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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Metal-semiconductor hybrid thin films in field-effect transistors

Metal-semiconductor hybrid thin films consisting of an amorphous oxide semiconductor and a number of aluminum dots in different diameters and arrangements are formed by electron beam lithography and employed for thin-film transistors (TFTs). Experimental and computational demonstrations systematically reveal that the field-effect mobility of the TFTs enhances but levels off as the dot density increases, which originates from variations of the effective channel length that strongly depends on the electric field distribution in a transistor channel.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Plasma treatment effect on charge carrier concentrations and surface traps in a-InGaZnO thin-film transistors

Various plasma treatment effects such as oxygen (O{sub 2}), nitrogen (N{sub 2}), and argon (Ar) on amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistors (a-IGZO TFTs) are investigated. To study oxygen stoichiometry in a-IGZO TFTs with respect to various plasma environments, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was employed. The results showed that oxygen vacancies were reduced by O{sub 2} and N{sub 2} plasmas while they were increased after Ar plasma treatment. Additionally, the effects of plasma treatment on trap distribution in bulk and surface channels were explored by means of low-frequency noise analysis. Details of the mechanisms used for generating and restoring traps on the surface and bulk channel are presented.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

A thermalization energy analysis of the threshold voltage shift in amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide thin film transistors under simultaneous negative gate bias and illumination

It has been previously observed that thin film transistors (TFTs) utilizing an amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) semiconducting channel suffer from a threshold voltage shift when subjected to a negative gate bias and light illumination simultaneously. In this work, a thermalization energy analysis has been applied to previously published data on negative bias under illumination stress (NBIS) in a-IGZO TFTs. A barrier to defect conversion of 0.65–0.75 eV is extracted, which is consistent with reported energies of oxygen vacancy migration. The attempt-to-escape frequency is extracted to be 10{sup 6}−10{sup 7} s{sup −1}, which suggests a weak localization of carriers in band tail states over a 20–40 nm distance. Models for the NBIS mechanism based on charge trapping are reviewed and a defect pool model is proposed in which two distinct distributions of defect states exist in the a-IGZO band gap: these are associated with states that are formed as neutrally charged and 2+ charged oxygen vacancies at the time of film formation. In this model, threshold voltage shift is not due to a defect creation process, but to a change in the energy distribution of states in the band gap upon defect migration as this allows a state formed as a neutrally charged vacancy to be converted into one formed as a 2+ charged vacancy and vice versa. Carrier localization close to the defect migration site is necessary for the conversion process to take place, and such defect migration sites are associated with conduction and valence band tail states. Under negative gate bias stressing, the conduction band tail is depleted of carriers, but the bias is insufficient to accumulate holes in the valence band tail states, and so no threshold voltage shift results. It is only under illumination that the quasi Fermi level for holes is sufficiently lowered to allow occupation of valence band tail states. The resulting charge localization then allows a negative threshold voltage shift, but only under conditions of simultaneous negative gate bias and illumination, as observed experimentally as the NBIS effect.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Low-temperature processable amorphous In-W-O thin-film transistors with high mobility and stability

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) with a high stability and a high field-effect mobility have been achieved using W-doped indium oxide semiconductors in a low-temperature process (∼150 °C). By incorporating WO{sub 3} into indium oxide, TFTs that were highly stable under a negative bias stress were reproducibly achieved without high-temperature annealing, and the degradation of the field-effect mobility was not pronounced. This may be due to the efficient suppression of the excess oxygen vacancies in the film by the high dissociation energy of the bond between oxygen and W atoms and to the different charge states of W ions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Top-gate zinc tin oxide thin-film transistors with high bias and environmental stress stability

Top gated metal-oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) provide two benefits compared to their conventional bottom-gate counterparts: (i) The gate dielectric may concomitantly serve as encapsulation layer for the TFT channel. (ii) Damage of the dielectric due to high-energetic particles during channel deposition can be avoided. In our work, the top-gate dielectric is prepared by ozone based atomic layer deposition at low temperatures. For ultra-low gas permeation rates, we introduce nano-laminates of Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/ZrO{sub 2} as dielectrics. The resulting TFTs show a superior environmental stability even at elevated temperatures. Their outstanding stability vs. bias stress is benchmarked against bottom-gate devices with encapsulation.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Contact resistance improvement using interfacial silver nanoparticles in amorphous indium-zinc-oxide thin film transistors

