The performance and reliability of deposited gate oxides for thin film tran
sistors (TFT's) has been studied as a function of rapid thermal annealing (
RTA) conditions. The effect of temperature ranging from 700 to 950 degrees
C and the annealing ambients including oxygen (O-2), argon (Ar), and nitrou
s oxide (N2O) is investigated. Improvement in charge to breakdown (Q(bd)) i
s seen starting from 700 degrees C, with marked increase at 900 degrees C t
emperature and above. The N2O and Ar ambients result in higher Q(bd) compar
ed to O-2 ambient and we attribute this to reduced interfacial stress, Four
ier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is used to qualitatively measure
the stress, The bias temperature instability is decreased by RTA, The TFT
characteristics are significantly improved with RTA gate oxide. The RTA-Ar
anneal at 950 degrees C results in the lowest trap density in TFT's as meas
ured from charge pumping technique.