Body engineering structure for ZnO thin-film transistors: a Schottky-contact-merged ZnO TFT

In this paper, a new body engineering structure for ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs), a Schottky-contact-merged (SCM) ZnO TFT, is proposed, in which the Schottky contact is formed on the body of the ZnO TFT to improve the electrical characteristics without requiring an additional mask and process. In a conventional bottom-gate ZnO TFT, the I–V characteristics usually show a negative-shifted turn-on voltage (V ON) with a large subthreshold slope (SS). By adapting the suggested structure, V ON could be shifted from−13 to−4.4 V with the additional improvement of SS from 1.5 to 0.48 V/decade. In addition, the SCM structure has better electrical stability, which means that it allows for better control of the charge trapping during bias operations.