Graphene quantum dots modulated solution-derived InGaO thin-film transistors and stress stability exploration

• Published in: Rare metals Vol. 42; no. 7; pp. 2294 - 2306
• Main Authors: Xu, Xiao-Fen, He, Gang, Wang, Lei-Ni, Wang, Wen-Hao, Wu, Xiao-Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Nonferrous Metals Society of China 01-07-2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bias; Biomaterials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Doping; Dynamic response; Energy; Graphene; Illumination; LF noise; Low voltage; Materials Engineering; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Original Article; Physical Chemistry; Quantum dots; Semiconductor devices; Stability; Thin film transistors; Threshold voltage; Transistors; Inverter; Stability; Low-frequency noise; Thin-film transistors; Graphene quantum dots doped InGaO (GQDs-IGO)
• ISSN: 1001-0521; 1867-7185
• DOI: 10.1007/s12598-023-02307-y

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) doped InGaO (IGO) thin film transistors (TFTs) have been fabricated based on solution-driven ZrO
x
as gate dielectrics. Compare to pure IGO TFTs, superior electrical performance of the GQDs-IGO TFTs can be achieved by adjusting the doping concentration. It has been demonstrated that GQDs-modified IGO TFTs devices with GQDs doping content of 0.3 mg·ml
−1
have the optimized performances, including field-effect mobility (
μ
FE
) of 22.02 cm
2
·V
–1
·s
−1
, on/off current ratio (
I
on
/
I
off
) of 7.06 × 10
7
, subthreshold swing (SS) of 0.09 V⋅dec
−1
, hysteresis of 0.04 V and interfacial trap states (
D
it
) of 1.03 × 10
12
 cm
−2
. In addition, bias stress and illumination stress tests have been performed and excellent stability has been achieved for optimized GQDs-IGO-TFTs. The GQDs-IGO TFTs device showed smaller threshold voltage shift of 0.12 and 0.04 V under positive bias stress (PBS) test and negative bias stress (NBS) test for 3600 s, respectively. And it showed smaller threshold voltage shift of 0.27 and 0.34 V for red light under the PBS and NBS test for 3600 s, respectively. Meanwhile, it showed smaller threshold voltage shift of 0.20 and 0.22 V for green light under PBS and NBS test for 3600 s, respectively. It also showed smaller threshold voltage shift of 0.17 and 0.12 V for blue under the positive bias illumination stress (PBIS) test and negative bias illumination stress (NBIS) test for 3600 s, respectively. Low-frequency noise (LFN) characteristics of GQDs-IGO/ZrO
x
TFTs indicated that the noise source came from the fluctuations in mobility. Finally, a low voltage resistor-loaded unipolar inverter has been built based on GQDs-IGO/ZrO
x
TFT, demonstrating good dynamic response behavior and a maximum gain of 7.4. These experimental results have suggested that solution-processed GQDs-IGO/ZrO
x
TFT may envision potential applications in low-cost and large-area electronics.
Graphical Abstract