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A Sputtered Silicon Oxide Electrolyte for High-Performance Thin-Film Transistors

Low operating voltages have been long desired for thin-film transistors (TFTs). However, it is still challenging to realise 1-V operation by using conventional dielectrics due to their low gate capacitances and low breakdown voltages. Recently, electric double layers (EDLs) have been regarded as a promising candidate for low-power electronics due to their high capacitance. In this work, we present the first sputtered SiO2 solid-state electrolyte. In order to demonstrate EDL behaviour, a sputtered 200 nm-thick SiO2 electrolyte was incorporated into InGaZnO TFTs as the gate dielectric. The devices exhibited an operating voltage of 1 V, a threshold voltage of 0.06 V, a subthreshold swing of 83 mV dec−1 and an on/off ratio higher than 105. The specific capacitance was 0.45 µF cm−2 at 20 Hz, which is around 26 times higher than the value obtained from thermally oxidised SiO2 films with the same thickness. Analysis of the microstructure and mass density of the sputtered SiO2 films under different deposition conditions indicates that such high capacitance might be attributed to mobile protons donated by atmospheric water. The InGaZnO TFTs with the optimised SiO2 electrolyte also showed good air stability. This work provides a new pathway to the realisation of high-yield low-power electronics.

temperature. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no report on sputtered solid-state electrolytes for TFTs to date.
In this work, we attempt to produce solid-state SiO 2 electrolytes by sputtering technology for the first time. A range of Ar pressures and sputtering powers have been experimented during SiO 2 sputtering, which result in very different SiO 2 microstructures and therefore TFT behaviours. Under optimised sputtering conditions, InGaZnO (IGZO) TFTs that utilise the SiO 2 electrolyte show an ultra-low operating voltage of 1 V, a near-zero threshold voltage, V th , of 0.06 V, a subthreshold swing, SS, of 83 mV dec −1 which is close to the theoretical minimum value, and a high on-off ratio of ~10 5 . The microstructure of the sputtered SiO 2 electrolyte is characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The mass density of the sputtered SiO 2 is determined by using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). The EDL formation mechanisms have also been discussed based on studies of the ambient stability of the SiO 2 -electrolyte-based TFTs. Figure 1a shows the transfer characteristics of the TFT using a sputtered 200 nm-thick SiO 2 layer as gate dielectric. The current on/off ratio and subthreshold swing are found to be ~10 5 and 83 mV dec −1 , respectively. In the saturation region, the threshold voltage is found to be very close to zero at 0.06 V. An anticlockwise hysteresis with a small threshold voltage shift of −0.02 V is observed at a sweep rate of 15 mV s −1 . The total leakage current is found to be less than 0.1 nA and the leakage current density is around 6.0 × 10 −8 A cm −2 . Figure 1b shows the output characteristics of the TFT. A typical linear region is observed at low drain voltages. At a gate voltage, V G , of 1 V, and a drain voltage, V D , of 1 V, a drain current, I D , higher than 2 μA is obtained.

