Effect of thickness of ZnO active layer on ZnO-TFT's characteristics

Abstract We have investigated the electrical characteristics of ZnO thin film transistors with respect to the thickness of ZnO active layers. The ZnO layers with the thickness of 30 nm to 150 nm were deposited on bottom gate patterned Si substrate by RF sputtering at room temperature. The low-temperature oxide served as gate dielectric. As ZnO channel layer got thicker, the leakage current at V DS = 30 V and V G = 0 V greatly increased from 10 − 10 A to 10 − 6 A, while the threshold voltage decreased from 15 V to 10 V. On the other hand, the field effect mobility got around 0.15 cm 2 /V s except for the 30-nm-thick channel. Overall, the 55-nm-thick ZnO channel layer showed the best performance.