Suppression of positive gate bias temperature stress and negative gate bias illumination stress induced degradations by fluorine-passivated In-Ga-Zn-O thin-film transistors

High-performance and highly-stable fluorine-passivated In-Ga-Zn-O (IGZO) thin-film transistor (TFT) was demonstrated by the formation of a fluorinated silicon nitride (SiN_x:F) passivation layer. After annealing at 350 °C for 3 h, the IGZO TFT exhibited the great electrical properties, such as a field-effect mobility of 14.7 cm² V^-1 s^-1, a subthreshold swing of 0.19, and a hysteresis of 0.02 V. Compare to the TFT with SiO_x passivation, the reliability of TFT with SiN_x:F passivation under positive gate bias temperature stress (PBTS) was significantly improved even at a stress temperature of 100 °C. In addition, the negative gate bias illumination stress (NBIS), which is a serious drawback for oxide TFTs, could be suppressed by the fluorine-passivated IGZO TFT.