Modeling of Reversible and Irreversible Threshold Voltage Shift in Thin-film Transistors

Threshold voltage shift has been observed from many thin-film transistors (TFTs) and the time evolution of the shift can be modeled as the stretched-exponential and -hyperbola function. These analytic models are derived from the kinetic equation for defect-creation or charge-trapping and the equation consists of only reversible reactions. In reality TFT``s a shift is permanent due to an irreversible reaction and, as a result, it is reasonable to consider that both reversible and irreversible reactions exist in a TFT. In this paper the case when both reactions exist in parallel and make a combined threshold voltage shift is modeled and simulated. The results show that a combined threshold voltage shift observed from a TFT may agrees with the analytic models and, thus, the analytic models don``t guarantee whether the cause of the shift is defection-creation or charge-trapping.