Modeling the Variation of Threshold Voltage,
Mobility Factor and Saturation Coefficient in
Amorphous Indium-Gallium-Zinc Oxide Thin Film
Transistors
Y. Hernandez-Barrios, F. Avila, Student Member
IEEE, M. Estrada, Senior Member, IEEE, A.
Cerdeira, Senior Member, IEEE,
Seccin del Estado Slido, Depto. Ingeniera Elctrica,
CINVESTAV-IPN
San Pedro Zacatenco, C.P. 4360, Mxico City, Mxico
mestrada@cinvestav.mx
Abstract Amorphous oxide semiconductor thin film
transistors (AOSTFTs) with SiO2 and Indium-Gallium-Zinc-Oxides
(IGZO) as dielectric and semiconductor layers respectively, are
characterized in the temperature range between 300 and 400 K. The
behavior of the threshold voltage, mobility factor and saturation
coefficient is analyzed as function of temperature. It is shown that,
using the Unified Model and Extracted Method (UMEM), the output
characteristics of the devices in the linear region can be well modeled
at different temperatures. This is done determining the extracted
model parameters at 300 K and taking into account the law of
variation with temperature for each parameter, corresponding to the
specific fabrication technology of the devices. In the saturation region,
an abnormal reduction of the drain current is observed. This effect has
to be further studied and the representation of its behavior
incorporated to the model.
Keywords Thin film transistors; oxide semiconductors; IGZO
TFTs; modeling with temperature
I. INTRODUCTION
Since the work of Nomura et al. [1] a novel type of Thin
Film Transistors (TFTs), based on amorphous oxide
semiconductors (AOSs), started to be used as drivers in light
emitting diode (LED) matrix displays [2,3]. These AOSTFTs
can reach mobility values above 10 cm2/Vs [4], maintaining a
low cost fabrication technology. Amorphous Indium
GalliumZinc-Oxide (IGZO) and Hafnium-Indium-Zinc-
Oxide (HIZO) are among the most frequently used oxide
semiconductors.
The study of the behavior of these devices with
temperature is important to understand and describe the
properties of the materials, as well as to determine the
predominant conduction mechanisms. At the same time, due
to circuit operation conditions, AOSTFTs used in flat panel
displays have to work in the temperature range between 243 K
and at least 360 K, according to the temperature specifications
of commercial displays. At this temperature range, however,
the AOSTFTs can degrade [5,1]. For this reason, the variation
with temperature of the electrical characteristics is an
This work was supported by CONACYT projects 236887 and 237213 and by
H2020 RISE project 645760 (DOMINO).
978-1-5090-3511-3/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE
O. Moldovan, B. Iiguez, Senior Member, IEEE,
Departament d'Enginyeria Electrnica, Elctrica i
Automtica (DEEEA), Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43007
Tarragona, Spain
R. Picos, Member, IEEE
Physics Dept, Universitat de les Illes Balears,
Illes Balears Spain
important information that should be included in models used
for circuit design.
In [6] a study of the temperature dependence up to 360 K
was done for IGZO TFTs fabricated using atomic layer
deposition (ALD) at 100 oC and pulsed laser deposition (PLD)
for the deposition of HfO2 and IGZO respectively and several
present conduction mechanisms were identified. However, it
has to be noticed that the behavior with temperature, as well as
the conduction mechanisms can vary with specific conditions
of the device fabrication process.
In this work, we analyze the temperature dependence in
the temperature range between 300 and 400 K of IGZO TFTs
fabricated as indicated below. The temperature coefficients of
the threshold voltage, VT, the mobility factor , and the
saturation coefficient s, are obtained and used for modeling
the electrical characteristics with temperature. The observed
temperature dependence can be well represented, if the
temperature dependence of each of the parameters of the TFT
model used in this analysis is taken into account.
II. EXPERIMENTAL
The structure of the studied AOSTFTs is shown in Fig. 1.
The gate dielectric was 200 nm of SiO2 deposited by Plasma
enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) at 250 oC. The
etch stopper layer (ESL) is SieN4, also deposited by PECVD.
Mo was deposited as metal contact for gate, drain and source.
Devices were annealed.
Current-voltage characteristics (I-V) were measured using a
Keithley measurement system with 2450 SMU. Measurement
temperature was varied using K20 Programmable Temperature
Controller from MMR Technology Inc. Measurement
temperature was varied in the range between 300 and 400 K
with steps of 10 K, considering that the normal operating
temperature range for active matrix displays where these
devices are used as drivers is between 300 and 370 K.
 International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control (CCE), Mexico, City. Mexico.
September 26-30, 2016.