We describe an approach to reduce the contact resistance at compositional conducting/semiconducting indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) homojunctions used for contacts in thin film transistors (TFTs). By introducing silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) at the homojunction interface between the conducting IZO electrodes and the amorphous IZO channel, we reduce the specific contact resistance, obtained by transmission line model measurements, down to ∼10{sup −2 }Ω cm{sup 2}, ∼3 orders of magnitude lower than either NP-free homojunction contacts or solid Ag metal contacts. The resulting back-gated TFTs with Ag NP contacts exhibit good field effect mobility of ∼27 cm{sup 2}/V s and an on/off ratio >10{sup 7}. We attribute the improved contact resistance to electric field concentration by the Ag NPs.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Rapid low-temperature processing of metal-oxide thin film transistors with combined far ultraviolet and thermal annealing

We propose a combined far ultraviolet (FUV) and thermal annealing method of metal-nitrate-based precursor solutions that allows efficient conversion of the precursor to metal-oxide semiconductor (indium zinc oxide, IZO, and indium oxide, In{sub 2}O{sub 3}) both at low-temperature and in short processing time. The combined annealing method enables a reduction of more than 100 °C in annealing temperature when compared to thermally annealed reference thin-film transistor (TFT) devices of similar performance. Amorphous IZO films annealed at 250 °C with FUV for 5 min yield enhancement-mode TFTs with saturation mobility of ∼1 cm{sup 2}/(V·s). Amorphous In{sub 2}O{sub 3} films annealed for 15 min with FUV at temperatures of 180 °C and 200 °C yield TFTs with low-hysteresis and saturation mobility of 3.2 cm{sup 2}/(V·s) and 7.5 cm{sup 2}/(V·s), respectively. The precursor condensation process is clarified with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. Introducing the FUV irradiation at 160 nm expedites the condensation process via in situ hydroxyl radical generation that results in the rapid formation of a continuous metal-oxygen-metal structure in the film. The results of this paper are relevant in order to upscale printed electronics fabrication to production-scale roll-to-roll environments.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Investigation on the negative bias illumination stress-induced instability of amorphous indium-tin-zinc-oxide thin film transistors

The quantitative analysis of mechanism on negative bias illumination stress (NBIS)-induced instability of amorphous indium-tin-zinc-oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) was suggested along with the effect of equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of gate insulator. The analysis was implemented through combining the experimentally extracted density of subgap states and the device simulation. During NBIS, it was observed that the thicker EOT causes increase in both the shift of threshold voltage and the variation of subthreshold swing as well as the hump-like feature in a transfer curve. We found that the EOT-dependence of NBIS instability can be clearly explicated with the donor creation model, in which a larger amount of valence band tail states is transformed into either the ionized oxygen vacancy V{sub O}{sup 2+} or peroxide O{sub 2}{sup 2−} with the increase of EOT. It was also found that the V{sub O}{sup 2+}-related extrinsic factor accounts for 80%–92% of the total donor creation taking place in the valence band tail states while the rest is taken by the O{sub 2}{sup 2–} related intrinsic factor. The ratio of extrinsic factor compared to the total donor creation also increased with the increase of EOT, which could be explained by more prominent oxygen deficiency. The key founding of our work certainly represents that the established model should be considered very effective for analyzing the instability of the post-indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) ZnO-based compound semiconductor TFTs with the mobility, which is much higher than those of a-IGZO TFTs.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Influence of curvature on the device physics of thin film transistors on flexible substrates

Thin film transistors (TFTs) on elastomers promise flexible electronics with stretching and bending. Recently, there have been several experimental studies reporting the behavior of TFTs under bending and buckling. In the presence of stress, the insulator capacitance is influenced due to two reasons. The first is the variation in insulator thickness depending on the Poisson ratio and strain. The second is the geometric influence of the curvature of the insulator-semiconductor interface during bending or buckling. This paper models the role of curvature on TFT performance and brings to light an elegant result wherein the TFT characteristics is dependent on the area under the capacitance-distance curve. The paper compares models with simulations and explains several experimental findings reported in literature.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Characterization of amorphous multilayered ZnO-SnO{sub 2} heterostructure thin films and their field effect electronic properties

