Localized electrothermal annealing for rapid recovery of ambient degradation in indium oxide transistors via COMSOL simulations and experimental characterization

This work reports an electrothermal annealing (ETA) technique based on localized Joule heat for effective recovery of the electrical characteristics of indium oxide (In₂O₃) thin-film transistors (TFTs) that are degraded by ambient exposure. We investigated the current–voltage (I–V) characteristics, resistance, subthreshold swing, and μ_FE under three conditions: the initial state, the degraded state after 10 days, and the state after ETA. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and subgap density-of-states analyses were conducted to examine variations in oxygen vacancy (V _O) quantitatively and thereby demonstrate the effects of ETA. Additionally, COMSOL simulations were performed to elucidate the temperature distribution induced by localized Joule heat and to validate the feasibility of reducing shallow trap states via ETA in In₂O₃ TFTs.