JOURNAL OF DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 5, NO.

12, DECEMBER 2009 531

Materials, Devices, and Circuits of Transparent

Amorphous-Oxide Semiconductor
Hideya Kumomi, Seiichiro Yaginuma, Hideyuki Omura, Amita Goyal, Ayumu Sato, Masaya Watanabe,
Mikio Shimada, Nobuyuki Kaji, Kenji Takahashi, Masato Ofuji, Tomohiro Watanabe, Naho Itagaki,
Hisae Shimizu, Katsumi Abe, Yoshinori Tateishi, Hisato Yabuta, Tatsuya Iwasaki, Ryo Hayashi,
Toshiaki Aiba, and Masafumi Sano

Abstract—This paper presents the following recent investiga- of carriers through large overlap of -orbitals of cations; 2) ca-
tions of transparent amorphous-oxide semiconductors (TAOS) pability of low-temperature deposition; 3) amorphous nature in
from materials to devices and circuits. 1) Composition of metals atomic bond structure; and 4) wide band-gap ( eV) of
in TAOS are widely explored with the aim of seeking semicon-
TAOS, as in the followings.
ductors suitable for the channel layers of thin-film transistors
(TFTs) composing backplanes for flat-panel displays. It is found 1) Free carriers in n-type TAOS are electrons in the -or-
in combinatorial approaches to the materials exploration that bitals of cations which spreads largely and spherically so as
indium-based ternary TAOS (In- -O) and their TFTs show the to overlap with the neighbors [2], [3]. Because of the isotropic
properties and the performance as good as those of the most orbitals, their overlap is little influenced by any change in the
popular material of amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O ( -IGZO) when
= Zn or Ge. 2) Defects and impurities in TAOS are investi-
bonding structure from single crystal to amorphous. Further-
more, the density of carrier traps is estimated to be fairly low
gated by theoretical approaches. The first-principle calculation of
the electron states reveals that charge-neutral oxygen vacancy or compared with the other amorphous semiconductors [4]–[10].
interstitial forms the density of states around mid-gap level and Due to the low trap density beneath the conduction band min-
does not generate carriers directly, while hydrogen impurity raises imum (CBM), the Fermi level can be raised beyond the CBM
the Fermi level beyond the conduction-band minimum and acts easily at a small electric field so that band conduction of elec-
as a donor in TAOS. 3) Device structures of TAOS-TFTs are also trons can be induced by a practical gate-bias voltage in oper-
investigated extensively for better performance and stability. It is ating TFTs. Therefore, the TAOS-TFTs show high field-effect
found in channel-etch type TFTs with bottom-gate inverse-stagger
structures that the TFT characteristics and stability are signifi- mobility ( cm V s ) which is close to Hall mobility of
cantly improved by chemically removing the back-channel layer TAOS. The low trap density could also cause the other TFT char-
in a wet-etching process. Coplanar homojunction (CH) structure acteristics, such as a small hysteresis in the transfer character-
is proposed as a novel device structure where conductive -IGZO istics, fast switching behaviors showing a small subthreshold
regions work as the source and drain electrodes to the channel swing down to mV dec [11], and high stability of the
region of semiconductor -IGZO. The CH TFTs show excellent TFT characteristics under electrical stress [12].
characteristics and stability, with low series resistance without any
difficulty in making good electrical contact between metals and
2) TAOS films can be deposited by sputter methods over large
TAOS. 4) Circuits using TAOS-TFTs are demonstrated. A ring area at a temperature as low as room temperature for fabrica-
oscillator composed of fifteen-stage inverters with a buffer circuit tion of the TFTs [13], [14]. The low temperature fabrication en-
operates as designed by circuit simulation with a TFT model ables the use of low-thermostable substrates, such as soda-lime
for hydrogenated amorphous Si TFTs. Pixel circuits composed glasses [15] for low-cost display panels; plastic films [1], [16],
of three TFTs and one transparent capacitor successfully drive cellulose fiber papers [17], [18], stainless steel foils [19] for flex-
organic light-emission diode cells without a planarization layer on
ible electronics; and the fabrication of the TFT arrays directly
a 2-in diagonal panel having 176 144 3 pixels.
on color filters made of organic materials [20]–[22] for elimi-
Index Terms—Oxide semiconductor, thin film transistor (TFT), nating alignment between them.
first-principle calculation.
3) TAOS is a homogeneous condensed matter and free from
inhomogeneity associated with grain boundaries (GBs) as in
I. INTRODUCTION polycrystals. TAOS can escape from the instability to the atmos-
phere by the gas absorption/desorption into/from the GBs, and
INCE the first demonstration [1] of thin-film transistors
S (TFTs) using amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O ( -IGZO) for their
channel material, transparent amorphous-oxide semiconductors
the difficulty in patterning the films with smooth edges [23],
which are frequently problematic in polycrystalline oxide semi-
conductor like ZnO. It is also found that -IGZO TFTs show
(TAOS) have attracted keen attention which rapidly grows in re- excellent uniformity in short distance [23], [24] as well as hy-
cent years. This is because the TAOS-TFTs have the advantages drogenated amorphous Si ( -Si:H) TFTs.
over conventional TFTs, which result from: 1) band conduction 4) Wide band-gap of TAOS brings about various characteris-
tics to the TFTs. TAOS is transparent to the visible light, which
Manuscript received March 21, 2009; revised May 31, 2009. Current version opens up transparent electronics such as translucent displays,
published November 18, 2009. and TFT arrays over color filters on the front-plane of reflec-
The authors are with Canon Inc., Ohita-ku, Tokyo 146-8501, Japan (e-mail:
kumomi.hideya@canon.co.jp). tive displays [20]–[22]. Since the wide band-gap reduces the
Color versions of one or more figures are available online at http://ieeexplore. intrinsic carrier density to, e.g., cm at room tem-
ieee.org. perature for eV and effective electron mass of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JDT.2009.2025521

