title: Electrothermal Annealing (ETA) Method to Enhance the Electrical Performance of Amorphous-Oxide-Semiconductor (AOS) Thin-Film Transistors (TFTs).
abstract: An electro-thermal annealing (ETA) method, which uses an electrical pulse of less than 100 ns, was developed to improve the electrical performance of array-level amorphous-oxide-semiconductor (AOS) thin-film transistors (TFTs). The practicality of the ETA method was experimentally demonstrated with transparent amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) TFTs. The overall electrical performance metrics were boosted by the proposed method: up to 205% for the trans-conductance (gm), 158% for the linear current (Ilinear), and 206% for the subthreshold swing (SS). The performance enhancement were interpreted by X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS), showing a reduction of oxygen vacancies in a-IGZO after the ETA. Furthermore, by virtue of the extremely short operation time (80 ns) of ETA, which neither provokes a delay of the mandatory TFTs operation such as addressing operation for the display refresh nor demands extra physical treatment, the semipermanent use of displays can be realized.
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering (EE), Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Choong-Ki
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering (EE), Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Eungtaek
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering (EE), Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Myung Keun
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering (EE), Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jun-Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: NASA Ames Research Center , Moffett Field, California 94035, United States.
authors.forename: Myeong-Lok
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Seol
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering (EE), Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hagyoul
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering (EE), Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Tewook
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bang
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering (EE), Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seung-Bae
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: College of Engineering, Korea University , Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sungwoo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jun
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, KAIST , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-Hee K
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering (EE), Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung Cheol
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering (EE), Korea Advanced Institution of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yang-Kyu
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Choi
keywords: In−Ga−Zn-O (IGZO); Joule heat; amorphous-oxide-semiconductor (AOS); electrothermal annealing (ETA); thin-film transistor (TFT)