Search

We have measured the low-frequency noises of ultrathin indium tin oxide films to investigate the effect of post annealing on the noise level. The noises obtained obey an approximate 1/f law in the frequency range f ≈ 0.1–20 Hz. The microstructures and grain sizes of our films were altered by adjusting the annealing conditions. An enhancement of the noise level was observed for those samples comprising smaller grains, where numerous grain boundaries exist. This enhancement in the noise level is ascribed to atomic diffusion along grain boundaries or dynamics of two-level systems near the grain boundaries.

By using microwave annealing technology instead of thermal furnace annealing, this work elucidates the electrical characteristics of amorphous InGaZnO thin film transistor (a-IGZO TFT) with a carrier mobility of 13.5 cm2/Vs, threshold voltage of 3.28 V, and subthreshold swing of 0.43 V/decade. This TFT performance with microwave annealing of 100 s is well competitive with its counterpart with furnace annealing at 450 °C for 1 h. A physical mechanism for the electrical improvement is also deduced. Owing to its low thermal budget and selective heating to materials of interest, microwave annealing is highly promising for amorphous oxide in semiconductor TFT manufacturing.

With a dark-mode scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM), we directly observed the influence of SCM modulation voltage (MV) on image contrasts. For electrical junctions, an extensive modulated area induced by MV may lead to noticeable changes in the SCM signal phase and intensity, resulting in a narrowed junction image and a broadened carrier concentration profile. This contrast distortion in SCM images may occur even if the peak-to-peak MV is down to 0.3 V. In addition, MV may shift the measured electrical junction depth. The balance of SCM signals components explain these MV-induced contrast distortions.

Reduction in RESET current is crucial for future high-density resistive-switching memory. We have reported a unipolar-switching Ni/HfO2/Si structure with low RESET current of 50 μA and RESET power of 30 μW. In addition, a unique cycling evolution of RESET current across more than two orders of magnitude allows us to probe into the evolvement of filament morphology at nanoscale, using a simple yet quantitative model. Filament morphology was found to depend strongly on the charge-dissipation current proportional to the powers of SET voltage. Moreover, the formation of inactive semiconductive filaments plays an important role in the reduction in RESET current.

In this paper, location-controlled silicon crystal grains are fabricated by the excimer laser crystallization method which employs amorphous silicon spacer structure and prepatterned thin films. The amorphous silicon spacer in nanometer-sized width formed using spacer technology is served as seed crystal to artificially control superlateral growth phenomenon during excimer laser irradiation. An array of 1.8-μm-sized disklike silicon grains is formed, and the n-channel thin-film transistors whose channels located inside the artificially-controlled crystal grains exhibit higher performance of field-effect-mobility reaching 308cm2∕Vs as compared with the conventional ones. This position-manipulated silicon grains are essential to high-performance and good uniformity devices.

Characteristics of n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors with SiN capping were investigated in this work. Although the SiN capping could dramatically enhance the carrier mobility and thus the device drive current, the resistance to hot-carrier degradation is compromised as well, owing to the large amount of hydrogen contained in the SiN layer which may diffuse into the channel region during the process. To eliminate this shortcoming, the insertion of an ultrathin (10nm) polycrystalline-silicon buffer layer between the gate and the SiN capping was proposed and demonstrated to restore the hot-carrier reliability of the devices without compromising the current enhancement due to the SiN capping.

This investigation characterizes electrical characteristics of continuous-wave green laser-annealed single-grainlike silicon thin-film transistors in relation to trap-state densities. As laser power increases, highly crystalline channels form, reducing tail-state densities to as low as 3×1019eV−1cm−3. This occurrence is responsible for high field-effect electron mobility of 284cm2∕Vs. In contrast, increasing laser power initially reduces the deep-state density and then increases it to 3×1016eV−1cm−3. This reversal in deep-state density and thus in the subthreshold slope as well as a saturating reduction in threshold voltage are associated with the formation of extra interface defects caused by laser-crystallization-enhanced surface roughness.