1551-319X/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE

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532
, and the electron density is – cm for
-IGZO [25], the hole density, , is estimated to be ex-
tremely low in n-type TAOS. This makes it almost impossible to
form an inversion layer. Consequently, the TAOS-TFTs exhibit
small off current [23], small kink effect in the output charac-
teristics [26], and small short-channel effect down to channel
length of several tens of nanometers (nm) [27].
These advantages have stimulated application of TAOS-TFTs
to active-matrix (AM) displays and memory devices [27]–[30].
Prototype AM displays, such as electrophoretic displays
[20]–[22], organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays [19],
[24], [31], [32], and liquid-crystal displays (LCD) [33] have
been already demonstrated using -IGZO TFTs. On the other
hand, several issues have still been left to investigate for
commercializing these displays based on TAOS-TFTs or for
exploring further possibilities of TAOS. This paper addresses
some of these issues, presenting: 1) promising alternatives of
TAOS materials for TFT channels; 2) effect of defects and
impurities in TAOS; 3) device structures for TAOS-TFTs; and
4) circuits using TAOS-TFTs.
II. PROMISING ALTERNATIVES OF TAOS MATERIALS
FOR TFT CHANNELS
The composition of TAOS can be of infinite variety because
it may incorporate any additional elements and the amorphous
structure allows continuous change in the composition ratio
among the elements. However, the composition suitable for
TFT channels is limited to the materials having heavy metal
cations with electronic configurations of where
[2], [34]. Amorphous IGZO is a typical TAOS satisfying
this criterion. The -IGZO has been most widely investigated
and used as a promising composition for demonstration of
the prototype display and memory devices. Combinatorial
approaches have revealed the dependence of the properties of
-IGZO films and the TFT characteristics on the composition
ratios of metal cations [35]. It is also found in the investigation
of -IGZO that the CBM is composed mainly of an extended
state formed by In orbitals [3]. The other indium-based
TAOS-TFTs could show high performance as well. For in-
stance, amorphous In-Zn-O ( -IZO) TFTs [36]–[40] often
give higher field-effect mobility than -IGZO, while they have
stability problems and the compositional window for high
performance is found to be narrow [40]. Thus we began the
exploration with indium-based ternary TAOS, i.e., In- -O
with , Mg, Al, Si, Ti, Zn, Ga, Ge, Mo, and Sn, chosen
considering their ionic radii, electron affinities, and so on.
Combinatorial approaches [35], [40] were employed again to
seek an appropriate range of the composition for each
ement. The In- -O films ( nm thick) were deposited in
a co-sputtering apparatus having three independent cathodes
equipped with two ceramic targets of In O and one ceramic
target of -O, which were slantingly faced to a substrate on the
anode. The co-sputtering deposition yielded the In- -O films
whose composition continuously changed on one substrate. A
number of TFTs having the same channel width and length
( m/10 m) were fabricated over the In- -O
films deposited on thermally oxidized silicon wafers (3 inches
in diameter). The TFTs have top-contact source and drain elec-
trodes made of Au/Ti stacked films. The heavily doped silicon
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JOURNAL OF DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 5, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2009
X
Fig. 1. Transfer characteristics of amorphous In- -O TFTs at the optimum
V =
compositions, operated at a drain to source voltage of X
6 V, where is a
element shown in legend.
wafer and the thermal oxide layer (100 nm thick) work as the
bottom gate and the gate insulator, respectively. The TFTs were
annealed in air at 573 K for 1 hour after patterning the source
and drain electrodes.
The amorphous films were obtained in wide range of the com-
position for each . The narrowest window In In
was observed for Sn. Fig. 1 shows the transfer char-
acteristics of the amorphous In- -O TFTs at the optimum com-
positions. Most TFTs exhibits exellent switching behaviors ex-
cept those of Mo and Sn. The -IZO at In Zn
gives the best performance showing high field-effect mobility of
cm V s in the saturation region, small sub-
threshold voltage swing of V dec , on-to-off current
ratio of , and small absolute value of turn-on
voltage, V, though the compositional window for one
tenth reduction of is less than 10% of In Zn .
The amorphous In-Ge-O TFTs around In Ge fol-
lows the -IZO TFT, giving a wider compositional window.
The effect of the secondary cation, , can be discussed in
terms of effective mass of electrons, , in multi-cation TAOS.
Fig. 2 shows the correlation between of the amorphous
In- -O TFTs and the reciprocal of the effective mass, ,
of -O single crystals. The values of were estimated by
ab initio calculations based upon density functional theory. It is
seen in Fig. 2 that increases with , which is quali-
tatively consistent with a theoretical prediction from a hypoth-
esis that of the multi-cation amorphous oxides could be de-
termined by a simple average of of the single-cation oxide
crystals composing the multi-cation amorphous [41]. The sim-
ilar dependence is also observed for the Hall mobility of the
el- In- -O films. This observation suggests a working hypothesis
for further exploration of new TAOS materials; cation whose
oxide crystal ( -O) exhibit smaller are better to enhances
of amorphous In- -O based TFTs.
It is actually found that the incorporation of Ge at several
atomic % or more in quaternary TAOS (In-Ge- -O) shows
the similar effect observed in amorphous In-Ge-O. The amor-
phous In-Ge-Zn-O TFTs show the performance comparable
to -IGZO TFTs, together with much wider windows for the
composition and processing conditions, and higher stability
than -IZO. It is reported that incorporation of Al and Sn at
a few atomic % into the -IZO improves the stability and
KUMOMI et al.: MATERIALS, DEVICES, AND CIRCUITS OF TAOS 533

Fig. 2. Correlation between the saturation field-effect mobility,  , of amor-

phous In-X -O TFTs, and the reciprocal of effective mass, 1=m , of X -O single
crystal.

processing windows of the -IZO TFTs [42]. In addition to the

other indium-free candidates [43]–[50], these new TAOS could
be promising alternatives to -IGZO for the channel materials
of TFTs, if the stable sputter targets will be available.

