Developed ultrafast thin film transistors for future electronic devices
Welcome to the pages of the blog iCover ! Today we will focus on an event that is significant for the world of microelectronics, namely, the creation of a thin-film transistor of a new generation that is triggered an order of magnitude faster than the existing analogues.
Extremely thin transparent thin-film transistors are one of the key components of the LCD liquid-crystal TFT matrix. The cornerstone in improving the quality of the matrix remains the switching speed of the transistor, which is being improved in the leading laboratories of the world. Korean scientists succeeded in creating a thin-film transistor of electronic devices of the future, which is an order of magnitude faster than existing ones.
Thin-film transistors are nothing more than ordinary field-effect transistors, metal contacts and semiconductor conduction channels of which are represented by thin films with a thickness of 0.01 ... 0, 01 microns. Being deposited on the surface of glass or transparent polymeric material, they are located as close as possible to the pixel cells under their control, which ensures a stable contrast and rich image, the absence of “tails” in moving objects, and a sufficient response rate for comfortable work and rest.
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The mobility of moving charge carriers in a semiconductor is equal to the speed of their movement, measured in centimeters per second, where one volt of voltage is applied to each centimeter of length. The lower the electrical resistance of the material, the faster the charges are able to move, which means that the single thin-film transistors of which it consists will switch.
Joint research conducted by Samsung at the National University of Korea (Korea University) and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (Samsung) offered a new type of thin film transistor with an order of magnitude faster than that of existing analogues. The launch of such a transistor in mass production will significantly increase the speed of LCD displays of TVs, smartphones and tablet computers with an active TFT matrix (Thin Film Transistor).
To obtain a transistor with similar technical characteristics, scientists used a plasma from inert gas ions of argon. The main component used to create the transistor was zinc oxynitride (ZnON), obtained by magnetron sputtering .
Compounds based on zinc oxide as the basis for creating thin-film structures with a high charge transfer rate have long been in the zone of special attention of scientists. At the same time, the main emphasis in the course of the experiments was placed on the doping (introduction of a small amount of impurities) of the base material with cations of various metals — indium, gallium, hafnium, zirconium, and lanthanides.
The speed limit of the movement of holes and electrons in the electric field of a semiconductor today reaches 5 to 20 cm2 / volt * s, while "... To ensure high performance and efficiency of electronic devices of the future, it is required to ensure the mobility of electric charge carriers above 100 cm2 / volt * sec ... ”Says Professor Senghun Jeon of the National University of Korea. "The mobility of charge carriers in the zinc transistors we have created is at least ten times higher than the mobility of carriers in conventional thin-film transistors."
The described result was obtained mainly due to the inclusion in the technological cycle of the stage of deposition of material from a mixture of argon, oxygen (O2) and a mixture of nitrogen (N2). The alternating effect on the zinc “substrate” by the listed gases under constant pressure of nitrogen and argon and carefully controlled pressure of oxygen within the given limits made it possible to form a thinnest (50 nm) film. Such high rates of mobility of charge carriers in zinc oxynitride steel are possible due to the oxygen structure filling the oxygen vacancies with nitrogen. To obtain such a film in the presence of atmospheric oxygen, due to the low mutual activity of nitrogen and zinc, in conditions other than those proposed by specialists today is problematic.
In order to minimize the effect of oxygen on the flowing reaction and to increase the strength of the film, argon plasma was used in the experiment, which, in addition to the function of the “barrier,” stimulated cascades of collisions of atoms and ions. Such artificial stimulation made it possible to redistribute the energies of chemical reactions and launch the process of creating nanocrystals in the amorphous matrix - stable chemical compounds between nitrogen, zinc and oxygen.
The resulting zinc oxynitride film is characterized by a stable and uniform polycrystalline structure, resistant to active chemicals and radiation. During the tests, an innovative film transistor and a film transistor obtained in the traditional way were subjected to 30 days of exposure to atmospheric air. After the expiry of the term, it turned out that the film of zinc oxynitride, unlike the traditional one, practically did not lose its original properties. Measurement of the mobility of charge carriers showed that this figure was 138 cm2 / volt * s, which is an order of magnitude greater than the mobility of carriers in films obtained by the traditional method based on zinc oxide - gallium - indium.
Thus, the results of the experiment unambiguously confirmed the new absolute record of the mobility of electric charge carriers in a ZnON zinc oxynitride-based thin-film transistor.
Of course, despite the brilliant experimental results, which confirmed the effectiveness of the technology in question, conducting experiments in the laboratory conditions significantly limited the possibilities of researchers, both in terms of obtaining the required level of repeatability of results, and in terms of testing the potential of cations of other metals in order to improve the indicators already achieved.
More information about the results of the work of scientists can be found on the website Applied Physics Letters.
Dear readers, we are always happy to meet and wait for you on the pages of the blog iCover! We are ready to continue to delight you with our publications and we will try to do everything possible so that the time spent with us will give you pleasure. And, of course, do not forget to subscribe to our headings and we promise - it will not be boring!
