Electrical and Photosensitive Characteristics of a-IGZO TFTs Related to Oxygen Vacancy

The electrical and photosensitive characteristics of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) related to the oxygen vacancies V̈
_O
are discussed. With the filling of V̈
_O
of ratio from 14 to 8, the electron density of the a-IGZO channel decreases from 7.5 to 3.8 ( ×10
¹⁶
cm
^-3
); the saturation mobility of the TFT decreases from 3.1 to 1.4 cm
^-2
/(V · s); the threshold voltage increases from 7 to 11 V for the TFT with a lower on-current; and the subthreshold slope increases from 2.4 to 4.4 V/dec for the TFT with a higher interface defect density of 4.9 × 10
¹¹
cm
^-2
, the worst electrical stability of V
_th
~ 10 V, and a hysteresis-voltage decrease from 3.5 to 2 V. The photoreaction properties of a-IGZO TFTs are also sensitive to the oxygen-content-related absorption of the a-IGZO channel. With the lowest content of oxygen in the channel, the TFT has the largest photocurrent gain of 50 μA (V
_g
= 30 V; V
_d
= 10 V) and decrease in V
_th
( V
_th
V) at a high light intensity. The light-induced change of TFT characteristics is totally reversible with the time constant for recovery of about 2.5 h.