Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-04T00:31:57.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Stability of Amorphous Silicon Thin Film Transistors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

R.B. Wehrspohn
Affiliation:
Philips Research Laboratories, Redhill, Surrey, RI-l 5HA, United Kingdom
S.C. Deane
Affiliation:
Philips Research Laboratories, Redhill, Surrey, RI-l 5HA, United Kingdom
I.D. French
Affiliation:
Philips Research Laboratories, Redhill, Surrey, RI-l 5HA, United Kingdom
J. Hewett
Affiliation:
Philips Research Laboratories, Redhill, Surrey, RI-l 5HA, United Kingdom
M.J. Powell
Affiliation:
Philips Research Laboratories, Redhill, Surrey, RI-l 5HA, United Kingdom
Get access

Abstract

Dangling bond defects are created during positive bias stress of amorphous silicon thin film transistors and there is an energy barrier between 0.9 and 1 eV for this process. We have studied how this energy barrier depends on the material parameters of the amorphous silicon, namely hydrogen content, hydrogen bonding, Urbach energy and intrinsic, deposition induced stress. We observe no dependence on the hydrogen content or hydrogen bonding type, but we do observe a clear dependence on the Urbach energy and the intrinsic stress. These measurements support a localized model for defect creation involving Si-Si bond breaking and the switching of a neighboring H atom to stabilize the broken bond. These results suggest that stable amorphous silicon TFTs can be obtained at low deposition temperatures by control of the deposition-induced, intrinsic stress.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1] Powell, M.J., IEEE Trans Electron Dev. 36, 2753 (1989)Google Scholar
[2] Berkel, C. van and Powell, M.J., Appl. Phys. Lett. 51, 1094 (1987).Google Scholar
[3] Kleider, J.P. and Dayoub, F., Phys. Rev. B 58, 10401 (1998).Google Scholar
[4] Powell, M.J., Berkel, C. van, and Hughes, J.R., Appl. Phys. Lett. 54, 1323 (1989).Google Scholar
[5] French, I.D., Deane, S.C., Murley, D.T., Hewett, J., Gale, I.G. and Powell, M.J., MRS Symp. Proc. 467, 875 (1997)Google Scholar
[6] Kaneko, Y., Sasano, A. and Tsukada, T., J. Appl. Phys. 69, 7301 (1991).Google Scholar
[7] Perrin, J., in Plasma Deposition of Amorphous Silicon-Based Materials, ed. by Bruno, G., Capezuto, P. and Madan, A. (Academic press, NY, 1994).Google Scholar
[8] Jackson, W.B., Marshall, J.M., and Moyer, M.D., Phys. Rev. B 39, 1164 (1989).Google Scholar
[9] Jackson, W. B., Phys. Rev. B 41, 1059 (1990).Google Scholar
[10] Crandall, R. S., Phys. Rev. B 43, 4057 (1991).Google Scholar
[11] Deane, S.C., Wehrspohn, R.B. and Powell, M.J., Phys. Rev. B 58, 12625 (1998).Google Scholar
[12] Libsch, F.R. and Kanicki, J., Appl. Phys. Lett. 62, 1286 (1993).Google Scholar
[13] Fujimoto, Y., IBM J. Res. Develop. 36, 76 (1992).Google Scholar
[14] Stutzmann, M., Jackson, W.B., and Tsai, C.C., Phys. Rev. B 32, 23 (1985).Google Scholar
[15] Sherman, S., Wagner, S., and Gottscho, R.A., Appl. Phys. Lett. 69, 3242 (1996).Google Scholar
[16] Wehrspohn, R.B., Deane, S.C., French, I.D., Powell, M.J. and Brüggemann, R., to be published.Google Scholar
[17] Stutzmann, M., Appl. Phys. Lett. 47, 21 (1985).Google Scholar
[18] Ghaith, A., Phil. Mag. Lett. 55, 197 (1987) and references therein.Google Scholar
[19] Smith, D.L., Thin-Film Deposition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995, p.196.Google Scholar
[20] Bulkin, P., Betrand, N., and Drevillon, B., Thin Solid Films 296, 66 (1997).Google Scholar
[21] Oechsner, H., in Plasma Processing of Semiconductors, ed. by Williams, P.F. (Kluwer, Netherlands, 1997), p. 157 Google Scholar
[22] Dutta, J., Kroll, U., Chabloz, P., Shah, A., Howling, A.A., Dorier, J.-L., and Hollenstein, Ch., J. Appl. Phys. 72, 3220 (1992).Google Scholar