III. DEFECTS AND IMPURITIES IN TAOS

One of the remaining concerns over practical use of TAOS
is how the imperfectness of the atomic structures affects the Fig. 3. Total density of states predicted by first-principle calculation based
properties of the materials and devices. Oxygen vacancies, upon densify-functional theory, around the band gap of a-IGZO with (a) no
vacancy and impurity, hydrogen at (b) bond center of Zn-O; (c) In-side anti-
, must exist in TAOS as structural defects essential for bonding site along In-O; (d) O-side anti-bonding site along Ga-O; (e) an inter-
breaking charge valance to produce free carriers. It is difficult, stitial site, (f) excess O-H, and (g) excess H-O-H. E and CBM denote energies
however, to directly observe or to measure their density. at Fermi levels and conduction band minima, respectively.
Analyses using secondary-ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) [51],
temperature-programmed-desorption mass spectroscopy, and the atomic positions were relaxed again. Finally, the electron
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have revealed that density of states (DOS) were calculated based on the DFT-re-
deposited TAOS films contain a considerable amount of various laxed structures, which were almost similar to those calculated
impurities other than principal components. Inclusion of these for homologous crystal structure of InGaZnO [56].
impurities is inevitable due to the methods of physical vapor The first-principle calculation of the DOS predicts that the
deposition at low temperature and their target materials whose charge-neutral oxygen vacancy and interstitial form localized
purity cannot exceed 99.999% [52]. The high background of states at deep energy levels far below the CBM, and thus do
various impurities makes it difficult to observe their effects not directly produce free electrons merely by themselves. The
individually. Thus we have investigated the effect of defects theoretical calculation also predicts that hydrogen is one of the
and impurities in TAOS by theoretical approaches based on most influential impurities in controlling the DOS of -IGZO.
density functional theory (DFT). Fig. 3 shows the total density of states around the band gap of
A starting model structure for -IGZO was built by classical -IGZO having: (a) no vacancy and impurity, hydrogen at (b)
molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, in which a crystalline bond center of Zn-O bond; (c) In-side anti-bonding site along
InGaZnO MD cell composed of 2016-atoms was melted, so- In-O bond; (d) O-side anti-bonding site along Ga-O bond; (e)
lidified, and relaxed to obtain an amorphous structure. A par- an interstitial site, and hydrogen bonded with (f) excess oxygen,
tial cell of 84 atoms was extracted from the 2016-atoms MD and (g) excess O-H forming H O-like molecule. Fermi level,
cell, and the same relaxation process was executed again. This , of the pure -IGZO lies far below the CBM [Fig. 3(a)], and
model structure is consistent with the mass density of -IGZO, there is no free electron. When the hydrogen is positioned at any
and the bond distances between metal and oxygen atoms which bonding site or at an interstitial site [see Fig. 3(b)–(e)], is sig-
were measured by extended X-ray absorption fine structure on nificantly raised exceeding the CBM, which produces free elec-
-edges of metals [3]. Then the quantum-mechanical relax- trons. The hydrogen with excess oxygen does not change
ation was performed over the 84-atoms MD cell by the DFT which stays sufficiently below the CBM [see Fig. 3(f) and (g)].
calculations based upon projector-augumented wave method at These observations suggest that the hydrogen can act as a donor
generalized-gradient-approximation level using PBE functional in -IGZO as in crystalline oxides [56]–[59] unless bonding to
[53] under a code of VASP [54], [55]. This structure model well excess oxygen.
reproduced oxygen -edge spectra measured by electron en- It has been actually observed that the addition of hydrogen
ergy-loss spectroscopy of -IGZO, which supports the validity into the deposited -IGZO films significantly enhances their car-
of the model. An oxygen vacancy, interstitial, or impurity atom rier concentration as shown in the following section. The car-
was then introduced into the 84-atoms cell of pure -IGZO, and rier density or the conductivity of -IGZO films increases by

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534 JOURNAL OF DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 5, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2009

more than a few orders of magnitude with H ion implantation

at a concentration of cm , exposure to hydrogen plasma
[60], [61] or NH plasma [62], and diffusion of hydrogen from
adjacent layer films [63] as shown in detail in the next section.
Such an impurity effect of hydrogen becomes a serious issue
when we use conventional hydrogen-rich films like silicon ox-
ides or nitrides formed by plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor de-
position (PE-CVD) for the insulator layers of the TFTs. Thus the
hydrogen impurities in TAOS films should also be controlled as
well as oxygen vacancies having a metastable shallow state in
crystalline oxides [64].

