The Application of Hydrogenation to Amorphous Silicon Thin Film Transistors for the Decrease of the off Current

1991 ◽  
Vol 219 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Kobayashi ◽  
H. Murai ◽  
M. Hayama ◽  
T. Yamazaki
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Amorphous Silicon ◽  
Density Of States ◽  
Thin Film Transistors ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Passivating Layer ◽  
Channel Layer ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Bottom Gate

ABSTRACTThe influence of hydrogenation on OFF current of TFTs with a bottom gate staggered structure has been investigated. The hydrogenation is done by exposing the surface of the a-Si:H channel layer to H2 plasma. The hydrogenation decreases the OFF current by more than one order of magnitude. The decrease in the OFF current is attributed to the increase in the density of states at the interface between the a-Si:H channel layer and the SiN passivating layer.

Hot-Wire Deposited Amorphous Silicon Thin-Film Transistors

1996 ◽  
Vol 424 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. I. Schropp ◽  
K. F. Feenstra ◽  
C. H. M. Van Der Werf ◽  
J. Holleman ◽  
H. Meiling
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Amorphous Silicon ◽  
Thin Film Transistors ◽  
Gate Dielectric ◽  
Chemical Vapor ◽  
Current Crowding ◽  
Hot Wire ◽  
Saturation Regime ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Order Of Magnitude

AbstractWe present the first thin film transistors (TFTs) incorporating a low hydrogen content (5 - 9 at.-%) amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layer deposited by the Hot-Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition (HWCVD) technique. This demonstrates the possibility of utilizing this material in devices. The deposition rate by Hot-Wire CVD is an order of magnitude higher than by Plasma Enhanced CVD. The switching ratio for TFTs based on HWCVD a-Si:H is better than 5 orders of magnitude. The field-effect mobility as determined from the saturation regime of the transfer characteristics is still quite poor. The interface with the gate dielectric needs further optimization. Current crowding effects, however, could be completely eliminated by a H2 plasma treatment of the HW-deposited intrinsic layer. In contrast to the PECVD reference device, the HWCVD device appears to be almost unsensitive to bias voltage stressing. This shows that HW-deposited material might be an approach to much more stable devices.

Hot-Wire Deposited Amorphous Silicon Thin-Film Transistors

1996 ◽  
Vol 420 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. I. Schropp ◽  
K. F. Feenstra ◽  
C. H. M. Van Der Werf ◽  
J. Holleman ◽  
H. Meiling
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Amorphous Silicon ◽  
Thin Film Transistors ◽  
Gate Dielectric ◽  
Chemical Vapor ◽  
Current Crowding ◽  
Hot Wire ◽  
Saturation Regime ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Order Of Magnitude

AbstractWe present the first thin film transistors (TFTs) incorporating a low hydrogen content (5 - 9 at.-%) amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layer deposited by the Hot-Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition (HWCVD) technique. This demonstrates the possibility of utilizing this material in devices. The deposition rate by Hot-Wire CVD is an order of magnitude higher than by Plasma Enhanced CVD. The switching ratio for TFTs based on HWCVD a-Si:H is better than 5 orders of magnitude. The field-effect mobility as determined from the saturation regime of the transfer characteristics is still quite poor. The interface with the gate dielectric needs further optimization. Current crowding effects, however, could be completely eliminated by a H2 plasma treatment of the HW-deposited intrinsic layer. In contrast to the PECVD reference device, the HWCVD device appears to be almost unsensitive to bias voltage stressing. This shows that HW-deposited material might be an approach to much more stable devices.

