Synaptic behaviors of thin-film transistor with a Pt/HfOx/n-type indium-gallium-zinc oxide gate stack

• Published in: Nanotechnology Vol. 29; no. 29
• Main Authors: Yang, Paul, Park, Daehoon, Beom, Keonwon, Kim, Hyung Jun, Kang, Chi Jung, Yoon, Tae-Sik
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 20.07.2018
• Subjects: drain current modulation; hafnium oxide; IGZO; synaptic behaviors; synaptic transistor
• ISSN: 0957-4484; 1361-6528
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/aac17e

We report a variety of synaptic behaviors in a thin-film transistor (TFT) with a metal-oxide-semiconductor gate stack that has a Pt/HfOx/n-type indium-gallium-zinc oxide (n-IGZO) structure. The three-terminal synaptic TFT exhibits a tunable synaptic weight with a drain current modulation upon repeated application of gate and drain voltages. The synaptic weight modulation is analog, voltage-polarity dependent reversible, and strong with a dynamic range of multiple orders of magnitude (>104). This modulation process emulates biological synaptic potentiation, depression, excitatory-postsynaptic current, paired-pulse facilitation, and short-term to long-term memory transition behaviors as a result of repeated pulsing with respect to the pulse amplitude, width, repetition number, and the interval between pulses. These synaptic behaviors are interpreted based on the changes in the capacitance of the Pt/HfOx/n-IGZO gate stack, the channel mobility, and the threshold voltage that result from the redistribution of oxygen ions by the applied gate voltage. These results demonstrate the potential of this structure for three-terminal synaptic transistor using the gate stack composed of the HfOx gate insulator and the IGZO channel layer.