Negative Bias Instability of InZnO-Based Thin-Film Transistors Under Illumination Stress

In this study, we investigated the threshold voltage (Vth) instability of solution-processed indium zinc oxide (IZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) prior to and after negative bias illumination stress (NBIS) with varying carrier suppressors (Ga, Al, Hf, and Zr). Variations in electrical properties of the IZO-based TFTs as a function of carrier suppressors were attributed to the differences in metal-oxygen bonding energy of the materials, which was numerically verified by calculating the relative oxygen deficient ratio from the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. Furthermore, the values of Vth shift (ΔVth) of the devices subjected to negative gate bias stress under 635 nm (red), 530 nm (green), and 480 nm (blue) wavelength light irradiation increased as the incident photon energy increased. IZO TFTs doped with Ga atoms demonstrated weaker metal-oxygen bonding energy compared to the others and exhibited the largest ΔVth. This result was attributed to the suppressor-dependent distribution of neutral oxygen vacancies which determine the degrees of photon energy absorption in the IZO films. Then, the ΔVth instability of IZO-based TFTs under NBIS correlated well with a stretched exponential function.