The effects of oxygen annealing on the electrical characteristics of hydrothermally grown zinc oxide thin-film transistors

Abstract

High-performance transparent zinc oxide (ZnO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) with location-controlled lateral-grain growth were fabricated by hydrothermal method. The ZnO active channel was laterally grown with aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO) seed layer underneath the Ti/Pt film. Compare to the unannealed ZnO TFTs, the annealed devices reveal the high-quality ZnO layer with the compensated structural defects in the channel region after oxygen ambient annealing at 400 degrees C. Therefore, the superior device performances (i.e. the excellent filed-effect mobility of 9.07 cm(2)/V s, positive threshold voltage of 2.25 V. high on/off current ratio of similar to 10(6), and low gate leakage current of <1 nA) of hydrothermally grown ZnO TFTs can be achieved with oxygen ambient annealing. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.