Ge-doped In2O3: First Demonstration of Utlizing Ge as Oxygen Vacancy Consumer to Break the Mobility/Reliability Tradeoff for High Performance Oxide TFTs

For the first time, we demonstrated high-performance Ge-doped In
2
O
3
(IGeO) thin film transistors (TFTs). Through comprehensive understanding of Ge-induced oxygen vacancy (Vo) consumption and crystallization mechanisms, the Vo generation is actively suppressed while increasing its crystallinity. The proposed IGeO TFT with fractional Ge doping (atomic concentration ~0.4% by SIMS) presents an enhanced reliability (Δ Vth = 10 m V, +4 V for 3600 s) with high mobility (µ
FE
= 62.7 cm2 V
⁻¹
S
⁻¹
), which makes it a promising way to overcome the mobility/reliability tradeoff in In
2
O
3
-based TFTs.