Water-Derived All-Oxide Thin-Film Transistors With ZrAlOx Gate Dielectrics and Exploration in Digital Circuits

In this article, novel ZrAlOx gate dielectric films were fabricated by a simple, low-cost, and environmentally, eco-friendly, fully water-induced (WI) method for the first time. The microstructure, optical transmittance, surface topography, chemical compositions, and electrical properties of WI ZrAlOx films annealed at 300 degrees C-600 degrees C were characterized. Experimental results demonstrated that the 500 degrees C-annealed WI ZrAlOx film has a good amorphous state, high transmittance, very smooth surface morphology, large area capacitance, and low leakage current density. In order to verify the feasibility of the 500 degrees C-annealed ZrAlOx film as a dielectric in thin-film transistor (TFT) devices, In2O3/ZrAlOx TFTs were successfully fabricated. The optimized 270 degrees C-annealed TFT devices have shown excellent electrical characteristics at an extremely low operating voltage of 3 V, including a high mu(FE) of 10.14 cm(2) V-1 S-1, a high I-on/I-off of similar to 10(6), a small subthreshold slope (SS) (100 mV dec(-1)), a low V-TH (0.36 V), and a small N-S(max) (2.15x10(12) cm(-2)), respectively. To further explore the potential application of In2O3/ZrAlOx TFTs in digital circuits, a resistor-loaded inverter has been constructed and presented good voltage transfer characteristics and high voltage gain. In addition, the dynamic behavior with full swing characteristics has been obtained at a low V-DD of 2 V. These excellent parameters show their great potential for application in low cost, highly transparent, portable, and low-power consumption electronics.