•The electrical properties and stability of UHD a-IGZO TFT arrays with short channel were examined.•The UHD a-IGZO TFT arrays have the source/drain contact resistance influence and short channel effect.•The second derivative method using Tikhonov’s regularization provides the robust threshold voltage.•Gamma (γ) has slight temperature dependency.•Impact ionization has an impact on the AC bias-temperature stress stability.The electrical properties and stability of ultra-high definition (UHD) amorphous In–Ga–Zn–O (a-IGZO) thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays with short channel (width/length = 12/3 μm) were examined. A-IGZO TFT arrays have a mobility of ∼6 cm2/V s, subthreshold swing (S.S.) of 0.34 V/decade, threshold voltage of 3.32 V, and drain current (Id) on/off ratio of <109 with Ioff below 10−13 A. Overall these devices showed slightly different electrical characteristics as compared to the long channel devices; non-saturation of output curve at high drain-to-source voltage (Vds), negative shift of threshold voltage with increasing Vds, and the mobility reduction at high gate voltage (Vgs) were observed. The second derivative method adopting Tikhonov’s regularization theory is suggested for the robust threshold voltage extraction. The temperature dependency of γ-value was established after taking into consideration the impact of source/drain contact resistances. The AC bias-temperature stress was used to simulate the actual operation of active matrix liquid crystal displays (AM-LCDs). The threshold voltage shift had a dependency on the magnitude of drain bias stress, frequency, and duty cycle due to the impact ionization accelerated at high temperature. This study demonstrates that the short channel effects, source/drain contact resistances and impact ionization have to be taken into account during optimization of UHD AM-LCDs.