• Acta Physica Sinica
  • Vol. 68, Issue 10, 108501-1 (2019)
Qun-Gang Ma1、2, Liu-Fei Zhou3, Yue Yu3, Guo-Yong Ma3, and Sheng-Dong Zhang1、2、*
Author Affiliations
  • 1School of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China
  • 2School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 3Nanjing CEC Panda FPD Technology Co., Ltd., Nanjing 210033, China
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    DOI: 10.7498/aps.68.20190265 Cite this Article
    Qun-Gang Ma, Liu-Fei Zhou, Yue Yu, Guo-Yong Ma, Sheng-Dong Zhang. Electro-static discharge failure analysis and design optimization of gate-driver on array circuit in InGaZnO thin film transistor backplane[J]. Acta Physica Sinica, 2019, 68(10): 108501-1 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    There is a risk of InGaZnO thin film transistor (IGZO TFT) failure, especially electro-static discharge (ESD) damage of gate driver on array (GOA) circuits, due to the combination of Cu interconnect, InGaZnO (IGZO) active layer and SiNx/SiO2 insulating layer used to realize large-scale ultra-high resolution display. It is found that the IGZO TFT damage position caused by ESD occurs between the source/drain metal layer and the gate insulator. The Cu metal of gate electrode diffuses into the gate insulator of SiNx/SiO2. The closer to the ESD damage area the IGZO TFT is, the more serious the negative bias of its threshold voltage (Vth) is until the device is fully turned on. The IGZO TFT with a large channel width-to-length ratio(W/L) in GOA circuit results in a serious negative bias of threshold voltage. In this paper, the ESD failure problem of GOA circuit in the IGZO TFT backplane is systematically analyzed by combining the ESD device level analysis with the system level analysis, which combines IGZO TFT device technology, difference in metal density between GOA region and active area on backplane, non-uniform thickness distribution of gate metal layer and gate insulator and so on. In the analysis of ESD device level, we propose that the diffusion of Cu metal from gate electrode into SiNx/SiO2 leads to the decrease of effective gate insulator layer, and that the built-in space charge effect leads to the decrease of the anti-ESD damage ability of IGZO TFT. In the analysis of ESD system level, we propose that the density of metal layers in GOA region is 4.5 times higher than that in active area of display panel, which makes the flatness of metal layer in GOA region worse. The non-uniformity of thickness of Cu metal film, SiNx film and SiO2 film around glass substrate lead to the position dependence of the anti-ESD damage ability of IGZO TFT in the GOA region. If there is a transition zone of film thickness change in IGZO TFT with large area, the ESD failure will occur easily. Accordingly, we propose to split large area IGZO TFT into several sub-TFT structures, which can effectively improve the ESD failure.
    Qun-Gang Ma, Liu-Fei Zhou, Yue Yu, Guo-Yong Ma, Sheng-Dong Zhang. Electro-static discharge failure analysis and design optimization of gate-driver on array circuit in InGaZnO thin film transistor backplane[J]. Acta Physica Sinica, 2019, 68(10): 108501-1
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