Effects of dopants in InOx-based amorphous oxide semiconductors for thin-film transistor applications

Amorphous metal oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) are fabricated using InOx-based semiconductors doped with TiO2, WO3, or SiO2. Even at low-dopant densities, the electrical properties of the film strongly depend on the dopant used. We found that this dependence could be reasonably explained by differences in the bond-dissociation energy of the dopants. By incorporating a dopant with a higher bond-dissociation energy, the film became less sensitive to the partial pressure of oxygen used during sputtering and remained electrically stable upon thermal annealing. Thus, choosing a dopant with an appropriate bond-dissociation energy is important when fabricating stable metal-oxide TFTs for flat-panel displays.