Improvement of InGaZnO₄Thin Film Transistors Characteristics Utilizing Excimer Laser Annealing

Abstract

This paper describes a method for utilizing an excimer laser to improve the characteristics of InGaZnO4 (IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). IGZO-TFTs fabricated at room temperature are irradiated with an excimer laser to raise the temperature of the IGZO films for only a very short time, some tens of ns. The ON current of an irradiated IGZO-TFT is more than one order of magnitude higher than that of an un-irradiated TFT. This method is promising for achieving high performance IGZO-TFTs on plastic substrates because the thermal damage to substrates will be much less than that which would result from furnace annealing.