Stepped gate polysilicon thin film transistor for large area power applications

For the first time, we report a new poly-Si stepped gate Thin Film Transistor (SG TFT) on glass. The Density of States extracted from measured I-V characteristics has been used to evaluate the device performance with a two dimensional device simulator. The results show that the three-terminal SG TFT device has a switching speed comparable to a low voltage structure and the high on-current capability of a metal field plate (MFP) TFT and the potential for comparable breakdown characteristics.

Amorphous carbon for use in thin film transistors

Tetrahedrally bonded amorphous carbon (ta-C) is a new type of semiconducting thin film material. It can be produced at room temperature using the Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc technique. The as-grown undoped ta-C is p-type in nature but it can be n-doped by the addition of nitrogen during deposition. This paper will describe thin film transistor design and fabrication using ta-C as the active channel layer.

Carbon based bottom gate thin film transistor

This paper describes the fabrication and characterization of a carbon based, bottom gate, thin film transistor (TFT). The active layer is formed from highly sp2 bonded nitrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:N) which is deposited at room temperature using a filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique. The TFT shows p-channel operation. The device exhibits a threshold voltage of 15 V and a field effect mobility of 10-4 cm2 V-1 s-1 . The valence band tail of a-C:N is observed to be much shallower than that of a-Si:H, but does not appear to severely impede the shift of the Fermi level. This may indicate that a significant proportion of the a-C tail states can still contribute to conduction.

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon and silicon nitride deposited at less than 100° C by ECR-PECVD for thin film transistors

A systematic study has been made of the growth of both hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and silicon nitride (a-SiN) by electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (ECR-PECVD). In the case of a-SiN, helium and nitrogen gas is injected into the system such that it passes through the resonance zone. These highly ionised gases provide sufficient energy to ionise the silane gas, which is injected further downstream. It is demonstrated that a gas phase reaction occurs between the silane and nitrogen species. It is control of the ratio of silane to nitrogen in the plasma which is critical for the production of stoichiometric a-SiN. Material has been produced at 80°C with a Si:N ratio of 1:1.3 a breakdown strength of ∼6 MV cm-1 and resistivity of > 1014 Ω cm. In the case of a-Si:H, helium and hydrogen gas is injected into the ECR zone and silane is injected downstream. It is shown that control of the gas phase reactions is critical in this process also. a-Si:H has been deposited at 80 °C with a dark conductivity of 10-11 Ω-1 cm-1 and a photosensitivity of justbelowl 4×104. Such materials are suitable for use in thin film transistors on plastic substrates.