IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS, VOL. 37, NO.

1, JANUARY 2016 53

High-Performance Al–Sn–Zn–O Thin-Film

Transistor With a Quasi-Double-Channel Structure
Yingying Cong, Dedong Han, Xiaoliang Zhou, Lingling Huang, Pan Shi, Wen Yu,
Yi Zhang, Shengdong Zhang, Xing Zhang, and Yi Wang

Abstract— We successfully fabricated high-performance

Al–Sn–Zn–O thin-film transistors (ATZO TFTs) with a quasi-
double-channel (QDC) structure on glass by radio-frequency
magnetron sputtering. The bilayer ATZO films are fabricated
with different oxygen partial pressures during the sputtering
process. The structure of the top ATZO layer is optimized
to improve OFF -state performances. With this QDC structure,
the ATZO TFT demonstrates excellent electrical performances,
including a low OFF -state current of 840 fA, an ON/ OFF current
ratio of 1.08 × 109 , a steep threshold swing of 0.16 V/decade, Fig. 1. Cross-sectional schematic diagrams of (a) CDC and (b) QDC ATZO
a superior saturation mobility of 108.28 cm2 V−1 s−1 , and TFTs.
a threshold voltage of 2.09 V.
improve on-state and mobility performances [7]. Alternatively,
Index Terms— High-performance, Al–Sn–Zn–O (ATZO), thin-
film transistor (TFT), quasi-double-channel (QDC) structure. large amounts of carrier suppressor elements are introduced
into the top channel layer to increase resistance and suppress
I. I NTRODUCTION excessive oxygen vacancies [9]. However, these conventional