DC and AC characteristics of EDL TFTs.
To demonstrate the stability and repeatability of device properties, the performance of ten TFTs fabricated in two batches at different times but under the same conditions were measured. Since the capacitance of electrolyte gate dielectric is a function of frequency (unlike conventional TFTs), we have chosen to analyse the transconductance g m rather than mobility itself. A detailed statistical analysis of on/off ratio, subthreshold swing, threshold voltage and transconductance at V G = 1 V and V D = 2 V with the average value and standard deviation bar is shown in Supplementary Figure S1. Devices numbered 1 to 5 were fabricated in one batch and devices 6 to 10 were fabricated in another batch. The electrolyte dielectrics were deposited with an RF power of 85 W and an Ar pressure of 5 × 10 −3 mbar. According to the statistical results, the devices fabricated in different batches showed similar performance. The on/off ratios of the devices are all around 3 × 10 5 with a minimum value still higher than 1 × 10 5 . The magnitude of subthreshold swing is always better than 100 mV dec −1 with an average value of 85 mV dec −1 . The transconductance values of the devices are also close to each other, indicating good uniformity and reproducibility.
It should be noted that our sputtered SiO 2 electrolyte layer is a new type of dielectric to enable an extremely low operating voltage. Conventional SiO 2 insulator has a relative dielectric constant of 3.9, meaning that a layer of 200-nm-thick SiO 2 insulator provides a specific capacitance of around 17 nF cm −2 . However, our 200 nm SiO 2 electrolyte exhibited a specific capacitance of about 300 nF cm −2 which is more than one order of magnitude higher. Indeed, our IGZO TFTs showed an operating voltage of 1 V, which is a drastic improvement from more than 10 V operating voltage of TFTs gated with conventional SiO 2 dielectric [24][25][26] . This is also significantly better than that of IGZO TFTs gated with 200-nm-thick high-κ dielectrics, such as Ta 2 O 5 (3 V) 27 , HfO 2 (5 V) 28 and ZrO 2 (6 V) 28 . Figure 1c shows the specific capacitance of the 200 nm-thick SiO 2 film at frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 100 kHz using an Al/SiO 2 /Al sandwich structure. The low phase angle, smaller than −45°, indicates the sputtered SiO 2 layer remains capacitive up to 100 kHz (ref. 29). A maximum capacitance of 0.45 µF cm −2 is obtained at 20 Hz, which is 26 times larger than that of thermally oxidised 200 nm-thick SiO 2 (17.3 nF cm −2 ). Such a high capacitance enables the ultra-low operating voltage of the TFT in this work. Moreover, unlike thermally oxidised SiO 2 , the capacitance of the sputtered SiO 2 shows a strong frequency dependence which is similar to the gate capacitance of other EDL transistors 17, 29, 30 . Effects of different sputtering conditions. In order to explore the origin of such high capacitance, a series of sputtering conditions have been experimented during the deposition of the SiO 2 layer. Figure 2a shows the transfer characteristics of three IGZO TFTs gated with 200 nm-thick SiO 2 dielectrics sputtered at different Ar pressures of 1 × 10 −2 , 5 × 10 −3 , and 1 × 10 −3 mbar, respectively. The sputtering power is fixed at 85 W. The TFT with the SiO 2 layer sputtered at 1 × 10 −3 mbar shows a much lower on-current compared with the values obtained by the other two TFTs. An anticlockwise hysteresis is observed for all three devices, indicting mobile ions in the dielectric layer 31 . The TFT with the SiO 2 layer sputtered at 1 × 10 −2 mbar also shows a small region of clockwise hysteresis at gate voltages higher than −0.5 V, indicating electron trapping at the dielectric/channel interface 31 .
Previous studies indicate that protons are common mobile ions in solid-state EDL transistors 29,30,32 . As the deposition process in this work does not involve any noticeable source of protons, it is plausible that they are introduced by moisture in the ambient air. It has been reported that water might be able to diffuse into the sputtered IGZO layer 33,34 . Since the size of a water molecule is only around 2.5 Å (ref. 35), it is reasonable to assume that there might be some water molecules at the surface of, or inside, the SiO 2 layer if the structure of SiO 2 is porous.
According to Thornton's model, increasing deposition pressure shall result in a reduction of deposition rate and even a porous film structure 36,37 . Thus it is important to analyse the microstructures of the sputtered SiO 2 films. Figure 2b shows the cross-sectional SEM images of these three TFTs, corresponding to the three different sputtering pressures, 1 × 10 −2 (Sample A), 5 × 10 −3 (Sample B), and 1 × 10 −3 mbar (Sample C), respectively (Full images can be found in Supplementary Figures S2-4). It is found that there are more granular-like structures in Sample A than those in Sample B. There are hardly any granular-like structures in Sample C when the sputtering pressure is the lowest which is as expected. A highly granular-like microstructure is capable of absorbing water molecules and desirable for proton conduction 38,39 . The absorbed water molecules may be ionised into H + and OH − . When a positive bias is applied to the gate electrode, protons are repelled to the dielectric/channel interface 32 . These repelled protons will induce a large number of electrons in the channel, thus forming an EDL at the dielectric/channel interface. Because of the lack of granular-like microstructure in Sample C, the SiO 2 layer sputtered at the lowest Ar pressure cannot absorb a significant amount of water to form an EDL, resulting in a much lower TFT current as shown in Fig. 2a. Figure 2c shows an HRTEM image of the SiO 2 layer sputtered at 5 × 10 −3 mbar, which is obtained in bright field mode where a darker region indicates a higher material density. The SiO 2 film exhibits an amorphous structure with an inhomogeneous density distribution. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) image in the inset of Fig. 2c only shows a diffuse halo without clear rings or spots, confirming the amorphous structure of the material. These results suggest that the sputtered SiO 2 has a low-density network structure surrounding higher density regions. Such low-density structure may promote proton hopping between oxygen atoms in the SiO 2 layer 32,40,41 .
For thermally oxidised SiO 2 films, the Si/O atom ratio and mass density are around 1:2.1 and 2.25 g cm −3 , respectively 42,43 . However, the RBS spectrum, as shown in Fig. 2d, indicates that the Si/O atom ratio and mass density for the SiO 2 films sputtered at 85 W with an Ar pressure of 5 × 10 −3 mbar are 1:2.7 and 1.87 g cm −3 , respectively. The low mass density confirms that the sputtered SiO 2 film at high Ar pressures has a porous structure. The small value of the Si/O ratio indicates the existence of excess oxygen atoms, suggesting that there are a large number of hydroxyl groups or water molecules at the surface of, or inside, the SiO 2 layer.
The power dependence of the SiO 2 electrolyte has also been studied. Figure 2e shows the transfer characteristics of two TFTs gated with dielectrics sputtered at the same Ar pressure of 5 × 10 −3 mbar but different RF powers of 45 W (low power) and 85 W (high power), respectively. According to Messier's model, the kinetic energy of sputtered particles from the target is positively correlated to the RF power 36,37 . As such, at the lower RF power (45 W), the sputtered particles will have lower energy to self-organise to form a denser film on the substrate. The turn-on voltage of the lower-power-sputtered device is indeed lower than the value obtained for the higher-power-sputtered device as shown in Fig. 2e.

