Origin of electrical improvement of amorphous TaInZnO TFT by oxygen thermo-pressure-induced process

Novel amorphous oxide semiconductor thin film transistors (AOS-TFTs) have already stepped up as an alternative solution for application in mass-produced active matrix organic light-emitting diodes, as well as flexible and transparent electronics. However, the factors related to the device properties (mobility (μ_sat) and stability (ΔV_th)) are still unclear. Since most factors are strongly related to oxygen elements, the versatile thermo-pressure-induced process (TPP) has been applied to improve novel TaInZnO TFT performances with regard to mobility and stability by controlling the oxygen pressure, resulting in the optimum values (improving μ_sat by 50% and ΔV_th by 30%). It is found that the TPP may suppress the occupied trap states as well as increase the unoccupied trapping states in tantalum indium zinc oxide subgap states, depending on the oxygen pressure in TPP. In addition, the origin of the improvement is unveiled with x-ray photoemission and x-ray adsorption spectroscopy (XAS). The TPP in AOS-TFTs can effectively improve and be used to manipulate device properties such as mobility and stability easily. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and XAS as a defect state analyser may also provide understanding of the origins of device instability as well as evolutionary electrical improvement in AOS-TFTs.