Effect of reactive sputtered SiOx passivation layer on the stability of InGaZnO thin film transistors

We fabricated the indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO) thin film transistor (TFT) with reactive sputtered SiO_x as passivation layer, and investigated the role of the SiO_x passivation layer in the IGZO-TFT under gate bias stress. The bias stability of IGZO-TFT with passivation layer is much better than that of IGZO-TFT without passivation layer. After applying positive bias stress of 20 V for 10000s, the device without passivation layer shows a larger positive V_th shift of 7.3 V. However, the device with passivation layer exhibits a much smaller V_th shift of 1.3 V. It suggests that V_th instability is attributed to the interaction between the exposed IGZO back surface and oxygen in ambient atmosphere during the positive gate voltage stress. The results indicate that reactive sputtered SiO_x passivation layer can effectively improve the bias stability of IGZO-TFT.