Thin-film transistor and manufacturing method thereof, array substrate and manufacturing method thereof, and display apparatus

• US 9,899,532 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2015
• Issued: 02/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Jiang, Chunsheng, Li, Xuyuan, Liu, Wei
• Primary Examiner(s): Rizkallah, Kimberly
• Assistant Examiner(s): Turner, Brian
• Application Number:
  US14/785,816
• Publication Number:
  US 20160343864A1
• Time in Patent Office: 977 Days
• Field of Search: 257 43, 257 57, 257676, 257 72, 257762, 438197, 438 34, 438 57, 438633
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1225 with semiconductor materials not belonging to the group IV of the periodic table, e.g. InGaZnO
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/1288 employing particular masking sequences or specially adapted masks, e.g. half-tone mask
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/41733 for thin film transistors with insulated gate
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/45 Ohmic electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/4908 for thin film semiconductor, e.g. gate of TFT
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/517 the insulating material comprising a metallic compound, e.g. metal oxide, metal silicate H01L29/518 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/66969 of devices having semiconductor bodies not comprising group 14 or group 13/15 materials comprising selenium or tellurium in uncombined form other than as impurities in semiconductor bodies of other materials, comprising cuprous oxide or cuprous iodide H01L21/02365
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/786 Thin film transistors, i.e. transistors with a channel being at least partly a thin film transistors having only the source or the drain region on an insulator layer H01L29/0653; thin film FinFETs H01L29/785
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/7869 having a semiconductor body comprising an oxide semiconductor material, e.g. zinc oxide, copper aluminium oxide, cadmium stannate

Abstract

A thin-film transistor (TFT) and a manufacturing method thereof, an array substrate and a manufacturing method thereof, and a display apparatus are provided. The method for manufacturing the TFT includes: forming a gate electrode, a gate insulating layer, a metal oxide semiconductor active layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode on a substrate; the forming the metal oxide semiconductor active layer includes: forming the metal oxide semiconductor active layer by electrochemical reaction. The method for manufacturing the TFT is applied in the production of the TFT and the array substrate and the display apparatus comprising the TFTs and provides a new method for forming the metal oxide semiconductor active layer.

Claims

1. A method for manufacturing a thin-film transistor (TFT), comprising:

forming a gate electrode, a gate insulating layer, a metal oxide semiconductor active layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode on a substrate,

in which forming of the metal oxide semiconductor active layer comprises;

forming the metal oxide semiconductor active layer by electrochemical reaction, wherein the metal oxide semiconductor active layer is of a Cu₂O semiconductor material, and wherein the metal oxide semiconductor active layer of the Cu₂O semiconductor material is formed by the electrochemical reaction on a Cu metal film, wherein forming of the metal oxide semiconductor active layer further comprises;

forming the Cu metal film on the substrate;

forming a first pattern disposed in an active region by performing a single patterning process on the Cu metal film; and

forming the first pattern into the Cu₂O semiconductor material by the electrochemical reaction.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein forming of the metal oxide semiconductor active layer of the Cu₂O semiconductor material by the electrochemical reaction on the Cu metal film comprises:

placing a substrate provided with the first pattern of the Cu metal film in water and electrifying the first pattern, whereby the Cu metal film is subjected to electrolytic reaction with the water to form the Cu₂O semiconductor material, and the first pattern is formed into the metal oxide semiconductor active layer.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the first pattern of the Cu metal film is formed before the substrate provided with the first pattern is placed in water.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein a pattern of the source electrode, a pattern of the drain electrode and the first pattern, which are arranged in a same layer, are formed by a single patterning process.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein forming of the pattern of the source electrode, the pattern of the drain electrode and the first pattern, which are arranged on the same layer, by the single patterning process comprises:

forming the Cu metal film on the substrate; and

forming the pattern of the source electrode, the pattern of the drain electrode and the first pattern disposed in the active region by performing a half-tone mask process on the Cu metal film, in which except for the first pattern, other patterns made from the Cu metal film are covered by photoresist before the electrochemical reaction is performed.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein forming of the pattern of the source electrode, the pattern of the drain electrode and the first pattern disposed in the active region by performing the half-tone mask process on the Cu metal film comprises:

forming photoresist on the substrate provided with the Cu metal film;

forming photoresist-completely-retained portions, a photoresist-semi-retained portion and photoresist-completely-removed portions after performing exposure and development on the substrate provided with the photoresist via a half-tone mask or a gray-tone mask, in which the photoresist-completely-retained portions correspond to regions of the pattern of the source electrode and the pattern of the drain electrode that are to be formed;

the photoresist-semi-retained portion corresponds to the active region; and

the photoresist-completely-removed portions correspond to regions that are not to be provided with Cu metal patterns and other regions, except for the active region;

forming the pattern of the source electrode, the pattern of the drain electrode and the first pattern disposed in the active region by removing the Cu metal film corresponding to the photoresist-completely-removed portions by an etching process; and

removing the photoresist in the photoresist-semi-retained portion by an ashing process.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the gate insulating layer at least comprises a TiO₂ and/or Al₂O₃ layer in contact with the metal oxide semiconductor active layer.

8. A method for manufacturing an array substrate, comprising forming a TFT on a substrate, wherein the TFT is formed with the method according to claim 1.

9. A method for manufacturing a thin-film transistor (TFT), comprising:

forming a gate electrode, a gate insulating layer, a metal oxide semiconductor active layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode on a substrate,

wherein forming of the metal oxide semiconductor active layer comprises;

forming the metal oxide semiconductor active layer by electrochemical reaction, wherein the metal oxide semiconductor active layer is of a Cu₂O semiconductor material, and wherein the metal oxide semiconductor active layer of the Cu₂O semiconductor material is formed by the electrochemical reaction on a Cu metal film;

wherein forming of the metal oxide semiconductor active layer of the Cu₂O semiconductor material by the electrochemical reaction on the Cu metal film comprises;

placing a substrate provided with a first pattern of the Cu metal film in water and electrifying the first pattern, whereby the Cu metal film is subjected to electrolytic reaction with the water to form the Cu₂O semiconductor material, and the first pattern is formed into the metal oxide semiconductor active layer;

wherein before the substrate provided with the first pattern is placed in water, the method further comprises;

forming the first pattern of the Cu metal film in an active region by a patterning process;

wherein a pattern of the source electrode, a pattern of the drain electrode and the first pattern, which are arranged in a same layer, are formed by a single patterning process;

wherein forming of the pattern of the source electrode, the pattern of the drain electrode and the first pattern, which are arranged on the same layer, by the single patterning process comprises;

forming the Cu metal film on the substrate; and

forming the pattern of the source electrode, the pattern of the drain electrode and the first pattern disposed in the active region by performing a half-tone mask process on the Cu metal film, in which except the first pattern, other patterns made from the Cu metal film are covered by photoresist before electrochemical reaction is performed.