IV. DEVICE STRUCTURE OF TAOS-TFTS

A. Channel-Etch Structure
Practical device structures of TAOS-TFTs should be as sim-
ilar as possible to the conventional ones developed for silicon
TFTs, if we intend to divert their accumulated assets for design
and production. A channel-etch (CE) structure has been the most
popular structure in inverted-stagger bottom-gate -Si:H TFTs
for LCD applications. The CE -IGZO TFTs has been already
demonstrated, but the performance has not been so high as those
of the other structures [32]. This is due to serious damages that
the back surface of the channel layer suffers through the dry
etching of the top-contact metals for source and drain electrodes
or the deposition of the top films for passivation layers [65].
To overcome such a difficulty, it is necessary to passivate the
back channel surface with N O plasma treatment [65] or to re-
move the damaged layer by wet etching [66]. Here we show the
wet-etching treatment improves not only the performance but
the driving stability of the CE -IGZO TFTs. Fig. 4. Transfer characteristics observed at top (green) and bottom (blue) gate
For direct comparison, three types of device structures were drive in channel-etch a-IGZO TFTs of: (a) type I fabricated only with dry
etching of Mo source and drain electrodes, and (b) type II with 10 nm-thick
prepared, which were (I) CE TFTs fabricated only with dry layer of the back-channel was removed by wet etching after dry etching.
etching of Mo top-contact source and drain electrodes, (II) CE The channel dimension was W=L = 60 m/10 m and V = 12 V. (c)
TFTs with the back-channel layer being removed by wet etching Cross-sectional TEM image around drain edge of a type I TFT.
using HCl solution after dry etching, and (III) etch-stop (ES)
type TFTs [24]. 200-nm-thick SiO gate insulator and passiva- around a drain edge of a type I TFT. The back-channel in-
tion layer, Mo gate, source, and drain electrodes, and the thick- terface looks roughed and granular, which has never been ob-
ness of the -IGZO channel regions (30 nm) are common to served in the type II and III TFTs. Energy dispersive X-ray
all types of the TFTs. The -IGZO active layer of the type II spectroscopy in the TEM observation revealed that Ga and Zn
TFTs was first deposited to be 40 nm thick, and then wet-etched compositions were reduced in this 5-nm-thick granular layer,
down to 30 nm at the channel regions. The ES layer of the type which was confirmed also by XPS analysis. Secondary-electron
III TFTs was made of the same SiO as the passivation layer. microscope observation of the back-channel surface at every
All the TFTs were equipped with the Mo back-gate electrodes fabrication step revealed that the roughening occurred just after
on top of the passivation layer for the purpose of observing the dry etching of the Mo top-contact electrode. The TEM observa-
back-channel characteristics. tion also confirms that the wet etching after the dry etching re-
Fig. 4(a) and (b) shows transfer characteristics of the type I moved such a roughened and damaged layer at the back channel
and type II TFTs, respectively, observed in both up and down without introducing further serious damages. Thus the thin layer
sweep of gate bias voltage. The transfer curves by the bottom- damaged by dry etching could deteriorate the overall TFT char-
gate drive look quite similar to each other, though the type I TFT acteristics. It is actually found that the back-channel character-
shows a slight hysteresis. On the other hand, there is significant istics strongly influences the electrical stability of TFTs even in
difference in the top-gate drive characteristics. In the top-gate the bottom-gate drive. Under a bias stress of 10 V to the bottom
drive, the type I TFT presents deteriorated characteristics with gate for 10 s at room temperature, the type I TFT showed a
a large hysteresis and a hump, while the type II TFT exhibits shift in threshold voltage of 1.19 V, while the type II TFT ex-
excellent transfer curves close to the bottom-gate-driven ones. hibited only a shift of 0.11 V which was even better than 0.54 V
The deterioration of the type I TFT in the top-gate drive could observed in the type III TFT. The back-channel control is thus
be attributed to the back-channel structure. Fig. 4(c) shows a essential not only for better performance but for higher stability
cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (TEM) image of TAOS-TFTs.

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KUMOMI et al.: MATERIALS, DEVICES, AND CIRCUITS OF TAOS 535

Fig. 5. Dependence of TFT characteristics on back-gate bias voltage, V , Fig. 6. SIMS depth profile of hydrogen concentration in a-IGZO layers on
in a double-gated a-IGZO TFT. The threshold and the turn-on voltages (V top of which: (a) 300-nm-thick SiN :H/300 nm-thick SiO stacked film or (b)
and V ) linearly change with V over a wide range, while the saturation 300-nm-thick SiN :H single film is formed, where the origin of the depth, z , is
field-effect mobility ( ) and the subthreshold swing (S ) little change. determined at the interface between the a-IGZO layer and the insulators.

