Laser ablation of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide films deposited by different RF powers

Abstract

For the realization of transparent oxide semiconductor device, it is indispensable to suggest a new simple patterning process instead of photolithography. As a new method of patterning, neodymium doped yttrium vanadate (Nd:YVO4) laser ablation was applied to pattern amorphous-indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) films which were deposited by different radio frequency (RF) sputtering power. For the a-IGZO film deposited at 50 W, a continuous etched line was obtained only for the laser beam with a scanning speed of 50 mm/s. However, in case of a higher power such as 800 W, the film was easily etched for all the laser processing conditions. The width of these laser ablated grooves was also reported in terms of the dependency on RF sputtering power, repetition rate, and scanning speed. The different phenomena of laser etching in a-IGZO films deposited by different RF sputtering power are attributed to the increase of absorption coefficient and the increase of atomic percentage of In as the RF sputtering power increased. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.