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Improving Electrical Stability of a-InGaZnO Thin-Film Transistors with Thermally Deposited Self-Assembled Monolayers

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Abstract

Amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) TFTs become mainstream at the forefront of display backplanes and are actively expanding their area for next-generation optoelectronic devices such as flexible and transparent displays. For flexible displays, low temperature processed passivation technology is required to keep the reliability of the electrical properties in a-IGZO TFTs without damaging flexible plastic substrates. Here, we proposed a low-temperature passivation process using a dual-chamber system. A high-quality passivation layer composed of octadecyl-trichlorosilane was formed at 140 °C under vacuum on the back-channel of a-IGZO TFTs using the system. The thermally deposited self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) enable the formation of hydrophobic surfaces on a-IGZO TFTs, leading to the protection of the back-channel against water and oxygen efficiently. As a result, the electrical characteristics such as the threshold voltage shift, hysteresis, field-effect mobility, and negative bias stress of the SAM treated TFTs were significantly improved compared to those of the control TFTs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by INHA University research grant (Grant No. 63090-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Inha University, 100 Inha-ro, Michuhol-gu, Incheon, 22212, Republic of Korea

    Mingyu Kim, Seong-Yong Cho, Youn-Seob Shin, Yeong-Cheol Seok, Hye-Won Kim, Ji-Yeon Yoon, Rino Choi & Jeong-Hwan Lee

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  1. Mingyu Kim
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  2. Seong-Yong Cho
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  3. Youn-Seob Shin
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  4. Yeong-Cheol Seok
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  5. Hye-Won Kim
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  6. Ji-Yeon Yoon
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  7. Rino Choi
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  8. Jeong-Hwan Lee
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Correspondence to Rino Choi or Jeong-Hwan Lee.

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Kim, M., Cho, SY., Shin, YS. et al. Improving Electrical Stability of a-InGaZnO Thin-Film Transistors with Thermally Deposited Self-Assembled Monolayers. Electron. Mater. Lett. 16, 451–456 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-020-00232-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-020-00232-1

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