B. Double-Gate Structure
from that of -IGZO films as-deposited at room temperature.
The double-gated TAOS-TFTs [67] can show an excellent On the other hand, additional hydrogen atoms of 10 cm
control of the threshold voltage with the back-gate bias, unless penetrate into the -IGZO layer as deeply as 150 nm in the
the back-channel is damaged. Fig. 5 show the dependence of sample (b). The exposure to hydrogen-rich NH plasma [62]
TFT characteristics on the back-gate bias, . The TFT has a and/or the hydrogen diffusion from the deposited SiN :H film
30-nm-thick -IGZO channel layer, bottom-contact source and during the PE-CVD could introduce the hydrogen atoms into
drain electrodes made of indium–tin–oxide (ITO), Mo top and the -IGZO film.
bottom gate electrodes, 200-nm-thick SiO gate insulators for The carrier density (and thus the conductivity) of the -IGZO
both channel, and the channel dimension of m/10 film is enhanced by more than three orders of magnitude after
m. It is seen that the threshold voltage, , and the turn-on the direct deposition of SiN H films and the post annealing
voltage, , linearly changes with for a range over 40 V, [63]. The dependence of the conductivity on the thickness has
while and hardly changes, which are rarely observed in revealed that the highly conductive -IGZO layer is formed at
Si-based field-effect transistors. This is characteristic to TAOS- least to the depth of 150 nm [63], which is consistent with the
TFTs in which the inversion scarcely occurs. depth profile of hydrogen shown in Fig. 6. It is also observed that
effective channel length of the CH -IGZO TFTs shrinks with
C. Coplanar Homojunction Structure the post-annealing time and temperature. Analyses using the
Another concern about TAOS-TFTs is the difficulty in ob- gated transmission-line method show the shrinkage of 1.5–1.6
taining good ohmic contact with low contact resistance between m for 1 hour annealing at 523–543 K [63], [71]. Since the
metal electrodes and the TAOS active layers [68]. Since TAOS shrinkage is comparable to double the diffusion length of hy-
is oxide, the metals could be oxidized to form a potential bar- drogen in -IGZO [74], the shrinkage (i.e., expansion of the ef-
rier at the contact interface. Ar plasma treatment onto the con- fective source and drain regions having high conductivity) can
tact surface of TAOS is required to reduce the contact resistance be attributed to the horizontal diffusion of hydrogen from the
[69]. To avoid such difficulties, we have proposed a novel de- source and drain regions into the channel region. These obser-
vice structure having coplanar homojunction (CH) between the vations suggest that the enhancement of the carrier density is
channel region and source/drain regions [63], [70], [71], which due to the inclusion of the hydrogen which can act as a donor in
has been followed by the similar approaches [60]–[62], [72], -IGZO as theoretically predicted in the last section, and could
[73]. not be accounted for merely by a simple reduction process with
The CH -IGZO TFTs use hydrogenated -IGZO hydrogen to form oxygen vacancies.
( -IGZO:H) regions for the source and drain electrodes The homojunction gives an ideal contact between the
which form homojunction to the channel -IGZO region in the channel region and source/drain regions. The highly conductive
same -IGZO film [70]. The -IGZO:H regions are selectively -IGZO:H films can contact to various kind of metals for
formed by depositing SiN :H films onto the source and drain wiring without any difficulty [73]. The CH -IGZO TFTs
regions of the -IGZO film for the top protection layer by having m/10 m channels thus exhibit a overall
PE-CVD at 523 K, while the channel region is covered with series resistance as low as 33.8 cm [63]. These advantages
a SiO island and protected from the hydrogenation. This is also lead to the excellent characteristics of the TFTs. Fig. 7
confirmed by SIMS analyses shown in Fig. 6 which presents show the transfer characteristics of the CH -IGZO TFT. In
depth profiles of hydrogen in two kinds of -IGZO films. The both linear and saturation regions, the transfer curves can
samples (a) and (b) correspond to the channel region with a 300 be accurately reproduced by the device simulation in which
nm-thick SiN :H/300 nm-thick SiO stacked film deposited on the power index of bias-dependent mobility is 0.13. This is
the -IGZO film, and to the source or drain region only with considerably small for an amorphous semiconductor TFT, and
a 300 nm-thick SiN :H film, respectively. The hydrogen con- suggests that the CH -IGZO TFT operates almost ideally as a
centration of the sample (a) ( 2 10 cm ) does not differ field-effect transistor. Furthermore, the CH -IGZO TFT shows

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536 JOURNAL OF DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 5, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2009

Fig. 7. Transfer characteristics of coplanar homojunction a-IGZO TFTs

(channel dimension is W=L 60 m/10 m), operating in the linear region =
(V = 0:1 V) and the saturation region (V = 12 V), and their reproduction
by device simulation with a model for bias-dependent mobility.

an excellent stability. The transfer and output characteristics

hardly change only with a slight shift in the threshold voltage
( 0.11 V) after the TFT has been just hold in high-temper-
ature (358 K) and high-humidity (85% relative humidity)
environment for 116 hours [63]. This result indicate that the
hydrogen atoms in the source and drain regions are sufficiently
stable at ordinary operating temperatures, which is probably
due to a relatively low diffusion-coefficient of hydrogen in
-IGZO [74], and that the top SiN :H film works well as a
layer protecting the TFT from the environmental gases such as
oxygen or water vapors. The shift in the threshold voltages by
Fig. 8. A 2-in-diagonal bottom-emittion-type AM-OLED panel without pla-
electrical stresses at 333 K for 10 s is also as small as 0.47 V 2 2
narization layers having a resolution 176 144 3 pixels (QCIF). (a) Plan-view
under either a current-temperature stress at A [63], photograph of the whole panel emitting blue light through a transparent storage
or a bias-temperature stress at V. This is comparable capacitor and transparent wires in each pixel and (b) schematic pixel circuit
to or even better than the stability of -IGZO TFTs having composed of three double-gaed a-IGZO TFTs and one transparent storage
capacitor.
conventional device structures, and suggests that the hydrogen
in the -IGZO is stable also under operation. Thus we may take type without planarization layer, and the light emits through the
advantage of the CH -IGZO TFTs without any concern about transparent storage capacitors and transparent wires made of
the stability of hydrogen. ITO, leading to an aperture ratio of 27%. The Mo top-gate elec-
trode also works as a light shield protecting the TFT channels
V. CIRCUITS OF TAOS-TFTS against the influence of the light emitted from the OLED cells
For the purpose of investigating dynamic characteristics of so as to prevent instability of the TFT under illumination of
TAOS-TFTs, we have fabricated ring oscillators (RO) from the short wave-length components of the luminescence [77]. The
initial stage of study [75]. The recent -IGZO TFTs shown in the feasibility of high-resolution AM-OLED panel with a simple
last section are also used in fifteen stage RO with a buffer circuit layer structure was thus demonstrated using TAOS-TFTs for
for monitoring the oscillation, which can be operated at 140 the backplane circuits.
kHz at an input voltage of 14 V, and in pixel circuits for driving
AM-OLED cells [23]. These circuits were designed based on a VI. SUMMARY
SPICE model for -Si:H TFTs [76], and successfully operated In summary, we presented the following recent investigations
as designed. of TAOS from materials to devices and circuits. 1) Composition
Fig. 8 shows: (a) a plan-view photograph of a 2-in diagonal of metals in TAOS are widely explored with the aim of seeking
AM-OLED panel with a resolution of 176 144 3 pixels semiconductors suitable for the channel layers of TFTs com-
(QCIF) and (b) the schematic pixel circuit. The pixel circuit is posing backplanes for flat-panel displays. It is found in com-
composed of three double-gated -IGZO TFTs having a struc- binatorial approaches to the materials exploration that indium-
ture of Fig. 5 and one storage capacitor. Also the pixel circuits based ternary TAOS (In- -O) and their TFTs show the prop-
are protected from possible electrostatic surges in the subse- erties and the performance as good as those of the most pop-
quent fabrication processes by peripheral circuits composed of ular material of -IGZO when Zn or Ge. 2) Defects and
diode-connected -IGZO TFTs. The dimensions of the TFT impurities in TAOS are investigated by theoretical approaches.
channel are m m for two of the switching TFTs The first-principle calculation of the electron states reveals that
to select the line and reset the OLED cell, m/10 charge-neutral oxygen vacancy or interstitial forms the density
m for the drive TFT. The OLED cell is a bottom emission of states around mid-gap level and does not generate carriers

