Time Domain Electrical Characterization in Zinc Oxide Nanoparticle Thin-Film Transistors

In this work, the characteristics of thin-film transistors (TFTs) employing nanoparticulated zinc oxide (ZnO) as the active semiconductor channel layer are discussed. The growing interest in this component is associated to the development of low-cost, flexible and transparent electronic devices. The TFTs integrated with ZnO nanoparticles are presented and an extensive time domain electrical characterization campaign was performed on 80 samples of two different integration setups: inverted staggered and inverted coplanar. In the performed tests two main disturbances were identified, which were classified as abrupt and memory effects. From the collected data, hypotheses to explain the observed typical behavior are formulated. Trapping activity, ambient interaction, dielectric dipoles, formed parallel-paths and oxygen vacancies are mechanisms that may be associated to the observed behavior