| AVS 55th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Thin Film | Thursday Sessions |
| Session TF-ThA |
| Session: | Thin Films for Displays and Flexible Electronics |
| Presenter: | M. Kawamura, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan |
| Authors: | M. Kawamura, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan D. Fukuda, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan Y. Inami, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan Y. Abe, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan K. Sasaki, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Low resistivity metals such as Cu or Ag have been paid attention for substituting Al alloy films as gate, source, and drain electrodes in LCD-TFT. Though Ag features with the lowest resistivity among all metals, some serious demerits, e.g. agglomeration by heating, are known. Improvements of thermal stability of Ag thin films have been attempted by especially alloying the Ag films, but it is difficult to preserve its low resistivity due to impurity scattering effect in some cases. We have showed a result of structural modification, where very thin Al oxide layer (about 3 nm of thickness) were introduced at top and bottom of the Ag films (about 95 nm), namely Al/Ag/Al structure. This structure showed excellent stability on surface morphology and electrical resistivity even after annealing at 600oC in vacuum. The resistivity of the film was also as low as that of bulk Ag. Next, reduction of Ag layer thickness down to 50 nm was attempted. The resistivity and morphology of the film were degraded slightly but remarkably superior to those of pure Ag films, and also those of Cu thin films with the same size. Consequently, it is found that the modified Ag films show excellent electrical properties and can be used at elevated temperatures.