High-Throughput Fabrication and Semi-Automated Characterization of Oxide Thin Film Transistors

Andriy Zakutayev, Yanbing Han, Sage Bauers, Qun Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus Citations

Abstract

High throughput experimental methods are known to accelerate the rate of research, development, and deployment of electronic materials. For example, thin films with lateral gradients in composition, thickness, or other parameters have been used alongside spatially-resolved characterization to assess how various physical factors affect the material properties under varying measurement conditions. Similarly, multi-layer electronic devices that contain such graded thin films as one or more of their layers can also be characterized spatially in order to optimize the performance. In this work, we apply these high throughput experimental methods to thin film transistors (TFTs), demonstrating combinatorial channel layer growth, device fabrication, and semi-automated characterization using sputtered oxide TFTs as a case study. We show that both extrinsic and intrinsic types of device gradients can be generated in a TFT library, such as channel thickness and length, channel cation compositions, and oxygen atmosphere during deposition. We also present a semi-automated method to measure the 44 devices fabricated on a 50 mm×50 mm substrate that can help to identify properly functioning TFTs in the library and finish the measurement in a short time. Finally, we propose a fully automated characterization system for similar TFT libraries, which can be coupled with high throughput data analysis. These results demonstrate that high throughput methods can accelerate the investigation of TFTs and other electronic devices.

Original languageAmerican English
Article number018502
Number of pages7
JournalChinese Physics B
Volume29
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Chinese Physical Society and IOP Publishing Ltd.

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5K00-74967

Keywords

  • channel gradient
  • combinatorial sputtering
  • indium zinc oxide (IZO) thin film transistor (TFT)
  • oxygen content

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