Oxygen Atom Neutral Beam Assisted Deposited Al₂O₃ and its Application to the Fabrication of Zinc Oxide Thin Film Transistor

Abstract

In the fabrication of zinc oxide thin film transistor(ZnO TFT), aluminum oxide(Al₂O₃) was deposited as gate insulator by using an oxygen atom neutral beam assisted deposition(NBAD) during e-beam evaporation. From the thickness of the Al₂O₃ layer evaporated with the oxygen NBAD process and the C-f measurement of metal-insulator-metal(MIM) capacitors fabricated with the NBAD Al₂O₃ layer, it was possible to conclude that the NBAD Al₂O₃ layer has a higher thickness and a higher dielectric constant at an acceleration beam energy of 300 eV as a result of the additional deposition of oxygen atoms during e-beam evaporation. The fabricated ZnO TFT with the NBAD Al₂O₃ gate insulator showed better electrical characteristics, such as a lower subthreshold swing and a higher on-off ratio, than those without any NBAD process.

Keywords:

• zinc oxide TFT
• aluminum oxide
• neutral beam assisted deposition
• e-beam evaporation

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Korean Research Foundation(KRF) grant funded by the Korean government(MEST) (No. 2009-0076193). This work was also supported by the Kyungwon University Research Fund in 2011.