Professor Yong-Young Noh, along with Dr. Ao Liu, Dr. Huihui Zhu, Dr. Yong-Sung Kim, and Dr. Min Gyu Kim collaborated on developing a tellurium-selenium composite oxide semiconductor material that led to the creation of a high-performance and stable p-type thin-film transistor (TFT). This research has been published in Nature and is a significant breakthrough in the field of semiconductors.
Semiconductors are crucial in electronic devices, and there are two main categories: crystalline and amorphous semiconductors. Amorphous semiconductors are easier and cheaper to fabricate but usually have inferior electrical performance. Progress on p-type amorphous semiconductors has been slow, hindering the development of complementary bipolar semiconductors essential for electronic devices and integrated circuits.
The team of researchers led by Professor Noh at POSTECH discovered that the charge of tellurium oxide increases in oxygen-deficient environments, enabling it to function as a p-type semiconductor. The team successfully engineered high-performance and stable amorphous p-type oxide TFTs using partially oxidized tellurium thin films and a tellurium-selenium composite oxide (Se:TeOx) incorporating selenium.
Experimental findings show that the team’s TFTs have impressive hole mobility and on/off current ratio, nearly matching the performance levels of conventional n-type oxide semiconductors. Furthermore, the TFTs demonstrated exceptional stability under varying external conditions, indicating their suitability for reliable semiconductor devices in industrial applications.
Professor Noh is optimistic about the implications of this milestone, stating that it could drive advancements in next-generation display technologies like OLED TVs, VR, and AR devices, as well as low-power CMOS and DRAM memory research. The team’s research has the potential to create substantial value across various industries.
In conclusion, the collaboration between researchers from POSTECH, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, and the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory has led to a significant breakthrough in the development of high-performance and stable p-type oxide semiconductors. Their research published in Nature marks a pivotal moment in the advancement of semiconductor technology, with potential applications in next-generation electronic devices and integrated circuits.
