Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Buffer in InGaZnO Transistors under Repetitive Bending Stress for High Electrical and Mechanical Stability

We investigated the influence of the multilayered hybrid buffer consisting of Al₂O₃/PA (polyacrylic) organic layer/Al₂O₃ on the electrical and mechanical properties of amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). The multilayered organic/inorganic hybrid buffer has multiple beneficial effects on the flexible TFTs under repetitive bending stress. First, compared to the PA or Al₂O₃ single-layered buffer, the multilayered hybrid buffer showed an improved WVTR value of 1.1 × 10^-4 g/m² day. Even after 40,000 bending cycles, the WVTR value of the hybrid buffer increased only by 17%, while the WVTR value of the Al₂O₃ layer doubled after cyclical bending stress. We also confirmed that the hybrid buffer has advantages in mechanical durability of the TFT layers because of the change in the position of the neutral plane and the strain reduction effect by the PA organic layer. When we fabricate a top-gate a-IGZO TFT with the hybrid buffer layer (HB TFT), the device shows V_th = 0.74 V, μ_FE = 14.4 cm²/V·s, a subthreshold slope of 0.27 V/dec, and hysteresis of 0.21 V, which are superior to that of TFTs fabricated on an Al₂O₃ single-layer buffer (IB TFT). From the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and elastic recoil detection analysis, the difference in the electrical performance of TFTs could be explained by hydrogen-related molecules. After annealing at 270 °C, the amounts of hydrogen found in the a-IGZO layer for the IB, HB, and OB TFTs were 3.57 × 10²¹, 5.77 × 10²¹, and 7.34 × 10²¹ atoms/cm³, respectively. A top-gate bottom-contact structured a-IGZO TFT fabricated on the PA layer (OB TFT) showed a gate dielectric breakdown because of excessively high hydrogen content and high nonbonding oxygen content. On the other hand, HB TFTs showed better positive bias stability because of the higher hydrogen concentration, as hydrogen (when not excessive) is beneficial in passivating electron traps. Finally, we conducted 60,000 repetitive bending cycles on IB TFTs and HB TFTs with various bending radii down to 1.5 mm. The HB TFT shows improved mechanical durability and exhibits less electrical degradation during and after repetitive bending stress, compared to the IB TFT.