Facile DUV Irradiated Solution-Processed ZrO2/In2O3 for Low Voltages FET Applications

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices 2024-06, Vol.71 (6), p.3705-3713
• Main Authors: Gupta, Prachi, Sharma, Satinder K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Annealing; Budgets; Current leakage; Deep-ultraviolet (DUV) irradiation; Dielectrics; Electric contacts; Equipment costs; Fast Fourier transforms; Field effect transistors; field-effect transistors (FETs); Indium; indium oxide (In₂O₃); Indium oxides; Irradiation; Leakage current; low temperature; Low voltage; Metal oxide semiconductors; Radiation effects; Reliability analysis; Semiconductor devices; Silicon; Silicon dioxide; solution-processed; Thermal stability; Thin film transistors; Thin films; Threshold voltage; Transconductance; Ultraviolet radiation; Zirconium dioxide; zirconium oxide (ZrO₂)
• ISSN: 0018-9383; 1557-9646
• DOI: 10.1109/TED.2024.3395422

Prime challenges for device integration in metal-oxide semiconductors are low voltage operations, low thermal budget, and large area stable thin films for high-performance field-effect transistors (FETs). Although more, high equipment costs and device scalability issues remain challenges with thin film processing. Henceforth, here we present fully solution-processed thin indium oxide (In2O3) ( {E}_{g}~\sim ~3.2 eV) semiconducting film integrated with high- \kappa (~14.68) ZrO2 dielectric thin film for high-performance FETs. Top gate bottom contact (TGBC) architecture is optimized for driving low voltage operations, whereas a low thermal budget ( \lt 300~^{\circ } C) has been made possible with (~1 min) facile deep-ultraviolet (DUV) (~254 nm) irradiation. Al/ZrO2/In2O3/Pt/SiO2/Si FETs operate well below (~0.5 V), with a high {I}_{\text {ON}} / {I}_{\text {OFF}} ratio ( \sim 1.1\times 10^{{4}} ), low subthreshold swing (SS) (~104 mV/dec), threshold voltage ( \sim -0.3 V), transconductance ( \sim 1.44~\mu s @ 0.5 V), respectively. The effective field-effect mobility in the linear region is ~44.2 cm2/Vs at {V}_{\text {DS}} =0.1 V, and in the saturation region is ~15.0 cm2/Vs at {V}_{\text {DS}} =0.5 V, respectively. The interface trap density \sim 2.5\times 10^{{12}} /eV cm2 for ZrO2/In2O3 was investigated by conductance (G-V) technique, also electrical stress investigations were performed for reliability analysis. The gate leakage current is ~7.05 nA/cm2 at {V}_{\text {GS}} =1 V. This work demonstrates the high performance of DUV irradiated solution processed Al/ZrO2/In2O3/Pt thin-film transistor (TFT) structu