Effect of Residual Phosphorus on Amorphous Silicon Thin Film Transistors

1990 ◽  
Vol 192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Tsutsu ◽  
Tetsuya Kawamura ◽  
Yutaka Miyata
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Amorphous Silicon ◽  
Thin Film Transistors ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Residual Phosphorus ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Phosphorus Doped ◽  
Secondary Ion ◽  
Channel Region

ABSTRACTEffects of residual phosphorus in the channel region of amorphous silicon thin film transistors(a-Si TFTs) on the TFT characteristics were quantitatively investigated. Concentration and the depth profile of the residual phosphorus were measured by high resolution secondary ion mass spectroscopy(SIMS). The OFF characteristics of a-Si TFTs were also measured.The SIMS data showed that the phosphorus exists about 100nm deep into intrinsic a-Si(i-a-Si), but the OFF characteristics showed that the activity of the residual phosphorus is 4 order of magnitude lower than that of heavily phosphorus doped a-Si(+-a-Si). The residual phosphorus is found to be inactive and stable, and has little effect on a-Si TFT characteristics.These results enabled us to fabricate inverted staggered a-Si TFTs by the simplest process using only 2 photo-mask steps and 1 self-aligned exposure.

Material Properties Controlling the Performance of Amorphous Silicon Thin Film Transistors

1984 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Powell
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Silicon Nitride ◽  
Amorphous Silicon ◽  
Density Of States ◽  
Threshold Voltage ◽  
Material Properties ◽  
Thin Film Transistors ◽  
Gate Insulator ◽  
Dangling Bond ◽  
Silicon Thin Film

ABSTRACTAmorphous silicon thin film transistors have been fabricated with a number of different structures and materials. To date, the best performance is obtained with amorphous silicon - silicon nitride thin film transistors in the inverted staggered electrode structure, where the gate insulator and semiconductor are deposited sequentially by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition in the same growth apparatus.Localised electron states in the amorphous silicon are crucial in determining transistor performance. Conduction band states (Si-Si antibonding σ*) are broadened and localised in the amorphous network, and their energy distribution determines the field effect mobility. The silicon dangling bond defect is the most important deep localised state and their density determines the prethreshold current and hence the threshold voltage. The density of states is influenced by the gate insulator interface and there is probably a decreasing density of states away from this interface. The silicon dangling bond defect in the bulk amorphous silicon nitride also leads to a localised gap state, which is responsible for the observed threshold voltage instability.Other key material properties include the fixed charge densities associated with primary passivating layers placed on top of the amorphous silicon. The low value of the bulk density of states in the amorphous silicon layer increases the sensitivity of device characteristics to charge at the top interface.

Absence of enhanced stability in deuterated amorphous silicon thin film transistors

2004 ◽  
Vol 808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shufan Lin ◽  
Andrew J. Flewitt ◽  
William I. Milne ◽  
Ralf B. Wehrspohn ◽  
Martin J. Powell
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Growth Rate ◽  
Amorphous Silicon ◽  
Thin Film Transistors ◽  
Bond Breaking ◽  
Process Conditions ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Ion Energy ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Bottom Gate

ABSTRACTA comparison of the threshold voltage shift after gate-bias stress in hydrogenated and fully deuterated amorphous silicon thin film transistors (TFTs) is presented. A series of fully deuterated bottom gate TFTs consisting of a deuterated n+ contact layer, deuterated intrinsic amorphous silicon (deposited at a range of pressures) and deuterated silicon nitride gate insulator have been produced. A similar series of fully hydrogenated bottom gate TFTs have also been produced, and the stability of the two sets of devices compared. Deuterated and hydrogenated amorphous silicon deposited under the same process conditions do not have the same material properties due to the difference in the ion energy of H and D in the plasma. However, deuterated and hydrogenated material deposited at the same growth rate have almost identical structural properties. Hydrogenated and deuterated TFTs are found to exhibit the same variation in stability as a function of growth rate. In particular, there is no evidence for increased stability in deuterated TFTs. Previous reports of more stable deuterated TFTs, by other groups, can be explained by a change in the Si network properties due to the higher ion energy of deuterium in comparison with hydrogen, when using similar deposition conditions. The implication of our experimental results is that, for the same amorphous network and hydrogen/deuterium concentration, the stability is identical for hydrogenated and deuterated TFTs. Therefore, there is no giant isotopic effect in amorphous silicon TFTs. The study also further supports the idea that Si-Si bond breaking is the rate-limiting step for Si dangling bond defect creation, rather than Si-H bond breaking.

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