Multilayered ZnO-SnO{sub 2} heterostructure thin films were produced using pulsed laser ablation of pie-shaped ZnO-SnO{sub 2} oxides target, and their structural and field effect electronic transport properties were investigated as a function of the thickness of the ZnO and SnO{sub 2} layers. The films have an amorphous multilayered heterostructure composed of the periodic stacking of the ZnO and SnO{sub 2} layers. The field effect electronic properties of amorphous multilayered ZnO-SnO{sub 2} heterostructure thin film transistors (TFTs) are highly dependent on the thickness of the ZnO and SnO{sub 2} layers. The highest electron mobility of 37 cm{sup 2}/V s, a low subthreshold swing of a 0.19 V/decade, a threshold voltage of 0.13 V, and a high drain current on-to-off ratio of ∼10{sup 10} obtained for the amorphous multilayered ZnO(1.5 nm)-SnO{sub 2}(1.5 nm) heterostructure TFTs. These results are presumed to be due to the unique electronic structure of an amorphous multilayered ZnO-SnO{sub 2} heterostructure film consisting of ZnO, SnO{sub 2}, and ZnO-SnO{sub 2} interface layers.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Design of step composition gradient thin film transistor channel layers grown by atomic layer deposition

In this study, we proposed the artificially designed channel structure in oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) called a “step-composition gradient channel.” We demonstrated Al step-composition gradient Al-Zn-O (AZO) channel structures consisting of three AZO layers with different Al contents. The effects of stacking sequence in the step-composition gradient channel on performance and electrical stability of bottom-gate TFT devices were investigated with two channels of inverse stacking order (ascending/descending step-composition). The TFT with ascending step-composition channel structure (5 → 10 → 14 at. % Al composition) showed relatively negative threshold voltage (−3.7 V) and good instability characteristics with a reduced threshold voltage shift (Δ 1.4 V), which was related to the alignment of the conduction band off-set within the channel layer depending on the Al contents. Finally, the reduced Al composition in the initial layer of ascending step-composition channel resulted in the best field effect mobility of 4.5 cm{sup 2}/V s. We presented a unique active layer of the “step-composition gradient channel” in the oxide TFTs and explained the mechanism of adequate channel design.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effects of low-temperature (120 °C) annealing on the carrier concentration and trap density in amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide thin film transistors

We report an investigation of the effects of low-temperature annealing on the electrical properties of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to characterize the charge carrier concentration, which is related to the density of oxygen vacancies. The field-effect mobility was found to decrease as a function of the charge carrier concentration, owing to the presence of band-tail states. By employing the transmission line method, we show that the contact resistance did not significantly contribute to the changes in device performance after annealing. In addition, using low-frequency noise analyses, we found that the trap density decreased by a factor of 10 following annealing at 120 °C. The switching operation and on/off ratio of the a-IGZO TFTs improved considerably after low-temperature annealing.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Enhanced photocurrent of Ge-doped InGaO thin film transistors with quantum dots

The photocurrent of germanium-doped indium-gallium oxide (GIGO) thin film transistors (TFTs) can be observed when the device is exposed to a ultra-violet light because GIGO is a wide band gap semiconducting material. Therefore, we decorated cadmium selenide (CdSe) quantum-dots (QDs) on the surface of GIGO to increase the photocurrent for low-energy light, i.e., visible light. A 10 nm GIGO film was deposited on the SiO{sub 2}/Si substrate by a radio frequency sputter system. Also, we prepared CdSe QDs with sizes of ∼6.3 nm, which can absorb red visible light. QDs were spin-coated onto the GIGO film, and post-annealing was done to provide cross-linking between QDs. The prepared devices showed a 231% increase in photocurrent when exposed to 650 nm light due to the QDs on the GIGO surface. Measurements to construct an energy level diagram were made using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy to determine the origin of the photocurrent, and we found that the small band gap of CdSe QDs enables the increase in photocurrent in the GIGO TFTs. This result is relevant for developing highly transparent photosensors based on oxide semiconductors and QDs.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Performance regeneration of InGaZnO transistors with ultra-thin channels