R ECENTLY, ZnO-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) have

demonstrated a potential for applicability to the active-
matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display field,
owing to their attractive performances, such as transparency,
low-temperature process, and high mobility [1]. To meet the
demand for high mobility and reliability, various elements have
been proposed as dopants for ZnO [2]. In particular, Al and Sn
elements co-doped ZnO (ATZO) material has the advantages
of low cost and high performances [3]. Sn, Al, and Zn are
abundant elements; Sn and Al elements can increase carrier
mobility [4] and stability [5], respectively. Hence, ATZO is a
competitive channel material for TFT applications.
In addition to the use of novel materials, changing the
device structure is an appropriate method for improving the
electrical performances of TFTs. In particular, double-channel
structure is a simple and effective method for optimizing the
channel resistivity and carrier concentrations [6]–[11]. High-
conductivity film (such as ITO, IZO, et al.) works as the
bottom channel of double-channel TFTs to offer carriers and
Manuscript received November 9, 2015; accepted November 15, 2015. Date
of publication November 20, 2015; date of current version December 24, 2015.
This work was supported in part by the National Basic Research Program of
China (973 program) under Grant 2013CBA01604 and in part by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61275025. The review
of this letter was arranged by Editor A. Nathan. (Corresponding authors:
Dedong Han and Yi Wang.)
Y. Cong, D. Han, X. Zhou, L. Huang, P. Shi, W. Yu, Y. Zhang, X. Zhang,
and Y. Wang are with the Institute of Microelectronics, Peking University,
Beijing 100871, China (e-mail: handedong@pku.edu.cn; wangyi@ime.pku.
edu.cn).
S. Zhang is with the Institute of Microelectronics, Peking University,
Beijing 100871, China, and also with the Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking
University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LED.2015.2502621
0741-3106 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
double-channel (CDC) TFTs often need two different chan-
nel materials or different elements compositions, which may
increase material costs. Moreover, they have no improvements
on the off-state characteristics, which are associated with
standby leakage power.
Therefore, in this letter, we introduce quasi-double-
channel (QDC) ATZO TFTs in which the top ATZO layer is
modified to a S/D structure, which can decrease the off-state
current (Ioff ), increase ON/OFF current ratio (Ion /Ioff ), and
simultaneously maintain the mobility and on-state characteris-
tics of a CDC structure without increasing process complicacy.
Bilayer ATZO films are achieved using different oxygen partial
pressures [P(O2 )] during the deposition process [10], [12],
which can simplify the process and decrease material costs.
II. E XPERIMENT
As shown in Fig. 1, we fabricated ATZO TFTs
using a conventional staggered bottom-gate structure. First,
a 110-nm-thick indium-tin-oxide (ITO) gate was formed by
radio-frequency magnetron sputtering on glass at room temper-
ature. Then, a 150-nm-thick SiO2 film, which served as a gate
insulator layer, was grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor
deposition (PECVD) at 80 °C. For a CDC TFT, bilayer ATZO
channels were sequentially deposited by sputtering an
Al2 O3 –SnO2 –ZnO (2wt% Al2 O3 , 2wt% SnO2 ) target at differ-
ent P(O2 ) at room temperature. The 10-nm-thick bottom ATZO
channel, located next to the insulator layer, was deposited
in a pure Argon atmosphere [P(O2 ) = 0%]. The top ATZO
channel with a P(O2 ) of 15% was 25-nm thick. Patterns were
defined on the SiO2 and ATZO channels using the same mask
to improve channel–insulator interface properties. Finally,
another ITO film was deposited under the same process
54
Fig. 2. XPS scan spectra of ATZO films. O 1s spectra of (a) bottom ATZO
layer [P(O2 ) = 0%], and (b) top ATZO layer [P(O2 ) = 15%]. (c) Zn 2p3/2
spectra of top and bottom ATZO layers. (d) At% of elements in both ATZO
layers.
conditions with gate electrodes to serve as S/D contacts.
To further improve the electrical performances of the devices,
the QDC ATZO TFT was fabricated. The top ATZO layer was
defined using the same pattern with ITO S/D contacts, which
is the only difference when compared with the structure of
the CDC TFT. Moreover, the single-channel ATZO TFTs with
only a bottom (called “BSC TFT”) or top channel layer (called
“TSC TFT”) are fabricated for comparison. The thickness of
the single channels was set to 35 nm. After fabrication, the
ATZO TFTs were thermally annealed in vacuum at 150 °C for
30 min, which was the highest temperature during fabrication.
In addition, the source/drain and gate overlap lengths were
2 µm.
During the experiment process, we used standard pho-
tolithography and lift-off techniques. The electrical character-
istics of the ATZO TFTs were measured using a semiconductor
parameter analyzer (Agilent 4156C) at room temperature. The
chemical states of atoms in the ATZO films were investigated
by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, Axis Ultra).
III. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
Fig. 2a and 2b show the O 1s XPS scan spectra of the
bottom and top ATZO layers, respectively. The peak intensity
of the bottom ATZO layer is higher than that of the top
layer. To clarify the chemical bond of oxygen in the films, the
asymmetric O 1s peaks are divided into two peaks centered at
530.2 eV (OL ) and 531.7 eV (OL ). The OL and OH peaks are
generally ascribed to the O2− bonded by metal ions, and O2−
in the oxygen-deficient region, respectively [13], [14]. The rel-
ative OH area ratio of the top ATZO layer (48.07%) is smaller
than that of the bottom layer (52.55%). This result indicates
that the high P(O2 ) suppresses oxygen deficiencies such as
oxygen vacancies, which generate free carriers in metal–oxide
semiconductors [15]. Hence, the bottom ATZO layer with a
P(O2 ) of 0% has relatively higher carrier concentrations [12].
IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS, VOL. 37, NO. 1, JANUARY 2016
Fig. 3. Electrical characteristics of ATZO TFTs with different structures.
(a) Transfer ID -VG and sqrt(ID )-VG curves. Output characteristics of (b) CDC
and (c) QDC ATZO TFTs.
The Zn 2p3/2 peaks of the two ATZO layers are shown
in Fig. 2c. It is generally accepted that the Zn 2p3/2 peak
centered at 1021.4 eV represents Zn interstitial in the oxygen-
deficient regions [16]. As the Zn interstitial also generates free
electrons, the bottom layer with a higher Zn peak intensity has
lower resistivity. Fig. 2d shows the at% of elements extracted
from the XPS spectra. Compared with bottom ATZO layer,
the content ratio of the O element in the top layer decreases,
indicating the filling of oxygen deficiencies and a decrease
in carrier concentrations, which are consistent with the result
deduced from the O 1s peak. Thus, the bottom ATZO layer
has higher carrier concentrations and lower resistivity than the
top layer.
Fig. 3a shows the transfer curves of the ATZO TFTs
with different device structures. The channel width (W) and
length (L) are 100 µm and 10µm, respectively. The parameter
threshold voltage (VT ) and saturation mobility (µsat ) are
extracted from sqrt(ID)-VG curve. The Ion /Ioff is defined as
the ratio of the maximum Ion (VG = 12 V) to the minimum
Ioff [1]. The single-channel TFTs (BSC and TSC TFTs) are
shown to illustrate the role of each channel layer. The BSC
TFT has higher conductivity characteristics due to the high
oxygen vacancies and Zn interstitial content. However, it do
not show transfer characteristics since there is no cutoff trend
in the applied VG range. The TSC TFT has a suitable Ioff
due to the suppression of the carrier concentrations with
higher P(O2 ), while the Ion is significantly lower than that
of the BSC TFT. On the other hand, compared with the
single-channel ATZO TFTs, the performances of the CDC
ATZO TFT has been optimized. Since the addition of the
bottom ATZO channel yields higher carrier concentrations
and improves the channel conductivity, the bottom channel
provides a low resistance path (blue curved arrow in Fig. 5a)
and works as the main conductive channel near the insulator
layer interface in the on-state (VG > VT ) for the CDC
structure, which leads to higher Ion and µsat . In addition,
the thicker top channel with lower conductivity controls the
Ioff and VT characteristics, which cuts off the double-channel
TFTs. However, the CDC ATZO TFT shows no improvements
in the off-state characteristics compared with the TSC TFT.
CONG et al.: HIGH-PERFORMANCE Al–Sn–Zn–O TFT WITH A QDC STRUCTURE 55

