Current leading thin-film solar cell technologies, i.e., cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), employ elements which are either toxic (Cd), or rare and/or expensive (In, Te, Ga, and Cd). The aim of this thesis is to investigate new, abundant, non-toxic p-type semiconductors for potential solar absorber application....
The trend towards higher resolution, faster refresh rate active-matrix liquid-crystal displays (AMLCDs) as well as the emergence of active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays is driving the demand for amorphous oxide semiconductor thin-film transistors (AOS TFTs) with higher mobility. A physics-based model for carrier transport in an amorphous semiconductor is...
The aim of the research undertaken for this thesis was to develop a new high-performance amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) for use as a channel layer in a thin-film transistor (TFT). AOS TFTs offer higher electron mobility than the established amorphous silicon based technology. A new channel material comprised of aluminum...
Alternating-current thin-film electroluminescent (ACTFEL) devices are used in the
formation of pixels in flat panel displays. ACTFEL flat panel displays have many
advantages over other flat panel technologies. Specifically, ACTFEL panels are emissive
displays, they have high brightness, wide viewing angles, and rugged construction.
Although much is already known about...
Current cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium diselenide thin-film solar cells
(TFSCs) utilize thick absorbers (2 - 4 μm). For efficient carrier extraction in these TFSCs,
the absorber layer requires high carrier mobilities and a long minority carrier lifetime, which
necessitates the use of a high purity, defect-free thin film....
The atomic solid state energy (SSE) scale is introduced as a tool for inorganic materials design. The SSE scale is obtained by assessing an average electron affinity (EA) (for a cation) or an average ionization potential (IP) (for an anion) for each atom using data from compounds having that specific...
A class of inorganic thin-film transistor (TFT) semiconductor materials has emerged involving oxides composed of post-transitional cations with (n-1)d¹⁰ns⁰ (n≥4) electronic configurations. This thesis is devoted to the pursuit of topics involving the development of these materials for TFT applications: Deposition of zinc oxide and zinc tin oxide semiconductor
layers...
The primary objective of this thesis is to explore new absorber and p-type window layer materials for thin-film solar cell applications. A new thin-film electron beam deposition system has been installed, is now operational, and has been used to deposit several types of solar cell absorber layers. Material investigations include...
A study of deep levels of the emitter region of a
heterojunction bipolar transistor is investigated using deep
level transient spectroscopy (DLTS), deep level admittance
spectroscopy (DLAS), thermally stimulated capacitance
(TSCAP), and capacitance-voltage (C-V) profiling. The DX
center, with an activation energy of 0.45 eV, is the only
deep level...
Amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) are of great current interest for thin-film transistor (TFT) channel layer applications. In particular, indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) is under intense development for commercial applications because of its demonstrated high performance at low processing temperatures. The objective of the research presented in this thesis is...
Amorphous metal thin films (AMTFs) are of potential use for metal-insulator-metal (MIM) tunnel diode applications due to their ultra-smooth surfaces, a consequence of their amorphous microstructure. The objective of this thesis is to design a thermally-stable AMTF capable of maintaining MIM tunnel diode performance after a post-deposition anneal in excess...
The focus of this thesis is the investigation of thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) in two circuit applications. To date, circuits implemented with AOS-based TFTs have been primarily enhancement-enhancement inverters, ring oscillators based on these inverters operating at peak frequencies up to ~400 kHz, and two-transistor...
Indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO) and zinc-tin oxide (ZTO) are investigated for thin-film transistor (TFT) applications. Negative bias illumination stress (NBIS) is employed for electrical stability assessment. Unpassivated IGZO and ZTO TFTs suffer from severe NBIS instabilities. Zinc-tin-silicon oxide is found to be an effective passivation layer for IGZO and ZTO TFTs,...
This thesis focuses on two aspects of transparent electronics, SnO₂ transparent thin-film transistors (TTFTs) and transparent circuits. Both depletion- and enhancement-mode SnO₂ TTFTs are realized. The maximum effective mobility for the depletion- and enhancement-mode devices are 2 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹ and 0.8 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹, respectively. A variety of techniques to decrease the carrier...
Due to a lack of grain boundaries, an amorphous metal thin film (AMTF) possesses advantageous mechanical properties and enhanced chemical stability that is potentially useful for thermal inkjet (TIJ) printing applications. The use of an AMTF as a TIJ resistor or cavitation plate could lead to a thinner TIJ cavitation...
CIGS and CdTe based commercial thin-film solar cells (TFSCs) require an absorber thickness greater than 2 µm and 4 µm, respectively, to adequately absorb the solar spectrum. To efficiently extract photoexcited electrons, these TFSCs require relatively defect-free absorbers with high-minority carrier mobility (> 100 cm2V−1s−1) and long lifetime (> 10...
