Influence of RF power in the sputter deposition of amorphous InGaZnO film on the transient drain current of amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors.

• We investigated a-IGZO TFT current's transient behavior with varying RF power during sputter-deposition. • IGZO film are analyzed through XPS and AFM. • The occurrence level of each component changes sensitively according to RF power. • There exist optimized RF sputter power conditions that improve reliability. The device electrical and transient current characteristics of the amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) are comprehensively investigated according to the radio-frequency (RF) power during the sputter-deposition of IGZO active film. The RF power dependencies of the oxygen vacancy (V O) concentration in IGZO and the surface morphology of IGZO film are analyzed through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscope (AFM). According to the RF power change in the range of 100 ∼ 250 W, the optimal point in terms of threshold voltage (V T), ON current (I on), field-effect mobility in the linear region (μ FE_lin), hysteresis voltage (V Hys), and the V T shift under current stress (ΔV T) is found to be 200 W. The existence of the optimal power condition originates from the RF-power dependencies of the electron carrier concentration, the density of electron traps in gate insulator (GI), and the interface trap density related to surface roughness. Furthermore, compared to the direct current (DC) current stress (CS) condition, it is found that when V GS rises rapidly, a total transient current ΔI D can be decomposed into three components, i.e., ΔI OS , ΔI BOOST , ΔI DEG. While ΔI OS is attributed to the non-quasi static Fermi-level rising, ΔI BOOST and ΔI DEG result from the donor creation in IGZO and the electron trapping into GI and interface. Noticeably, the occurrence level of each component changes sensitively according to RF power. Our result suggests that the 200 W device has the least overshoot of transient current and shows the best reliability in terms of deterioration due to transient current characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]