Reliability Issues of Thin Film Transistors Subject to Electrostatic Discharge Stresses: An Overview

Abstract Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is one of the most prevalent threats to the reliability of electronic components, which can result in a very high current passing through the device or microchip within a very short period of time, and cause serious irreversible damage. Thin film transistors (TFTs) are widely used in flat panel display, sensor, memristor, radio frequency identification, and other fields. But unlike the CMOS technology, TFTs can be fabricated in several various processes including amorphous Si, polycrystalline Si, metal oxide, organics, etc. As such, TFTs are prone to different types of reliability issues, and a unified overview on the subject would be beneficial to the electron devices community. The topic of the reliability issues of TFTs in different processes subject to ESD stresses has gained increasing attentions, but the reports and results are scattered. In the review, the existing articles on this topic are summarized. The characterization of TFTs under ESD stress is introduced and the failure mechanisms of various semiconductor based TFTs are compared and analyzed. Optimization methods to improve ESD robustness are presented. Finally, a conclusion and a perspective in the field of research on ESD reliability of TFTs are summarized.