Effect of humidity and thermal curing of polymer gate dielectrics on the electrical hysteresis of SnO2 nanowire field effect transistors

Abstract

Electrical properties of SnO2 nanowire (NW) field effect transistor (FET) with polyimide gate dielectrics, prepared by thermal curing of polyamic acid, were investigated. In particular, the effect of humidity and the thermal curing on the electrical hysteresis was systematically studied by taking Fourier-transform infrared spectra of polymer films. Slow polarization of hydroxyl groups/water molecules in the polymer film due to the insufficient curing and the absorbed water molecules under high humidity during the device fabrication was attributed to the hysteresis in the direction opposite to that observed in SnO2 NW FET with SiO2 gate dielectrics. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3562950]