High-throughput fabrication and semi-automated characterization of oxide thin film transistors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates high-throughput fabrication and semi-automated characterization of oxide thin film transistors, enabling rapid assessment of device performance and paving the way for fully automated testing systems.

Contribution

It introduces a combinatorial fabrication method for TFTs with various gradients and a semi-automated measurement process, advancing high throughput electronic device research.

Findings

Successful generation of device gradients such as channel thickness and composition.

Efficient semi-automated measurement of 44 devices on a single substrate.

Proposal of a fully automated characterization system for TFT libraries.

Abstract

High throughput experimental methods are known to accelerate the rate of research, development, and deployment of electronic materials. For example, thin films with lateral gradients in composition, thickness, or other parameters have been used alongside spatially-resolved characterization to assess how various physical factors affect material properties under varying measurement conditions. Similarly, multi-layer electronic devices that contain such graded thin films as one or more of their layers can also be characterized spatially in order to optimize the performance. In this work, we apply these high throughput experimental methods to thin film transistors (TFTs), demonstrating combinatorial device fabrication and semi-automated characterization using sputtered Indium-Gallium-Zinc-Oxide (IGZO) TFTs as a case study. We show that both extrinsic and intrinsic types of device gradients can be generated in a TFT library, such as channel thickness and length, channel cation compositions, and oxygen atmosphere during deposition. We also present a semi-automated method to measure the 44 devices fabricated on a 50x50mm substrate that can help to identify properly functioning TFTs in the library and finish the measurement in a short time. Finally, we propose a fully automated characterization system for similar TFT libraries, which can be coupled with high throughput data analysis. These results demonstrate that high throughput methods can accelerate the investigation of TFTs and other electronic devices.