Chinese Journal of Liquid Crystals and Displays, Volume. 40, Issue 9, 1258(2025)

Influence of active layer thickness on performance of Al-Zn-Sn-O thin-film transistors and inverters

Laizhe KU1,2, Chao WANG1,2、*, Liang GUO1,2, Jieyang WANG1,2, Xuefeng CHU1,2, Fan YANG1,2, Yunpeng HAO1,2, Hansong GAO1,2, and Yang ZHAO1,2
Author Affiliations
  • 1Key Laboratory for Comprehensive Energy Saving of Cold Regions Architecture of Ministry of Education, Jilin Jianzhu University, Changchun 130118, China
  • 2School of Electrical and Computer Science, Jilin Jianzhu University, Changchun 130118, China
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    To investigate the influence of active layer thickness on the performance of aluminum zinc tin oxide (AZTO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) and inverters, and to promote their application in logic circuits, this paper prepared AZTO thin films with different thicknesses by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. These films were used as active layers to construct bottom-gate top-contact AZTO-TFT devices. The microstructure and composition of the films were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the electrical properties of the devices were tested.It was found that with the increase of the thickness of the AZTO active layer, the oxygen vacancy concentration gradually increased. Moderate oxygen vacancies can weaken the scattering effect of defects and impurities on carriers, reduce the transmission resistance, and thus improve the field-effect mobility. At the same time, the device can pass more carriers in the on-state, resulting in an increase in the source-drain current and the on/off ratio. The results showed that when the thickness of the active layer was 82 nm, the quality of the AZTO film was the best, and the device performance was optimal, with a field-effect mobility of 7.47 cm2 · V-1 · s-1, a threshold voltage of 14.25 V, a subthreshold swing of 1.35 V/dec, and a current on/off ratio of 6.16×10?. The resistor-loaded inverter prepared under this optimized condition achieved a high gain of 8.8 at a supply voltage (VDD) of 25 V, and had full-swing characteristics and good noise margin, which can effectively drive the next-stage components of the logic circuit.

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    Laizhe KU, Chao WANG, Liang GUO, Jieyang WANG, Xuefeng CHU, Fan YANG, Yunpeng HAO, Hansong GAO, Yang ZHAO. Influence of active layer thickness on performance of Al-Zn-Sn-O thin-film transistors and inverters[J]. Chinese Journal of Liquid Crystals and Displays, 2025, 40(9): 1258

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    Paper Information

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    Received: Jun. 25, 2025

    Accepted: --

    Published Online: Sep. 25, 2025

    The Author Email: Chao WANG (girl.alice@foxmail.com)

    DOI:10.37188/CJLCD.2025-0133

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