Rapid activation of a solution-processed aluminum oxide gate dielectric through intense pulsed light irradiation

Abstract

In this study, we report rapid activation of a solution-processed aluminum oxide gate dielectric film to reduce its processing time under ambient atmosphere. Aluminum precursor films were exposed to a high energy light-pulse and completely converted into dielectric films within 30 seconds (450 pulses). The aluminum oxide gate dielectric film irradiated using intense pulsed light with 450 pulses exhibits a smooth surface and a leakage current density of less than 10⁻⁸ A cm⁻² at 2 MV cm⁻¹. Moreover, dielectric constants of the aluminum oxide layer were calculated to be approximately 7. Finally, we fabricated a solution-processed indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistor with AlO_x using intense pulsed light irradiation, exhibiting a field-effect mobility of 2.99 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, threshold voltage of 0.73 V, subthreshold swing of 180 mV per decade and I_on/I_off ratio of 3.9 × 10⁶.