Impact of aluminum nitride as an insulator on the performance of zinc oxide thin film transistors

The performance of zinc oxide thin film transistors with aluminium nitride (AlN) as insulator is presented. AlN reduces surface roughness of the interface by nearly thirty times in comparison to silicon dioxide and six times in comparison with silicon nitride. This results in an enhancement of mobility by nearly an order of magnitude. The interface states are correspondingly reduced, resulting in enhanced properties of subthreshold slope and on/off ratio. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.