Study of breakdown voltage of indium-gallium-zinc-oxide-based Schottky diode

In contrast to the intensive studies on thin-film transistors based on indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), the research on IGZO-based diodes is still very limited, particularly on their behavior and stability under high bias voltages. Our experiments reveal a sensitive dependence of the breakdown voltage of IGZO Schottky diodes on the anode metal and the IGZO film thickness. Devices with an Au anode are found to breakdown easily at a reverse bias as low as -2.5 V, while the devices with a Pd anode and a 200-nm, fully depleted IGZO layer have survived up to -15 V. All diodes are fabricated by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering at room temperature without any thermal treatment, yet showing an ideality factor as low as 1.14, showing the possibility of achieving high-performance Schottky diodes on flexible plastic substrate. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.