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Extremely thin transparent thin-film transistors are one of the key components of the LCD liquid-crystal TFT matrix. The cornerstone in improving the quality of the matrix remains the switching speed of the transistor, which is being improved in the leading laboratories of the world. Korean scientists succeeded in creating a thin-film transistor of electronic devices of the future, which is an order of magnitude faster than existing ones.
Thin-film transistors are nothing more than ordinary field-effect transistors, metal contacts and semiconductor conduction channels of which are represented by thin films with a thickness of 0.01 ... 0, 01 microns. Being deposited on the surface of glass or transparent polymeric material, they are located as close as possible to the pixel cells under their control, which ensures a stable contrast and rich image, the absence of “tails” in moving objects, and a sufficient response rate for comfortable work and rest.
')
The mobility of moving charge carriers in a semiconductor is equal to the speed of their movement, measured in centimeters per second, where one volt of voltage is applied to each centimeter of length. The lower the electrical resistance of the material, the faster the charges are able to move, which means that the single thin-film transistors of which it consists will switch.
Joint research conducted by Samsung at the National University of Korea (Korea University) and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (Samsung) offered a new type of thin film transistor with an order of magnitude faster than that of existing analogues. The launch of such a transistor in mass production will significantly increase the speed of LCD displays of TVs, smartphones and tablet computers with an active TFT matrix (Thin Film Transistor).
To obtain a transistor with similar technical characteristics, scientists used a plasma from inert gas ions of argon. The main component used to create the transistor was zinc oxynitride (ZnON), obtained by magnetron sputtering .
Compounds based on zinc oxide as the basis for creating thin-film structures with a high charge transfer rate have long been in the zone of special attention of scientists. At the same time, the main emphasis in the course of the experiments was placed on the doping (introduction of a small amount of impurities) of the base material with cations of various metals — indium, gallium, hafnium, zirconium, and lanthanides.
The speed limit of the movement of holes and electrons in the electric field of a semiconductor today reaches 5 to 20 cm2 / volt * s, while "... To ensure high performance and efficiency of electronic devices of the future, it is required to ensure the mobility of electric charge carriers above 100 cm2 / volt * sec ... ”Says Professor Senghun Jeon of the National University of Korea. "The mobility of charge carriers in the zinc transistors we have created is at least ten times higher than the mobility of carriers in conventional thin-film transistors."
The described result was obtained mainly due to the inclusion in the technological cycle of the stage of deposition of material from a mixture of argon, oxygen (O2) and a mixture of nitrogen (N2). The alternating effect on the zinc “substrate” by the listed gases under constant pressure of nitrogen and argon and carefully controlled pressure of oxygen within the given limits made it possible to form a thinnest (50 nm) film. Such high rates of mobility of charge carriers in zinc oxynitride steel are possible due to the oxygen structure filling the oxygen vacancies with nitrogen. To obtain such a film in the presence of atmospheric oxygen, due to the low mutual activity of nitrogen and zinc, in conditions other than those proposed by specialists today is problematic.
In order to minimize the effect of oxygen on the flowing reaction and to increase the strength of the film, argon plasma was used in the experiment, which, in addition to the function of the “barrier,” stimulated cascades of collisions of atoms and ions. Such artificial stimulation made it possible to redistribute the energies of chemical reactions and launch the process of creating nanocrystals in the amorphous matrix - stable chemical compounds between nitrogen, zinc and oxygen.
The resulting zinc oxynitride film is characterized by a stable and uniform polycrystalline structure, resistant to active chemicals and radiation. During the tests, an innovative film transistor and a film transistor obtained in the traditional way were subjected to 30 days of exposure to atmospheric air. After the expiry of the term, it turned out that the film of zinc oxynitride, unlike the traditional one, practically did not lose its original properties. Measurement of the mobility of charge carriers showed that this figure was 138 cm2 / volt * s, which is an order of magnitude greater than the mobility of carriers in films obtained by the traditional method based on zinc oxide - gallium - indium.
Thus, the results of the experiment unambiguously confirmed the new absolute record of the mobility of electric charge carriers in a ZnON zinc oxynitride-based thin-film transistor.
Of course, despite the brilliant experimental results, which confirmed the effectiveness of the technology in question, conducting experiments in the laboratory conditions significantly limited the possibilities of researchers, both in terms of obtaining the required level of repeatability of results, and in terms of testing the potential of cations of other metals in order to improve the indicators already achieved.
More information about the results of the work of scientists can be found on the website Applied Physics Letters.
Dear readers, we are always happy to meet and wait for you on the pages of the blog iCover! We are ready to continue to delight you with our publications and we will try to do everything possible so that the time spent with us will give you pleasure. And, of course, do not forget to subscribe to our headings and we promise - it will not be boring!
Our other articles
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/366575/
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