Stability test.
As protons in the sputtered SiO 2 film may be generated by ionised water molecules, testing the air stability of the SiO 2 electrolyte TFTs may offer a deeper understanding of the EDL formation mechanism. As shown in Fig. 2e, the performance of the TFT with SiO 2 electrolyte sputtered at the higher power (85 W) remains almost the same after one-month storage in ambient atmosphere. On the contrary, the transfer characteristic of the TFT with SiO 2 electrolyte sputtered at the lower power (45 W) shows a significant degradation. However, the performance of the lower-power-sputtered device can be recovered after annealing for 1 h in N 2 at 100 °C (shown in Supplementary Figure S5). The annealing treatment may remove the water molecules inside the electrolyte and restore the device performance. However, the exact mechanism that causes the very different ambient stabilities of the 45 W and 85 W devices is not clear and needs further studies. Figure 3a shows the transfer characteristics of the TFT with higher-power-sputtered SiO 2 gate dielectric before and after treatment in dry N 2 for 12 h. The drain current at a gate voltage of 2 V is 4.6 µA before the N 2 treatment and slightly drops to 1.2 µA immediately after taking the device out of the N 2 ambient. The drain current increases continuously after leaving the device in ambient atmosphere until the device regains its high performance after about 20 min. This confirms that the sputtered SiO 2 electrolyte functions by absorbing water and suggests that protons are the mobile ions that are responsible for the formation of EDL layer.
It is common for electrolyte-based TFTs to be sensitive to the environment. Such a property itself can be useful in developing environmental sensors 44,45 . Furthermore, it is possible to apply a capping layer to control the environmental stability of the devices. Here, we deposited a layer of 400 nm PMMA as a capping layer on some of the devices, and compared their environmental stability before and after PMMA capping. As shown in Fig. 3b, a device without PMMA capping shows a much lower on current after a dry N 2 treatment for 12 hours due to the reduction of protons or hydrogen ions in the electrolyte. The TFT was then placed in ambient atmosphere for one hour, which resulted in a recovery in device performance as shown by the green curve. After capping the TFT by spin coating a 400 nm-thick PMMA layer, the device was placed in the dry N 2 chamber for 12 hours and measured again. No clear degradation was observed as indicated by the dashed green curve. Such an experiment confirms that adding a capping layer can improve and control the stability of our TFTs, and the useful method is most likely applicable also to other types of EDL devices.

Discussion
In summary, we report the first SiO 2 solid-state electrolyte deposited by sputtering technology. TFTs based on the sputter ed SiO 2 electrolytes exhibit high performance including 1 V operation, nearly ideal subthreshold swing, low leakage current and small hysteresis. Since sputtering technology is widely used in industry for large-area and even roll-to-roll film deposition, the solid-state electrolyte developed in this work could have timely implications in low-cost, low-power, portable electronics applications.

Methods
Device Fabrication. IGZO TFTs were fabricated with a bottom-gate top-contact structure using photolithography. Glass substrates were cleaned with deionised water, acetone, and methanol. Thermal evaporation was used to deposit a 30 nm-thick Al layer for use as the gate electrode. A 200 nm-thick SiO 2 gate dielectric was deposited by using RF sputtering under various conditions in Ar from a SiO 2 target. Then a 50 nm-thick IGZO film was deposited as the channel layer by RF sputtering at 45 W and an Ar pressure of 5 × 10 −3 mbar. Finally, 30 nm-thick Al source/drain electrodes of the TFTs were thermally evaporated. To deposit a capping layer on the top of a device, a 400 nm-thick layer of PMMA was spin-coated onto the device from a 4% solution in anisole (950PMMA A4, diluted to 4% with anisole). A shadow mask based IGZO TFT, which requires no chemical process, was also fabricated to prove that the ions were not induced during the photolithography process. The transfer characteristics of such IGZO TFT are shown in Supplementary Figure S6.
Device Characterisation. I-V characteristics of the IGZO TFTs were measured by using a Keysight E5270 semiconductor analyser at room temperature in dark. A Keysight E4980A LCR meter was used to measure the C-V characteristics. The high-resolution SEM images were obtained by using an FEI Nova NanoSEM 450 scanning electron microscope. The HRTEM analysis was performed by using a Tecnai F30 transmission electron microscope operating at 300 kV. The mass density and Si/O atom ratio were measured by using National Electrostatics Corporation (NEC) 5SDH-2 RBS with a 2 MeV He 2+ ion beam in vacuum.