Role of silicon in silicon-indium-zinc-oxide thin-film transistor

Silicon effect on the performance of amorphous silicon-indium-zinc-oxide (a-SIZO) films has been investigated for thin-film transistor applications depending on composition ratio and annealing-temperature. X-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and time-of-flight secondary-ion-mass-spectrometry have been used to characterize the properties of SIZO thin-film channel layer with different Si concentrations and annealing-temperatures. Those results revealed that Si is more strongly binding with oxygen since their high metal-oxygen bonding-strength and low standard electric potential, which result in implying Si, allow the amorphous oxide semiconductors to achieve oxide-lattice structures even at a low-temperature of 150 degrees C. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3530453]