High-Performance and Radiation-Hardened Solution-Processed ZrLaO Gate Dielectrics for Large-Area Applications


Fang, Yuxiao, Zhao, Chun, Mitrovic, Ivona Z ORCID: 0000-0003-4816-8905 and Zhao, Cezhou (2021) High-Performance and Radiation-Hardened Solution-Processed ZrLaO Gate Dielectrics for Large-Area Applications. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES, 13 (42). pp. 50101-50110.

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Abstract

Radiation hardness is important for electronics operating in harsh radiation environments such as outer space and nuclear energy industries. In this work, radiation-hardened solution-processed ZrLaO thin films are demonstrated. The radiation effects on solution-processed ZrLaO thin films and InO<sub><i>x</i></sub>/ZrLaO thin-film transistors (TFTs) were systemically investigated. The Zr<sub>0.9</sub>La<sub>0.1</sub>O<sub><i>y</i></sub> thin films demonstrated excellent radiation hardness with negligible roughness, composition, electrical property, and bias-stress stability degradation after radiation exposure. The metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs) based on Zr<sub>0.9</sub>La<sub>0.1</sub>O<sub><i>y</i></sub> gate dielectrics exhibited an ultralow flat band-voltage (<i>V</i><sub>FB</sub>) sensitivity of 0.11 mV/krad and 0.19 mV/krad under low dose and high dose gamma irradiation conditions, respectively. The low dose condition had a 103 krad (SiO<sub>2</sub>) total dose and a 0.12 rad/s low dose rate, whereas the high dose condition had a 580 krad total dose and a 278 rad/s high dose rate. Furthermore, InO<sub><i>x</i></sub>/Zr<sub>0.9</sub>La<sub>0.1</sub>O<sub><i>y</i></sub> thin-film transistors (TFTs) exhibited a large <i>I</i><sub>on</sub>/<i>I</i><sub>off</sub> of 2 × 10<sup>6</sup>, a small subthreshold swing (SS) of 0.11 V/dec, a small interface trap density (<i>D</i><sub>it</sub>) of 1 × 10<sup>12</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup>, and a 0.16 V threshold shift (Δ<i>V</i><sub>TH</sub>) under 3600 s positive bias-stress (PBS). InO<sub><i>x</i></sub>/Zr<sub>0.9</sub>La<sub>0.1</sub>O<sub><i>y</i></sub> TFT-based resistor-loaded inverters demonstrated complete swing behavior, a static output gain of 13.3 under 4 V <i>V</i><sub>DD</sub>, and an ∼9% radiation-induced degradation. Through separate investigation of the radiation-induced degradation on the semiconductor layer and dielectric layer of TFTs, it was found that radiation exposure mainly generated oxygen vacancies (V<sub>o</sub>) and increased electron concentration among gate oxide. Nevertheless, the radiation-induced TFT instability was mainly related to the semiconductor layer degradation, which could be possibly suppressed by back-channel passivation. The demonstrated results indicate that solution-processed ZrLaO is a high-potential candidate for large-area electronics and circuits applied in harsh radiation environments. In addition, the detailed investigation of radiation-induced degradation on solution-processed high-<i>k</i> dielectrics in this work provided clear inspiration for developing novel flexible rad-hard dielectrics.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: solution processed, high-k gate oxide, zirconium oxide, lanthanum oxide, radiation hardness, inverter
Divisions: Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science
Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Physical Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 31 Jan 2022 08:26
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 21:14
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c13633
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3147812
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