TABLE I
E XTRACTED E LECTRICAL PARAMETERS OF VARIOUS TFTs

Compared with the CDC TFT, the QDC TFT has a signifi-
cantly decreased Ioff of 840 fA and simultaneously maintains
high on-state performances. The Ion /Ioff also increases to
1.08×109 due to the decreased Ioff . As the bottom ATZO chan-
nel works as the main conductance path in the on-state (blue
curved arrow in Fig. 5b), when the top ATZO layer is modified
to the S/D structure, the carrier concentrations of the QDC Fig. 4. Dependence of RT W (width-normalized total resistance) on L for
device decrease slightly compared with those of CDC bilayer (a) CDC and (b) QDC ATZO TFTs at different VG . The extracted (c) RSD W
channels. In addition, the removed top layer also reduces the (width-normalized contact resistance) and (d) rch (channel resistance per
channel length unit) vs VG . 1/(RSD W) and 1/rch vs VG for (e) CDC and
effect of the S/D fringe electrical field on the top layer. These (f) QDC TFTs. VD = 0.5 V, W = 100 µm.
changes result in a slightly decreased Ion and increased VT .
Furthermore, the parameter threshold swing (SS) and µsat
show negligible changes, as there are no differences between
the CDC and QDC TFTs in the insulator/channel interface and
bottom channel that control the SS and µsat parameters [7],
respectively. The output curves of the CDC and QDC ATZO
TFTs are shown in Fig. 3b and 3c, respectively. Both TFTs
demonstrate n-type transistor characteristics. Consistent with
transfer curves, the Ion of the CDC TFT is a little higher than
that of the QDC TFT. The extracted electrical parameters of
the ATZO TFTs are listed in Table I. Fig. 5. Schematic diagrams of overall resistance in (a) CDC and
Fig.4 details the resistances, which are extracted by transfer (b) QDC ATZO TFTs. RSD is the resistance in the source and drain electrode,
RC1 and RC2 are the contact resistances in different interfaces, RS1 and RS2
line model method [17], as a function of L and VG for the are the series resistance in top ATZO film, RS is the overall series resistance in
CDC and QDC TFTs, respectively. The extracted RSD W and top film, RTCH and RBCH are the top and bottom film resistances, respectively.
rch of the two devices are of the same order when the VG
is over 7 V and those of the QDC TFT are slightly larger,
as shown in Fig. 4c and 4d. Additionally, the instinct VT are QDC structure obviously extends the current path (red curved
achieved by the intercept of the fitting curves in Fig. 4e and 4f. arrow in Fig. 5b) and increases Roff , which is the reason for its
The VT values extracted from RSD W (3.99 V) and rch (4.01 V) lower Ioff compared with that of the CDC TFT. Therefore, the
for the CDC TFT are nearly the same, while the VT from improved QDC structure can enhance off-current control and
rch (4.64 V) is larger than that from RSD W (4.06 V) for the keep the on-state characteristics, which proves its potential for
QDC TFT. These results also explain the decreased Ion and in display fields.
increased VT for the QDC TFT, which is due to the reduction
of its channel layer, as compared with the CDC TFT in the IV. C ONCLUSION
on-state. In this letter, we demonstrated a QDC ATZO TFT. The
Fig. 5 shows schematic diagrams of the overall resis- bilayer ATZO films are fabricated using different oxygen
tance in the CDC and QDC structures [11]. In the off-state partial pressures. The bottom ATZO channel has higher carrier
(VG < VT ), as RBCH increases due to the reduction of concentrations and contributes to the on-state and mobility
accumulated charges, the current path of the CDC ATZO TFT characteristics, while the top ATZO layer controls Ioff . The
forms next to the back channel (red curved arrow in Fig. 5a). QDC ATZO TFT shows excellent electrical performances with
The minimum resistance (Roff ) for current flow is composed a large Ion /Ioff of 1.08 × 109, a low Ioff of 840 fA, a steep SS
of RC1 , RS1 , and RTCH . On the other hand, as the Roff of of 0.16 V/decade, and a superior µsat of 108.28 cm2 V−1 s−1 .
the QDC TFT is composed of RC1 , RS , RC2 , and RBCH , the In addition, the QDC structure has many advantages,
56
including simple technology, low cost, optimized off-state
performances, and good applicability to other active channel
materials, thereby proving its potential for AMOLED display
fields.
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