Reliability improvement of a-Si:H thin film transistors on plastic substrate with saturation in deep state after multiple bending cycles

•The stress stability of a-Si:H TFTs (thin-film transistors) was improved after bending cycles.•The saturated deep states after bending were confirmed.•The simulation and extracted gap state density of a-Si:H TFT under strain was calculated.

For flexible electronic applications, the disordered bonds of a-Si:H may generate a redistribution of trapped states with mechanical strain. During mechanical strain, the deep states are redistributed in a Gaussian distribution and are dissimilar to ordinary acceptor-like deep states, which manifest with exponential distributions. The redistributed deep states may saturate with multiple mechanical bending cycles, and it would improve the reliability with drain current stress of a-Si:H TFTs (thin film transistors) on flexible substrates. We conclude that it is possible to produce low-cost and highly uniform active-matrix organic light emitting diodes systems for use in flexible display applications using a-Si:H TFTs array backplanes.