Resilience of Fluorinated Indium-Gallium-Zinc Oxide Thin-Film Transistor against Hydrogen-Induced Degradation

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO) with or without plasma fluorination treatment were fabricated and the sensitivity of their characteristics to hydrogen exposure was compared. Consistent with the lower hydrogen content revealed using secondary ion-mass spectrometry, TFTs built with fluorinated IGZO were shown to exhibit improved intrinsic resilience against hydrogen-induced degradation. Further enhanced by the incorporation of aluminum oxide as a hydrogen diffusion-barrier, such resilience is beneficial to the integration of fluorinated IGZO TFTs with hydrogen-containing devices, such as photodiodes based on amorphous hydrogenated silicon and TFTs based on low-temperature polycrystalline silicon.