Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
The large number of localized energy states in amorphous and polysilicon thin film transistors causes non-crystalline effects in both the DC and AC transistor characteristics. The observed frequency dispersion of the device capacitances is linked to the characteristic times of electron trapping and emission from localized thin film transistors and is modeled analytically by introducing effective RC time constants, which are proportional to the electron transit times, determined by the field effect mobility. The small-signal gate-to-source and gate-to-drain capacitances have been derived using Meyer's approach, which takes into account the non-zero drain-source voltage to achieve a partitioning of the channel capacitance. We have verified the model for amorphous silicon thin film transistors for varying gate lengths and frequencies.