Effects of Ta incorporation in La2O3 gate dielectric of InGaZnO thin-film transistor

The effects of Ta incorporation in La2O3 gate dielectric of amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistor are investigated. Since the Ta incorporation is found to effectively enhance the moisture resistance of the La2O3 film and thus suppress the formation of La(OH) 3, both the dielectric roughness and trap density at/near the InGaZnO/dielectric interface can be reduced, resulting in a significant improvement in the electrical characteristics of transistor. Among the samples with different Ta contents, the one with a Ta/(Ta + La) atomic ratio of 21.7% exhibits the best performance, including high saturation carrier mobility of 23.4 cm2/V·s, small subthreshold swing of 0.177 V/dec, and negligible hysteresis. Nevertheless, excessive incorporation of Ta can degrade the device characteristics due to newly generated Ta-related traps.