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KUMOMI et al.: MATERIALS, DEVICES, AND CIRCUITS OF TAOS 537

directly, while hydrogen impurity raises the Fermi level beyond [8] J.-H. Park, K. Jeon, S. Lee, S. Kim, S. Kim, I. Song, C. J. Kim, J.
the conduction-band minimum and acts as a donor in TAOS. It is Park, Y. Park, D. M. Kim, and D. H. Kim, “Extraction of density of
states in amorphous GaInZnO thin-film transistors by combining an
necessary to pay attention to the influence of hydrogen in TAOS optical charge pumping and capacitance-voltage characteristics,” IEEE
materials and devices as well as the oxygen vacancies. 3) De- Electron Device Lett., vol. 29, no. 12, pp. 1292–1295, Dec. 2008.
vice structures of TAOS-TFTs are also investigated extensively [9] C. Chen, K. Abe, H. Kumomi, and J. Kanicki, “Density of states of
a-InGaZnO from temperature-dependent field-effect studies,” IEEE
for better performance and stability. It is found in channel-etch Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 1177–1183, Jun. 2009.
type TFTs with bottom-gate inverse-stagger structures that the [10] M. Fujii, Y. Uraoka, T. Fuyuki, J. S. Jung, and J. Y. Kwon, “Experi-
TFT characteristics and stability are significantly improved by mental and theoretical analysis of degradation in Ga O -In O -ZnO
thin-film transistors,” Jpn. J. Apl. Phys., vol. 48, no. 4, p. 04C091, 2009.
chemically removing the back-channel layer in a wet-etching [11] T. Kawamura, H. Uchiyama, S. Saito, H. Wakana, T. Mine, M. Hatano,
process. Coplanar homojunction (CH) structure is proposed as K. Torii, and T. Onai, “1.5-V operating fully-depleted amorphous oxide
a novel device structure where hydrogenated -IGZO regions thin film transistors achieved by 63-mV/dec subthreshold slope,” in
Tech. Dig., 2008 IEEE Int. Electron Device Meeting, 2008, pp. 1–4.
work as the source and drain electrodes to the channel region [12] C. J. Kim, D. Kang, I. Song, J. C. Park, H. Lim, S. Kim, E. Lee, R.
of semiconductor -IGZO. The CH TFTs show excellent char- Chung, J. C. Lee, and Y. Park, “Highly stable Ga O -In O -ZnO TFT
acteristics and stability, with low series resistance without any for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display application,” in
difficulty in making good electrical contact between metals and Tech. Dig., 2006 IEEE Int. Electron Device Meeting, 2006, pp. 1–4.
[13] H. Yabuta, M. Sano, K. Abe, T. Aiba, T. Den, H. Kumomi, K. No-
TAOS. 4) Circuits using TAOS-TFTs are demonstrated. A ring mura, T. Kamiya, and H. Hosono, “High-mobility thin-film transistor
oscillator composed of 15-stage inverters with a buffer circuit with amorphous InGaZnO channel fabricated by room temperature
operates as designed by circuit simulation with a TFT model for rf-magnetron sputtering,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 89, no. 11, p. 112123,
2006.
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transparent capacitor successfully drive OLED cells on a 2-in oxide channel TFTs,” Thin Solid Films, vol. 516, no. 7, pp. 1516–1522,
diagonal panel having 176 144 3 pixels. 2008.
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W. Kim, Y. G. Lee, C. J. Kim, S. I. Kim, Y. S. Park, S. Y. Lee, and J.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT M. Kim, “4 inch QVGA AMOLED display driven by GaInZnO TFT,”
in Proc. IDW 2007, Tokyo, Japan, 2007, vol. AMD9-3, pp. 1783–1786.
The authors are grateful to K. Konakahara, T. Suga, M. Ko- [16] M. Ito, M. Kon, M. Ishizaki, and N. Sekine, “A flexible active-matrix
TFT array with amorphous oxide semiconductors for electronic paper,”
matsu, K. Fukuda, T. Mukaide, M. Watanabe, K. Takada, E. in Proc. IDW/AD 2005, Tokyo, 2005, vol. EP2-4L, pp. 845–846.
Sugawa, T. Kurashima, T. Hirao, S. Suzuki, T. Shoyama, M. [17] E. Fortunato, N. Correia, P. Barquinha, L. Pereira, G. Gonçalves, and
Ueda, A. Endo, and C. Chang for skillful technical assistance R. Martins, “High-performance flexible hybrid field-effect transistors
based on cellulose fiber paper,” IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol. 29, no.
and fruitful discussion; to Y. Takai, K. Nishi, T. Hirai, H. Toku- 9, pp. 988–990, Sep. 2008.
naga, Y. Shimada, M. Shibata, T. Den, K. Sakai, R. Ebinuma, S. [18] W. Lim, E. A. Douglas, S.-H. Kim, D. P. Norton, S. J. Pearton, F.
Nagao, Y. Nakamura, T. Yagi, T. Komatsu, N. Tanaka, T. Ikoma Ren, H. Shen, and W. H. Chang, “High mobility InGaZnO thin-film
for helpful discussion and encouragements; and to K. Nomura, transistors on paper,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 94, no. 7, p. 072103, 2009.
[19] H.-N. Lee, J. Kyung, M.-C. Sung, D. Y. Kim, S. K. Kang, S.-J. Kim, C.
T. Kamiya, M. Hirano, H. Hosono, T. Aoi, D. Watanabe, N. N. Kim, H.-G. Kim, and S.-T. Kim, “Oxide TFT with multilayer gate
Oka, Y. Sato, Y. Shigesato, T.-C. Fung, C. Chen, and J. Kan- insulator for backplane of AMOLED device,” J. Soc. Inf. Display, vol.
icki for valuable discussion and collaborations. 16, no. 2, pp. 265–272, 2008.
[20] M. Ito, M. Kon, C. Miyazaki, N. Ikeda, M. Iishizaki, Y. Ugajin, and N.
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[70] R. Hayashi, A. Sato, M. Ofuji, K. Abe, H. Yabuta, M. Sano, H. Ku- Amita Goyal received the M.S. degree in physics in
