Effects of Thermal Annealing Conditions on Cupric Oxide Thin Film

This study used radio frequency sputtering at room temperature to prepare a zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film. After deposition, the thin film was placed in a high-temperature furnace to undergo thermal annealing at different temperatures (300, 400, 500, and 600°C) and for different dwelling times (15, 30, 45, and 60 min). The objective was to explore the effects that the described process had on the thin film’s internal structure and luminescence properties. A scanning electron microscope topographic image showed that the size of the ZnO crystals grew with increases in either the thermal annealing temperature or the dwelling time. However, significant differences in the levels of influence caused by increasing the thermal annealing temperature or dwelling time existed; the thermal annealing temperature had a greater effect on crystal growth when compared to the dwelling time. Furthermore, the crystallization directions of ZnO (002), (101), (102), and (103) can be clearly observed through an X-ray diffraction analysis, and crystallization strength increased with an increase in the thermal annealing temperature. The photoluminescence measurement spectra showed that ultraviolet (UV) emission intensity increased with increases in thermal annealing temperature and dwelling time. However, when the thermal annealing temperature reached 600°C or when the dwelling time reached 60 min, even exhibited a weak green light emission peak.

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Improving Device Characteristics of Dual-Gate IGZO Thin-Film Transistors with Ar–O2 Mixed Plasma Treatment and Rapid Thermal Annealing

Membranes ◽

10.3390/membranes12010049 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 49

Author(s):

Wei-Sheng Liu ◽

Chih-Hao Hsu ◽

Yu Jiang ◽

Yi-Chun Lai ◽

Hsing-Chun Kuo

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Thin Films ◽

Plasma Treatment ◽

Thermal Annealing ◽

Rapid Thermal Annealing ◽

Thin Film Transistors ◽

Oxide Thin Film ◽

Oxygen Plasma Treatment ◽

Dual Gate ◽

O2 Plasma

In this study, high-performance indium–gallium–zinc oxide thin-film transistors (IGZO TFTs) with a dual-gate (DG) structure were manufactured using plasma treatment and rapid thermal annealing (RTA). Atomic force microscopy measurements showed that the surface roughness decreased upon increasing the O2 ratio from 16% to 33% in the argon–oxygen plasma treatment mixture. Hall measurement results showed that both the thin-film resistivity and carrier Hall mobility of the Ar–O2 plasma–treated IGZO thin films increased with the reduction of the carrier concentration caused by the decrease in the oxygen vacancy density; this was also verified using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. IGZO thin films treated with Ar–O2 plasma were used as channel layers for fabricating DG TFT devices. These DG IGZO TFT devices were subjected to RTA at 100 °C–300 °C for improving the device characteristics; the field-effect mobility, subthreshold swing, and ION/IOFF current ratio of the 33% O2 plasma–treated DG TFT devices improved to 58.8 cm2/V·s, 0.12 V/decade, and 5.46 × 108, respectively. Long-term device stability reliability tests of the DG IGZO TFTs revealed that the threshold voltage was highly stable.

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