Effect of Oxygen Treatment on the Electrical Performance and Reliability of IWO Thin-Film Transistors

In this work, we systematically investigated the effect of oxygen treatment on the material and electrical properties of Indium-Tungsten-Oxide thin film transistors (IWO-TFTs) by O
₂
plasma and rapid thermal oxidation (RTO). With RTO treatment, the electrical characteristics of the IWO-TFTs remarkably depicted a subthreshold swing (
S.S.
) of 122.5 mV/decade, an
I
_on
/
I
_off
of around 4.7×10
⁸
, and more superior immunity stress-induced degradation. According to the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results under the RTO treatment condition, the lowest vacancy content and the highest Tungsten-Oxide (W-O) bond content were observed. It indicated that the RTO treatment was more effective in reducing the number of oxygen vacancies and stabilizing the bonding structure of IWO films. As a result, the IWO TFTs subjected to RTO treatment exhibited improved performance and enhanced reliability.