with a shared common gate electrode. The fabricated vertically stacked complementary inverter exhibited full swing characteristics with a voltage gain of ~33.6, a high noise margin of 3.13 V, and a low noise margin of 3.16 V at a supplied voltage of 10 V. The achieved voltage gain of the fabricated complementary inverter was higher than that of the vertically stacked complementary inverters composed of other oxide TFTs in previous works. In addition, we showed that the vertically stacked complementary inverter exhibited excellent visible-light photoresponse. This indicates that the oxide TFT-based vertically stacked complementary inverter can be used as a sensitive photo-sensor operating in the visible spectral range with the voltage read-out scheme.

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Hyun-Seok Cha

Papers

Effects of proton beam irradiation on the physical and chemical properties of IGTO thin films with different thicknesses for thin-film transistor applications

Electrical Performance and Stability Improvements of High-Mobility Indium–Gallium–Tin Oxide Thin-Film Transistors Using an Oxidized Aluminum Capping Layer of Optimal Thickness

Effects of Active Layer Thickness on the Electrical Characteristics and Stability of High-Mobility Amorphous Indium–Gallium–Tin Oxide Thin-Film Transistors

Floating Ni Capping for High-Mobility p-Channel SnO Thin-Film Transistors

Oxide Thin-Film Transistor-Based Vertically Stacked Complementary Inverter for Logic and Photo-Sensor Operations.