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Effects of electro-mechanical stressing on the electrical characterization of on-plastic a-Si:H thin film transistors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Jian Z. Chen
Affiliation:
jchen@ntu.edu.tw, National Taiwan University, Institute of Applied Mechanics, No.1 Sec.4 Roosevelt Rd., Taipei, 10617, Taiwan, Province of China
Yeh Chih-Yong
Affiliation:
d97941011@ntu.edu.tw, National Taiwan University, Graduate Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics, Taipei, Taiwan, Province of China
I-Chung Chiu
Affiliation:
r95941034@ntu.edu.tw, National Taiwan University, Graduate Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics, Taipei, Taiwan, Province of China
I-Chun Cheng
Affiliation:
ichuncheng@cc.ee.ntu.edu.tw, National Taiwan University, Department of Electrical Engineering, Taipei, Taiwan, Province of China
Jung-Jie Huang
Affiliation:
jj-huang@itri.org.tw, Industrial Technology Research Center, Display Technology Center, Chutung, Taiwan, Province of China
Yung-Pei Chen
Affiliation:
jp_chen@itri.org.tw, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Display Technology Center, Chutung, Taiwan, Province of China
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Abstract

We analyzed the effect of electromechanical stressing on the electrical characteristics of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors. It had been shown that the TFTs, fabricated at 150 °C, respond to tension/compression by a rise/fall in electron mobility. In TFTs fabricated using the same process, a slight shift of threshold voltage was observed under prolonged high compressive strain and the gate leakage current slightly increases after ˜2% compressive strain. In general, the change of TFT performance due to pure mechanical straining is small in comparison to electrical gate-bias stressing. From the comparison among Maxwell stress (induced by electrical gate-bias stressing), mechanical stress (applied by bending), and drifting electrical force for passivated hydrogen atom, the most significant cause for the change of electrical characterization of a-Si:H TFTs should be the trapping charges inside the dielectric, under combined electrical and mechanical stressing. The mechanical stress does not act on Si-H bonds to drift hydrogen atoms, while it is mainly balanced by the rigid Si-Si networks in a-Si:H or a-SiNx. Therefore, mechanical stress has very little effect on the instability of low temperature processed a-Si:H TFTs.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009

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