Investigation of width-to-length ratio on the performance of ZnO transistors and inverters

Abstract

Oxide transistors have attracted considerable attention in the field of integrated circuits. In this work, ZnO transistors were fabricated using atomic layer deposition process, with various width-to-length (W/L) ratios of 100/10 μm, 50/10 μm, 20/5 μm, 10/5 μm, and 10/10 μm. Among them, the ZnO transistor with a W/L ratio of 10/10 μm demonstrated superior electrical performance, including a field-effect mobility of 37.65 cm²V-1s-1, a subthreshold swing of 112.50 mV/decade, and a turn-on voltage of -0.50 V. Additionally, n-type ZnO transistors were used to design inverter circuits, where the voltage gain was found to be inversely correlated with the W/L ratio of the load transistor. A maximum voltage gain of 59.33 V/V was achieved at a supply voltage of 5 V using a load transistor with a W/L ratio of 10/5 μm. These results indicate that ZnO transistors, with optimized design, offer promising performance for future integrated circuit applications.