Bottom-Gate Zinc Oxide Thin-Film Transistors (ZnO TFTs) for AM-LCDs

Abstract

In this paper, high-performance bottom-gate thin-film transistors (TFTs) with transparent zinc oxide (ZnO) channels have been developed. The ZnO film for active channels was deposited by RF magnetron sputtering. The crystallinity of the ZnO film drastically improved when it was deposited on a doublelayer SiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</sub> /SiN <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</sub> gate insulator. In order to achieve a ZnO TFT back-plane for liquid-crystal display (LCD) with the required pattern accuracy, dry etching of the ZnO film in an Ar and CH <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> chemistry has been developed. The etching rate and tapered profile of the ZnO film could be controlled by the Ar content in the etching gases of Ar and CH <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> . The saturation mobility (mu <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">sat</sub> ) of the ZnO TFT strongly depended on a gate voltage. A mu <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">sat</sub> of 5.2 & cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> .(V .s) <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-1</sup> at V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">GS</sub> = 40 V and V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">DS</sub> = 10 V, and an on/off-current ratio of 2.7 x 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">7</sup> were obtained. A drain-current uniformity of plusmn7% was achieved within a radius of 20 mm from the substrate center. A 1.46 -in diagonal LCD with 61 600 pixels has been driven by the ZnO-TFT back-plane. A moving picture image was available on fabricated LCD driven by the ZnO TFTs.