TABLE I. EXTRACTED PARAMETERS

Temperature (K) Vt
300 -0.17 0.396 0.674 1.448
310 -0.274 0.37 0.647 1.38
320 -0.322 0.362 0.604 1.396
330 -0.373 0.339 0.594 1.296
340 -0.498 0.332 0.59 1.159
350 -0.644 0.327 0.541 1.132
360 -0.788 0.333 0.527 1.021
380 -0.837 0.325 0.452 0.998
(a) 390 -0.854 0.342 0.45 0.933
400 -0.686 0.355 0.453 0.858

1.5x10-6

VDS=0.5 V

1.0x10-6
W=70 m
(b) L=10 m
[A]
Fig. 1 Cross section of the IGZO TFT, showing: a) the region between
IDS

drain (D) and source (S) and b) contact to the gate. 5.0x10-7 300K
I-V curves were measured at each temperature, waiting 5 350K

minutes after the set temperature was reached. Transfer curves

in linear and saturation regime and output characteristics for
0.0
values of VGS=0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 V were obtained. The -2 0 2 4 6 8 10
transfer curves were measured at 0.5 V and 10 V, respectively. VGS [V]
Measurements were done in vacuum, at 5 mTorr.
(a)
III. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Figures 2 a) and b) show the measured linear transfer 10-5
curves in linear and semilog plots for VDS=0.5 V at 300 K and
350 K. It is seen that, as expected, the drain current, IDS 10-6 VDS=0.5 V

increases with temperature. This behavior was observed for all 10

-7

curves measured in the indicated temperature range. The W=70 m

extraction procedure for basic TFT model parameters reported L=10 m
10-8
[A]

for the Unified Model and Extraction Method (UMEM) was

used [7]. The values of the threshold voltage VT, the mobility 10-9
IDS

factor describing the dependence of mobility with VGS and T, 10

-10 300K
the saturation coefficient S and the parameter m related to the 350K

knee of the output characteristic before saturation were 10-11

obtained. The values of these parameters were extracted for
10-12
each measured temperatures between 300K and 400K. -2 0 2 4 6 8 10
Extracted values are shown in Table 1. VGS [v]

Figure 3 shows, for two different devices, the variation of

VT with the increase of temperature T=T-Tnom, where Tnom is (b)
300 K. As can be seen, the value of VT decreases with
temperature.
Fig. 2. Linear transfer curves measured at 300 K and 350 K in: a) linear and b)
Figure 4 shows the variation with temperature of semilog plots.
parameter, characterizing the behavior of mobility vs. (VGS-
VT) for amorphous TFTs [7]:

FET = FETo (VGS VT ) (1)

 International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control (CCE), Mexico, City. Mexico.
September 26-30, 2016.

0.0 0.7

device 1
device 2
-0.2
KVT=-0.01 K-1
0.6
-0.4 VT=VT300+KVTx
VT [V]

S
-0.6 slope=-0.0026
0.5

-0.8

-1.00 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100

[] T [K]

Fig. 3. Behavior of VT vs. T for two different devices.

Fig. 5. Dependence of S vs. T
T [K]
400 375 352 333.3 315 300
According to Fig. 5 and 6, the variation of parameters s
0.40
and m with T, can also be approximated to a linear function
with a slope of -0.0026 K-1 and -0.06 K-1 respectively.
2To Tnom
= 2
nom T
T Fig. 8 shows the agreement between measured and modeled
0.38
curves, extracting model parameters at 300 K as indicated in
2To
slope = = 0.54 [7] and using the dependence of extracted parameters with T,.
Tnom
0.36

0.34 1.4

0.32
1.2
0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00 slope=-0.006 K-1
m

Tnom/T

Fig. 4. Plot of vs. Tnom/T, where Tnom=300 K 1.0

According to [8], in amorphous TFTs, when the density of

localized charge can be considered much greater than the free 0.8
charge: 0 20 40 60 80 100

[K]
2To T
= nom 2 (2) Fig. 6. Variation of m vs. T
Tnom T As can be seen in Fig. 7a, the agreement between modeled
In Fig. 4, for T<350 K, can be approximated to a variation and measured curves at 300 K is very good. From this
as the inverse of temperature. However, the dependence modeling, model parameters at 300 K were extracted. Using
expressed in (2) is not fulfilled. the extracted values for each model parameter at 300 K and
applying the temperature dependence of each parameter to
model the same device at 350 K, the result is shown in Fig. 7b.
 International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control (CCE), Mexico, City. Mexico.
September 26-30, 2016.

1.4x10-5
VGS=10 V
1.2x10-5
IV. CONCLUSIONS
T=300 K
AOSTFTs with SiO2 and IGZO as dielectric and
1.0x10-5
semiconductor layers, respectively, are characterized in the
8.0x10-6 VGS=8 V temperature range between 300 and 400 K, analyzing the
IDS [A]

behavior of the threshold voltage, mobility factor and

6.0x10-6
saturation coefficient as function of temperature. It is shown
VGS=6 V
4.0x10-6 that the values of VT, and s reduce as the temperature
VGS=4 V
increases, with a linear dependence in the case of VT and s
2.0x10-6
and with an inverse temperature dependence in the case of .
0.0 The linear region of the output characteristics is well modeled
0 2 4 6 8 10 with UMEM in the temperature range up to 360 K, considering
VDS [V] the values of the model parameters, determined at room
temperature and their variation with temperature for the
(a) specific fabrication technology of the devices. In the saturation
region, an abnormal decrease of the drain current is observed,
which has to be further studied and its description incorporated
1.2x10-5
to the model.
symbols-- measured
1.0x10-5
lines-- modeled
VGS=10 V
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VDS [v]
(b)
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300 K and b) 350 K.
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