Atomic Layer Deposition of an Indium Gallium Oxide Thin Film for Thin-Film Transistor Applications

Indium gallium oxide (IGO) thin films were deposited via atomic layer deposition (ALD) using [1,1,1-trimethyl-N-(trimethylsilyl)silanaminato]indium (InCA-1) and trimethylgallium (TMGa) as indium and gallium precursors, respectively, and hydrogen peroxide as the reactant. To clearly understand the mechanism of multicomponent ALD growth of oxide semiconductor materials, several variations in the precursor–reactant deposition cycles were evaluated. Gallium could be doped into the oxide film at 200 °C when accompanied by an InCA-1 pulse, and no growth of gallium oxide was observed without the simultaneous deposition of indium oxide. Density functional theory calculations for the initial adsorption of the precursors revealed that chemisorption of TMGa was kinetically hindered on hydroxylated SiOx but was spontaneous on a hydroxylated InOx surface. Moreover, the atomic composition and electrical characteristics, such as carrier concentration and resistivity, of the ALD-IGO film were controllable by adjusting the deposition supercycles, composed of InO and GaO subcycles. Thus, ALD-IGO could be employed to fabricate active layers for thin-film transistors to realize an optimum mobility of 9.45 cm2/(V s), a threshold voltage of −1.57 V, and a subthreshold slope of 0.26 V/decade.