Characterization of the novel polysilicon TFT with a subgate coupling structure

Abstract

We have proposed and fabricated a novel polysilicon thin film transistor (poly-Si TFT) with a subgate coupling structure that behaves as an offset gated structure in the OFF state while acting as a conventional nonoffset structure in the ON state. The OFF state leakage current of the new TFT is two orders of magnitude lower than that of the conventional nonoffset TFT, while the ON current of the new TFT is one order of magnitude higher than that of the offset TFT and is almost identical to that of the conventional non-offset TFT. The ON/OFF current ratio of the new TFT is greatly improved by two orders of magnitude. No additional photo-masking steps are required to fabricate the subgate of the new TFT and its fabrication process is fully the same as the conventional nonoffset TFTs.