momi, K. Nomura, T. Kamiya, M. Hirano, and H. Hosono, “Improved 2006 from University of Delaware.
amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O TFTs,” in Dig. Tech. Papers, SID Int. Symp., Since she joined Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan, in
2008, vol. 39, no. 42.1, pp. 621–624. 2007, she has extensively explored In-X -O and
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Hirano, and H. Hosono, “Amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O coplanar homojunc- approaches and has found promising new materials,
tion thin-film transistor,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 94, no. 13, p. 133502, presenting papers at international technical meetings.
2009. Her current interests include materials growth and
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K.-K. Kim, K.-W. Kwon, and Y. Park, “Self-aligned top-gate amor- optoelectronic applications.
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[73] J. H. Na, M. Kitamura, and Y. Arakawa, “High field-effect mobility
amorphous InGaZnO transistors with aluminum electrodes,” Appl. Ayumu Sato received the B.Eng. and M.Eng. in
Phys. Lett., vol. 93, no. 6, p. 063501, 2008. imaging engineering from Tokyo Institute of Tech-
[74] Names of Authors???, “Diffusion coefficient of hydrogen was prelim- nology in 2001 and 2003, respectively.
inarily estimated by observing the diffusion of deuterium in a-IGZO;
for Instance, 5:0 10 –2:6 10 cm s for a Temperature 2 2 Since he joined Canon, Inc., Japan in 2007,
he has concentrated his research activity upon
range of 393–673 K, which is about one thousandth smaller than in the development of novel fabrication process in
crystalline ZnO,” , unpublished. TAOS-TFTs, and demonstrated the coplanar ho-
[75] M. Ofuji, K. Abe, H. Shimizu, N. Kaji, R. Hayashi, M. Sano, H. Ku- mojunction a-IGZO TFT for the first time, giving
momi, K. Nomura, T. Kamiya, and H. Hosono, “Fast thin-film tran- some publications at international meetings and in
sistor circuits based on amorphous oxide semiconductor,” IEEE Elec- scientific journals.
tron Device Lett., vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 273–275, Apr. 2007.
[76] C. Chen, K. Abe, T.-C. Fung, H. Kumomi, and J. Kanicki, “Amorphous
In-Ga-Zn-O thin film transistor current-scaling pixel electrode circuit
for active-matrix organic light-emitting displays,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.,
Masaya Watanabe received the B.S. and M.S. de-
vol. 48, no. 3, p. 03B025, 2009.
grees in developmental biology from The University
[77] D. P. Gosain and T. Tanaka, “Instability of amorphous indium gallium
of Tokyo in 2005 and 2007, respectively.
zinc oxide thin film transistors under light illumination,” Jpn. J. Appl.
He joined Canon, Inc., Tokyo, Japan in 2007, and
Phys., vol. 48, no. 3, p. 03B018, 2009.
has been working on materials analyses of TAOS
since 2008. He has successfully revealed the mor-
phology and compositional changes in back-channel
surfaces of channel-etch type a-IGZO TFTs by
electron microscopy and X-ray spectroscopy.
Hideya Kumomi received the B.S., M.S., and Dr.
Sci. degrees in physics from Waseda University,
Tokyo, Japan.
He has been with Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan, for
nearly 20 years, and has been working on studies of
nonlinear phenomenon in phase transition, particu- Mikio Shimada received the M.Eng. and Ph.D. de-
larly of nucleation problems, and of electron devices grees in material science from Kyushu University in
based on single-crystalline or polycrystalline silicon, 2002 and 2005, respectively.
and amorphous oxide semiconductors. He joined Canon Inc., in 2005, and has involved
Dr. Kumomi has received some awards and has a himself in materials analyses of TAOS since 2006.
number of publications about these topics in scientific He has obtained a number of important findings in
journals, books, giving invited talks at international technical conferences. He TAOS materials and devices mainly by means of
has managed a research project for oxide semiconductors in Canon Inc. while he transmission or scanning electron microscopy and
serves as a committee member of public technical conferences and an associate electron spectroscopy, presenting some papers at
editor of scientific journals. scientific meetings.

Seiichiro Yaginuma received the B.Sci. degree in
physics from Tokyo University of Science, Japan, in
2003, and the M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in organic
devices from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2005
and 2008, respectively.
Since 2008, he has been with Canon Inc., Tokyo,
Japan in 2008, where he is involved in the studies
on fabrication process of TAOS-TFTs and developed
wet-etching methods to improve the performance and
stability of channel-etch type a-IGZO TFTs.
Nobuyuki Kaji received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in solid state physics from Nagoya University in 2002
and 2004, respectively.
Since he joined Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan, in
2004, he has been engaged in development of TAOS
materials and device fabrication processes. He
initiated combinatorial studies on compositional
dependence of TAOS materials, and demonstrated
high-performance channel-etch-type a-IGZO TFTs
with some publications.

