Room-temperature fabrication of transparent flexible thin-film transistors using amorphous oxide semiconductors

Abstract

Transparent electronic devices formed on flexible substrates are expected to meet emerging technological demands where silicon-based electronics cannot provide a solution. Examples of active flexible applications include paper displays and wearable computers. So far, mainly flexible devices based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and organic semiconductors have been investigated. However, the performance of these devices has been insufficient for use as transistors in practical computers and current-driven organic light-emitting diode displays. Fabricating high-performance devices is challenging, owing to a trade-off between processing temperature and device performance. Here, we propose to solve this problem by using a novel semiconducting material--namely, a transparent amorphous oxide semiconductor from the In-Ga-Zn-O system (a-IGZO)--for the active channel in transparent thin-film transistors (TTFTs). The a-IGZO is deposited on polyethylene terephthalate at room temperature and exhibits Hall effect mobilities exceeding 10 cm2 V(-1) s(-1), which is an order of magnitude larger than for hydrogenated amorphous silicon. TTFTs fabricated on polyethylene terephthalate sheets exhibit saturation mobilities of 6-9 cm2 V(-1) s(-1), and device characteristics are stable during repetitive bending of the TTFT sheet.

High Electron Mobility Thin‐Film Transistors Based on Solution‐Processed Semiconducting Metal Oxide Heterojunctions and Quasi‐Superlattices

“…Thin‐film transistors (TFTs) based on transparent metal oxide semiconductors represent an emerging technology that promises to revolutionize large‐area electronics due to the high carrier mobility,1 optical transparency,2 mechanical flexibility,3 and the potential for low‐temperature processing 4. Like many other transistor technologies, the performance level of oxide TFTs ultimately depends on the intrinsic properties of the semiconducting material employed 5.…”

Flexible indium–gallium–zinc–oxide Schottky diode operating beyond 2.45 GHz

“…Among the available flexible semiconductor films, indiumgallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) has shown perhaps the most commercial potential due to its high electron mobility and possibility of low-temperature film deposition on plastic substrates [2][3][4][5][6] . It has already seen rapid adoption as the channel material in backplane driver transistors in some newest flat-panel displays, where a transistor speed of 200 Hz suffices 7,8 .…”

Single‐Crystalline Rhodium Nanosheets with Atomic Thickness

“…The atomically thick 2D nanomaterials show great promises in designing practical applications such as flexible and transparent electronic devices,7, 8 high‐performance in‐plane supercapacitor electrodes,9, 10, 11 and high‐efficiency catalysts 12, 13, 14. Considering the potential of outperforming their bulk counterparts, great efforts have been made to fabricate atomically thick 2D nanosheets.…”