Room-Temperature Fabrication of High-Performance Amorphous In–Ga–Zn–O/Al₂O₃ Thin-Film Transistors on Ultrasmooth and Clear Nanopaper

Abstract

Integrating biodegradable cellulose nanopaper into oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) for next generation flexible and green flat panel displays has attracted great interest because it offers a viable solution to address the rapid increase of electronic waste that poses a growing ecological problem. However, a compromise between device performance and thermal annealing remains an obstacle for achieving high-performance nanopaper TFTs. In this study, a high-performance bottom-gate IGZO/AlO TFT with a dual-layer channel structure was initially fabricated on a highly transparent, clear, and ultrasmooth nanopaper substrate via conventional physical vapor deposition approaches, without further thermal annealing processing. Purified nanofibrillated cellulose with a width of approximately 3.7 nm was used to prepare nanopaper with excellent optical properties (92% transparency, 0.85% transmission haze) and superior surface roughness (Rq is 1.8 nm over a 5 × 5 μm scanning area). More significantly, a bilayer channel structure (IGZO/AlO) was adopted to fabricate high performance TFT on this nanopaper substrate without thermal annealing and the device exhibits a saturation mobility of 15.8 cm/(Vs), an I/I ratio of 4.4 × 10, a threshold voltage (V) of -0.42 V, and a subthreshold swing (SS) of 0.66 V/dec. The room-temperature fabrication of high-performance IGZO/AlO TFTs on such nanopaper substrate without thermal annealing treatment brings industry a step closer to realizing inexpensive, flexible, lightweight, and green paper displays.

High-Performance a-InGaZnO Thin-Film Transistors with Extremely Low Thermal Budget by Using a Hydrogen-Rich Al2O3 Dielectric

“…Table 1 compares the performance of our RT Al 2 O 3 TFT with other reports. It is found that our device exhibits a zero-near V T , smaller SS, and larger I on/off in the case of comparable mobility [4, 23]. Although using a Ta 2 O 5 gate insulator can obtain higher mobility of 61.5 cm 2 V − 1 s − 1 , both SS and I on/off deteriorate remarkably [10].…”

Light response behaviors of amorphous In–Ga–Zn–O thin-film transistors via in situ interfacial hydrogen doping modulation

“…These properties are among the highest values for exible phototransistors as compared with previous reports. 18,[25][26][27] Under the same light illumination, the phototransistors exhibit almost the same transfer curves in both at and bent congurations. Fig.…”

Paper in Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices

“…However, as the demand for flexible, lightweight, transparent electronic devices keeps growing, fabricating transistors on flexible and soft substrates has increasingly attracted researchers. For flexible electronic applications, paper has been extensively explored either as a substrate, or as a transistor component (e.g., a gate dielectric of field‐effect transistors, a tunnel layer for memory transistors, etc. ), or as a dual‐purpose layer (e.g., simultaneously act as both a substrate and a gate dielectric of field‐effect transistors) .…”

“…The recently introduced oxide TFT on nanopaper has demonstrated appealing electrical properties . In general, these type of transistors require thermal annealing processes.…”