Solution-Processed DyOx for Aging Diffusion ZnSnO Transistors and Applications in Low-Voltage-Operating Logic Circuits

Metal–oxide high-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${k}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> material is regarded as the promising building block for large area high-performance flexible electronic devices. Here, we report that dysprosium oxide (DyO<sub><italic>x</italic></sub>) films were successfully integrated as dielectrics into thin-film transistors (TFTs) for the first time. Solution-driven DyO<sub><italic>x</italic></sub> films behave high transmittance over 85% and imply the possible application in transparent devices. Measurements based on 500 °C annealing ZnSnO/DyO<sub><italic>x</italic></sub> TFTs have indicated the dramatic improvement in electrical performance after natural aging diffusion for 10 days, containing the increased saturation mobility value from 0.57 to 2.5 cm<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{{2}}\cdot \text{V}^{-{1}}\cdot \text{s}^{-{1}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and the lifted current ON/ OFF ratio from <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$7.8\times 10^{{4}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.4\times 10^{{6}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. It is worth mentioning that the mobility of aging samples with the lower annealing temperature of 420 °C even surpasses the aforementioned 500 °C annealing without aging TFTs. The variable-range-hopping (VRH) percolation model and coherent interface theory are used to explore electronic transport mechanism for amorphous and polycrystalline ZnSnO films, respectively. Finally, the resistor-loaded inverter has been fabricated and revealed the gain of 7.3 at the low voltage of 2.5 V, which even surpasses many In-based TFT devices. It can be concluded that the solution-based samples can proceed with 10 days aging treatment before encapsulation to obtain the stable electrical performance, which affords a simple and effective approach toward building low-temperature, low power consumption transparent electronic devices.

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