Low-Temperature Fabrication (≤150 °C) of High-Quality Sputtered Silicon Oxide Thin Film with Hydrogen Plasma Treatment

Abstract

Low-temperature fabrication of thin-film dielectrics is essential for various applications including flexible/stretchable electronics, monolithic threedimensional integrated circuits, and large-area sensors/displays. Silicon dioxide is one of the most extensively used dielectric materials, but conventional deposition methods such as plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition require relatively high temperatures. In this study, a high-quality SiO 2 thin film was fabricated at low temperatures below 150 °C using sputtering and hydrogen plasma treatment. The sputtered SiO 2 thin film exhibited low leakage current (3 × 10 −7 A/cm 2 at 3 MV/cm) and a high breakdown field (11.33 MV/ cm). After hydrogen plasma treatment was carried out under optimized conditions, the interface trap density between Si and sputtered SiO 2 was minimized to 7 × 10 11 cm −2 eV −1 , which is comparable to the corresponding value for thermally grown SiO 2 . The results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and secondary-ion mass spectroscopy confirmed that the hydrogen treatment effectively passivates dangling bonds and reduces the portion of oxygen-deficient species.

Enhancing the Contact between a-IGZO and Metal by Hydrogen Plasma Treatment for a High-Speed Varactor (>30 GHz)

“…The thickness of SiO 2 (insulator) and a-IGZO was 30 and 100 nm, respectively, and both films were deposited by sputtering. 31 First, the operating frequency was calculated as a function of the specific contact resistivity between a-IGZO and top metal. In this calculation, we defined the operating frequency when the quality factor (Q factor) becomes 10, which is a well-known standard in high-speed circuits.…”

“…X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra show that oxygen vacancy was reduced and that hydrogen-related species were increased after the hydrogen process. The O 1s spectrum can be deconvoluted into the three peaks: low-energy peak related to metal–oxygen bonding (O 1 ), medium-energy peak of oxygen vacancy (O 2 ), and high-energy peak of hydrogen species (O 3 ). , As shown in Figure a,b, the O 3 peak was increased, and the O 2 peak was decreased after the hydrogen treatment. These results indicate that hydrogen atoms were successfully incorporated into a-IGZO and that the oxygen vacancy was filled.…”

“…To minimize the contact resistance, we utilized the hydrogen plasma process that resulted in the best interface property (100W/250C). The thickness of SiO 2 (insulator) and a-IGZO was 30 and 100 nm, respectively, and both films were deposited by sputtering . First, the operating frequency was calculated as a function of the specific contact resistivity between a-IGZO and top metal.…”

P‐22: Effects of Self‐Assembled Monolayer on Contact Resistance Between IGZO and Electrode for High‐Resolution Display

“…Then, SiO2 (30 nm) as a gate insulator and a-IGZO (30 nm) were sequentially deposited by RF magnetron sputtering system at RT. The sample was treated by hydrogen plasma and annealed in O2 ambient at 300 °C for 2 hours (17). To form a SAM on a-IGZO, the sample was immersed in a 3mM ethanol (99.9%) solution of phosphonic acid (PA) SAM with different alkyl chain lengths (C2, C4, C6, C8, and C10-SAM) for 12 hours.…”

56‐1: Enhancing Response Time of Quantum‐Dot‐Based TFT Photosensor with Self‐Assembled Monolayer

“…An aluminum layer (100 nm) was deposited as the gate electrode, and a SiO2 thin film (30 nm) was sputtered for the gate dielectric. The sample was then treated with hydrogen plasma to improve the dielectric properties [8,9]. The channel layer (a-IGZO, 30 nm) was deposited by RF sputter, followed by thermal annealing in oxygen ambient at 300 °C for 2 hours.…”