The long-term goal of this research project is the development of solution-based inorganic dielectric and semiconductor materials for inkjet printed electronics. The main focus of this thesis involves testing of the materials and devices under development. A new solution-based inorganic dielectric material (HfOSO₄), given the name hafsox, is developed and...
The primary focus of this thesis involves modeling and development of p-type thin-film transistors (p-TFTs), moving towards the realization of a filly transparent thin-film transistor (TTFT). The modeling portion of this thesis emphasizes the development of physics-based TFT models, specifically focusing on the elucidation of non-ideal current-voltage characteristic behavior. A...
The electrical stability of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thinfilmtransistors (TFTs) is investigated for flat-panel display applications. Althoughproducts incorporating a-IGZO TFT backplanes are already commercially available,e.g., iMac with 5K retina display, technical challenges need to be addressed for nextgenerationapplications, e.g., active-matrix organic light-emitting diode displays.Device stability is one crucial issue. The...
The aim of this dissertation is to develop oxide semiconductors by radio-frequency
sputtering for thin-film transistor (TFT) applications. A variety of oxide semiconductors
are used as the TFT channel layer, including indium gallium oxide (IGO), zinc tin
oxide (ZTO), and indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO). The variety of materials used...
The focus of this thesis involves development of highly transparent, n-channel, accumulation- mode thin-film transistors employing a zinc tin oxide (ZTO) channel layer. ZTO-based transparent thin-film transistors (TTFTs) show improved device performance compared to ZnO-based TTFTs. An estimated peak effective mobility for these devices as high as ~100 cm² V⁻¹sec⁻¹...
The drain current of InP MISPETs is often observed
to decrease as a function of time after the application of
a positive gate bias which involves an accumulation of
electrons in the channel. Various models have been
proposed for this drain current drift (DCD) phenomenon.
In this thesis, variable-temperature bias-stress...
The objective of this dissertation is to introduce low-cost processing methods for the fabrication of ZnO transparent thin-film transistors (TTFTs). A novel method for depositing ZnO body layers via spin-coating of a zinc nitrate-based spin solution is presented. The processing conditions of spin-coated ZnO are optimized to produce continuous and...
The objective of the work reported herein is to explore the impact of decreasing channel thickness on radio-frequency (RF) sputtered amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) electrical performance through the evaluation of drain current versus gate voltage (I[subscript D] − V[subscript G]) transfer curves. For a fixed set of...
The objective of this thesis is to contribute to the development of p-type materials for transparent electronics applications. Thin films of ®-BaCu2S2, a p-type semi-transparent semiconductor, are fabricated and characterized. ®-BaCu2S2 has a transmittance of 60% to 80 % in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The mobility, conductivity,...
The objective of this thesis is to provide an initial demonstration of the feasibility of constructing highly transparent active electronic devices. Such a demonstration is successfully achieved in the fabrication of ZnO-based thin film transistors (TFTs) exhibiting transparency greater than ~90% in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and...
This thesis focuses on two aspects of oxide-based thin-film transistors (TFTs), contact resistance and instability assessment.
First, determination of the contact resistance of indium tin oxide (ITO) on two wide-band gap semiconductors, zinc oxide (ZnO) and indium gallium oxide (IGO), is attempted and the effects of contact resistance on device...
Fabrication techniques and process integration considerations for amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) thin-film transistors (TFTs) constitute the central theme of this dissertation. Within this theme three primary areas of focus are pursued.
The first focus involves formulating a general framework for assessing passivation. Avoiding formation of an undesirable backside accumulation layer...
The objective of the research presented in this thesis is to develop, implement, and demonstrate the utility of an n-sheet, state-space alternating-current thin-film electroluminescent (ACTFEL) device model. In this model, the phosphor layer is discretized into n + 1 layers, with band-to-band impact ionization, space charge creation/ annihilation, and luminescent...
The central focus of this thesis is the design, fabrication and characterization of amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) thin-film transistor (TFT) current mirrors. The thin-film deposition and circuit fabrication methods used to realize zinc tin oxide (ZTO) TFT
current mirrors are addressed in order to elucidate the processing challenges for this...
The goal of this thesis is to identify and to explore novel ACTFEL phosphor
materials. Several important materials properties relevant to ACTFEL phosphor
development are identified. All of these properties cannot be obtained simultaneously.
Therefore, several key phosphor materials properties are identified as critical to the
development of an ACTFEL...
The goal of this thesis is the identification and synthesis of high-luminance,
primary color alternating-current thin-film electroluminescent (ACTFEL) devices.
Special attention is paid to the synthesis of primary color green ACTFEL devices because
of the lack of an adequate primary green ACTFEL phosphor and the dominance
of green wavelengths in...
The research presented herein focuses on electrical assessment of oxide thin films as insulators. The current density-electric field (J-E) characteristics of four insulators of dramatically different electrical quality are assessed in terms of their operative electronic conduction mechanisms. Conduction in the two high-quality insulators is dominated by Ohmic conduction and...