Photosensor application of amorphous InZnO-based thin film transistor

Thin film transistor (TFT) device structure with transparent conductive oxide semiconductor is proposed for the photosensor application. The adoption of TFT-based photosensor device also is promising to be integrated with pixel-array circuits in a flat panel display and realize the system-on-panel (SoP) concept. The photosensitive TFT device can be applied to sense the ambient light brightness and then give the feedback to the backlight system adjusting the backlight intensity for the power-saving green displays. In this work, we studied the photosensitivity of amorphous indium zinc oxide (a-IZO) TFT to ultraviolet light. The a-IZO-based semiconductors have been paid much attention due to their uniform amorphous phase and high field-effect carrier mobility characteristics. The obvious threshold voltage shift was observed after light illumination, and exhibited slow recovery while returning to initial status after removing the light source. This mechanism for the photoreaction is well explained by the dynamic equilibrium of charge exchange reaction between O _2(g) and O₂^- in the backchannel region of IZO-based films. An electrical trigger using charge pumping method is used to confirm the proposed mechanism and accelerate photoreaction recoverability for the first time. Using knowledge of photoreaction behavior, an operation scheme of photosensing elements consist of a-IZO TFTs is also demonstrated in this paper.