We investigated degradation mechanism of a-IGZO TFTs under NBIS with different wavelengths λ and intensities I L of light. Negative gate bias was applied for 4000 s while drain and source were grounded, and illuminations with λ = 450, 530, or 700 nm were applied. Illumination with photon energy exceeding ∼2.3 eV (530 nm) induced noticeable change in threshold voltage shift V th , which can be interpreted in terms of ionization of oxygen vacancies V O . In addition, I L of blue illumination (450 nm) was varied from 6 to 200 lux and saturation in V th was observed after exceeding a certain I L . We suggest that the saturation occurs because V O -ionization rate is saturated by outward relaxation of metal atoms in the a-IGZO film. Metal oxide-based materials have high carrier mobility, low offcurrent, and good transparency, so they are promising candidates for the channel material of thin film transistors (TFTs).1 In particular, amorphous-InGaZnO (a-IGZO) TFTs have excellent properties such as high on/off ratio, good uniformity, and low processing temperature. However, a-IGZO TFTs exhibit some instability problems.Stability of a-IGZO TFTs is affected by several factors including bias/current stress, temperature, light illumination and passivation conditions.2-5 Among several factors, bias stress is most widely studied because bias is always applied to TFTs in practical display applications. In darkness, the transfer curves of TFTs shift positively when positive bias stress (PBS) is applied to the gate, but shift relatively little when negative bias stress (NBS) is applied.6,7 Although a-IGZO TFTs remain stable under NBS, their electrical characteristics degrade when it is combined with illumination, 7,8 i.e., negative bias illumination stress (NBIS).Instability of a-IGZO TFTs under NBIS has been widely investigated and reported.7-11 Though some papers dealt with the effect of light intensity on reliability of the TFT, 12,13 the effects of wavelength λ and intensity I L of light during NBIS have not been fully explained yet, especially in terms of oxygen vacancy which is crucial factor affecting reliability of a-IGZO TFTs. In this paper, we investigated degradation mechanism of a-IGZO TFTs under NBIS with light of various λ and I L . Degradation of a-IGZO TFT under NBIS with different λ, and the saturation of threshold voltage shift V th independent of I L were identified. We propose that the saturation phenomenon can be explained by restriction in the ionization rate of oxygen vacancy V O due to their effect on the structure of a-IGZO.
Method and MeasurementsWe fabricated a-IGZO TFTs with bottom gate, back channel etch structure (Fig. 1). A 500 nm-thick and 200 nm-thick SiO 2 were used as gate insulator and passivation layer, respectively. The a-IGZO active layer was formed with the channel width/length of 110 μm/6 μm. Transfer characteristics of the TFTs were measured after NBIS was applied. For bias stress, negative gate voltage was applied for 4000 s while drain and source were grounded. Illumination from white ...