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on ultra-thin amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) semiconductors down to 4 nm were studied motivated by the increasing cost of indium. At and below 5 nm, it was found that the field-effect mobility was severely degraded, the threshold voltage increased, and the output characteristics became abnormal showing no saturated current. By encapsulating a layer of polymethyl methacrylate on the IGZO TFTs, the performance of the 5-nm-thick device was effectively recovered. The devices also showed much higher on/off ratios, improved hysteresis, and normal output characteristic curves as compared with devices not encapsulated. The stability of the encapsulated devices was also studied over a four month period.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Evaluation of pulsed laser annealing for flexible multilayer MoS{sub 2} transistors

To realize the proper electrical characteristics of field-effect transistors, the quality of the contact and interface must be improved because they can substantially distort the extracted mobility, especially for materials with low densities of states like molybdenum disulfide (MoS{sub 2}). We show that mechanically flexible MoS{sub 2} thin-film transistors (TFTs) with selectively laser annealed source/drain electrodes achieve enhanced device performance without plastic deformation including higher field-effect mobility (from 19.59 to 45.91 cm{sup 2} V{sup −1} s{sup −1}) in the linear regime, decreased subthreshold swing, and enhanced current saturation. Furthermore, numerical thermal simulations, measured current-voltage characteristics, and contact-free mobility extracted from the Y-function method suggest that the enhanced performance originated from a decrease in the Schottky barrier effect at the contact and an improvement of the channel interface. These results demonstrate that picosecond laser annealing can be a promising technology for building high performance flexible MoS{sub 2} TFTs in flexible/stretchable circuitry, which should be processed at low temperatures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Suppression of excess oxygen for environmentally stable amorphous In-Si-O thin-film transistors

We discuss the environmental instability of amorphous indium oxide (InO{sub x})-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) in terms of the excess oxygen in the semiconductor films. A comparison between amorphous InO{sub x} doped with low and high concentrations of oxygen binder (SiO{sub 2}) showed that out-diffusion of oxygen molecules causes drastic changes in the film conductivity and TFT turn-on voltages. Incorporation of sufficient SiO{sub 2} could suppress fluctuations in excess oxygen because of the high oxygen bond-dissociation energy and low Gibbs free energy. Consequently, the TFT operation became rather stable. The results would be useful for the design of reliable oxide TFTs with stable electrical properties.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Solution processed lanthanum aluminate gate dielectrics for use in metal oxide-based thin film transistors

We report on ZnO-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) employing lanthanum aluminate gate dielectrics (La{sub x}Al{sub 1−x}O{sub y}) grown by spray pyrolysis in ambient atmosphere at 440 °C. The structural, electronic, optical, morphological, and electrical properties of the La{sub x}Al{sub 1−x}O{sub y} films and devices as a function of the lanthanum to aluminium atomic ratio were investigated using a wide range of characterization techniques such as UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, impedance spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and field-effect measurements. As-deposited LaAlO{sub y} dielectrics exhibit a wide band gap (∼6.18 eV), high dielectric constant (k ∼ 16), low roughness (∼1.9 nm), and very low leakage currents (<3 nA/cm{sup 2}). TFTs employing solution processed LaAlO{sub y} gate dielectrics and ZnO semiconducting channels exhibit excellent electron transport characteristics with hysteresis-free operation, low operation voltages (∼10 V), high on/off current modulation ratio of >10{sup 6}, subthreshold swing of ∼650 mV dec{sup −1}, and electron mobility of ∼12 cm{sup 2} V{sup −1} s{sup −1}.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Ar plasma treated ZnON transistor for future thin film electronics

To achieve high-mobility and high-reliability oxide thin film transistors (TFTs), ZnON has been investigated following an anion control strategy based on the substitution of oxygen with nitrogen in ZnO. However, as nitrogen possesses, compared to oxygen, a low reactivity with Zn, the chemical composition of ZnON changes easily, causing in turn a degradation of both the performance and the stability. Here, we have solved the issues of long-time stability and composition non-uniformity while maintaining a high channel mobility by adopting the argon plasma process, which can delay the reaction of oxygen with Zn–O–N; as a result, owing to the formation of very fine nano-crystalline structure in stable glassy phase without changes in the chemical composition, the material properties and stability under e-radiation have significantly improved. In particular, the channel mobility of the ZnON TFTs extracted from the pulsed I−V method was measured to be 138 cm{sup 2}/V s.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