Hideyuki Omura received the B.Sci. and M.Sci. de-
grees in physical chemistry from Chiba University,
Chiba, Japan, in 2002 and 2004, respectively.
After joining Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan, in 2004,
he has pursued theoretical studies on TAOS materials
since 2005. He has revealed the influences of impuri-
ties and defects on electronic structures of TAOS by
the first-principle calculation, and has theoretically
predicted absorption spectra of TAOS thin films.
Kenji Takahashi received the B.Eng. degree in
surface science from Tokyo University of Science,
and M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in inorganic materials
from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2001, 2003,
and 2006, respectively.
Since he joined Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan in 2006,
he has involved himself in the studies on fabrication
processes of TAOS-TFTs, and demonstrated the
back-gate-bias and light-shield effect in double-gated
a-IGZO TFTs with some publications.

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540
Masato Ofuji received the B.Eng., M.Eng., and
Ph.D. degrees in organic and polymeric materials
from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan,
in 2000, 2002, and 2005, respectively.
Since he joined Canon Inc., Japan in 2005, he has
worked on electrical characterization and circuit de-
sign of TAOS-TFTs. He has demonstrated the oper-
ation of ring oscillators based on a-IGZO TFTs for
the first time giving some publications.
Tomohiro Watanabe received the M.Eng. and Dr.
Eng. degrees in material science from Okayama Uni-
versity in 1996 and 2001, respectively in glass mate-
rial science.
After studying silica glass in Toyota Technological
Institute, Nagoya, Japan, he joined Canon Inc, Tokyo,
Japan, in 2005. Since then, he has involved himself
in materials analyses of TAOS mainly by mass spec-
troscopy and optical spectroscopy, and has found im-
portant clues to TAOS.
Naho Itagaki received the B.Eng., M.Eng., and
Ph.D. degrees in plasma physics from Kyushu
University in 1998, 2000, and 2003, respectively.
Since she joined Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan in
2005, she has extensively explored new TAOS ma-
terials for electronic and optoelectronic devices by
combinatorial approaches, and has found optimum
compositions giving some publications at interna-
tional scientific meetings and in scientific journals.
Hisae Shimizu joined Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan,
after she received the M.E. degree in electrical
engineering from Osaka University.
Having been engaged in circuit designs of con-
ventional sensor devices, she started the studies
of TAOS-TFT devices and circuits. She has de-
signed various circuits of TAOS-TFTs for ring
oscillators which were presented at international
technical meetings, pixel and peripheral circuits for
AM-OLED prototype displays.
Katsumi Abe received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in
nuclear engineering from Kyoto University, Kyoto,
Japan, in 1993 and 1995, respectively,
Since he joined Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan in
2003, he has studied materials and device physics
of emerging semiconductors. He has characterized
electrical properties of TAOS materials and devices,
analyzed the TAOS-TFT operation, and successfully
reproduced I –V characteristics of a-IGZO TFTs
based on his model.
Yoshinori Tateishi received the B.Eng. degree in
electronic engineering from Himeji Institute of
Technology in 1992.
After having developed state-of-the-art fabri-
cation processes for a-Si:H and polysilicon TFTs
for AM-FPD backplanes, he joined Canon Inc.,
Tokyo, Japan in 2007. He has developed his orig-
inal bottom-contact bottom-gate or novel top-gate
a-IGZO TFTs, and the fabrication process designs
for prototype AM-OLED panels.
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JOURNAL OF DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 5, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2009
Hisato Yabuta received the B.S., M.S., and Dr. Sci.
degrees in solid state physics from Hiroshima Uni-
versity.
After having studied dielectric or ferroelectric
thin films for memory devices, he joined Canon Inc.,
Tokyo, Japan in 2000. He demonstrated a-IGZO
TFTs fabricated by sputter for the first time, has
revealed conduction mechanisms of TAOS materials,
and recently succeeded in demonstrating p-channel
oxide TFTs fabricated by sputter for the first time
again.
Tatsuya Iwasaki received the B.Sci. degree in
physics from Tokyo University of Science in 1990,
and the M.Sci. degree in solid state physics from
Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1992, when he
joined Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan.
He established combinatorial approaches to TAOS
materials, revealed the optimum composition for
a-IGZO TFTs giving some publications, and has
directed materials research in exploration of TAOS
in Canon Inc.
Ryo Hayashi received the B.Eng. and M.Eng. de-
grees in material engineering from Hiroshima Uni-
versity in 1988 and 1990, respectively.
In 1990, he joined Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan,
and had worked on amorphous and microcrystalline
silicon thin film solar cells. Since 2005 when he
joined a project for TAOS in Canon Research Center,
he has directed researches of device-fabrication
processes giving some invited talks at international
technical symposia.
Toshiaki Aiba received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
from The University of Tohoku in 1983 and 1985,
respectively.
Since he joined Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan in 1985,
he has worked on materials analyses particularly
with microscopy. He has given important findings in
TAOS materials and devices by electron microscopy
and photoemission spectroscopy, and has directed
the studies on advanced analyses of TAOS materials
and devices.
Masafumi Sano received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in biomedical polymer science from Sophia Univer-
sity, Tokyo, Japan.
He has been with Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan for
about two decades, working on a-Si:H TFTs, amor-
phous and microcrystalline Si solar cells, and TAOS-
TFTs. He has directed the demonstration of proto-
type AM-OLED panels with TAOS-TFT backplanes,
giving some papers and invited talks at technical con-
ferences.