An ‘aqueous route’ for the fabrication of low-temperature-processable oxide flexible transparent thin-film transistors on plastic substrates

Metal oxide semiconductor structures can be both electrically conductive and optically transparent — an attractive combination for electronic devices. Their fabrication has typically involved the deposition of the precursors under vacuum, a method that is costly and can result in materials lacking uniformity over large surface areas. A team of researchers led by Byeong-Soo Bae at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has alleviated these issues by devising a low-temperature fabrication route in aqueous media. Solution-based processes had been investigated, but often involved alcohol solvents that require high processing temperatures or complex and unstable precursors. An indium oxide thin film has now been prepared from an aqueous solution, at temperatures lower than 200 °C, that further served as the active layer of a fully transparent thin-film transistor. In addition, using plastic as a substrate enabled the construction of a transparent, flexible device.

[1]  N. Pervukhina,et al.  Isolation and Structural Characterization of New Indium(III) Aqua Complexes:trans-[InCl2(H2O)4]+ andtrans-[InCl4(H2O)2]− as Supramolecular Adducts with Cucurbituril and Related Studies , 2001 .

[2]  H. Ohta,et al.  Room-temperature fabrication of transparent flexible thin-film transistors using amorphous oxide semiconductors , 2004, Nature.

[3]  John B. Goodenough,et al.  X-ray photoemission spectroscopy studies of Sn-doped indium-oxide films , 1977 .

[4]  D. Keszler,et al.  Aqueous inorganic inks for low-temperature fabrication of ZnO TFTs. , 2008, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[5]  A. Facchetti,et al.  Role of Gallium Doping in Dramatically Lowering Amorphous‐Oxide Processing Temperatures for Solution‐Derived Indium Zinc Oxide Thin‐Film Transistors , 2010, Advances in Materials.

[6]  David B. Mitzi,et al.  Solution Processing of Inorganic Materials , 2008 .

[7]  Yeon-Gon Mo,et al.  High performance thin film transistors with cosputtered amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide channel , 2007 .

[8]  Yu-Jen Chang,et al.  A General Route to Printable High‐Mobility Transparent Amorphous Oxide Semiconductors , 2007 .

[9]  W. Stickle,et al.  Handbook of X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy , 1992 .

[10]  A. Arias,et al.  Materials and applications for large area electronics: solution-based approaches. , 2010, Chemical reviews.

[11]  H. Sirringhaus,et al.  Low-temperature, high-performance solution-processed metal oxide thin-film transistors formed by a ‘sol–gel on chip’ process. , 2011, Nature materials.

[12]  Henning Sirringhaus,et al.  Solution-processed zinc oxide field-effect transistors based on self-assembly of colloidal nanorods. , 2005, Nano letters.

[13]  Clément Sanchez,et al.  Sol-gel chemistry of transition metal oxides , 1988 .

[14]  C. Brinker,et al.  Sol-Gel Science: The Physics and Chemistry of Sol-Gel Processing , 1990 .

[15]  B. Bae,et al.  Postannealing Process for Low Temperature Processed Sol-Gel Zinc Tin Oxide Thin Film Transistors , 2010 .

[16]  Xin Jiang,et al.  Role of oxygen desorption during vacuum annealing in the improvement of electrical properties of aluminum doped zinc oxide films synthesized by sol gel method , 2007 .

[17]  M. Kanatzidis,et al.  Low-temperature fabrication of high-performance metal oxide thin-film electronics via combustion processing. , 2011, Nature materials.

[18]  Dan Zhao,et al.  Solution-Processed Indium Zinc Oxide Transparent Thin Film Transistors , 2007 .

[19]  Myung-Gil Kim,et al.  Low-temperature solution-processed amorphous indium tin oxide field-effect transistors. , 2009, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[20]  Kimoon Lee,et al.  Transparent and Photo‐stable ZnO Thin‐film Transistors to Drive an Active Matrix Organic‐Light‐ Emitting‐Diode Display Panel , 2009 .

[21]  J. J. Jeon,et al.  Post-Humid Annealing of Low-Temperature Solution-Processed Indium Based Metal Oxide TFTs , 2011 .

[22]  G. Eda,et al.  Large-area ultrathin films of reduced graphene oxide as a transparent and flexible electronic material. , 2008, Nature nanotechnology.

[23]  Stuart R. Thomas,et al.  Spray‐Deposited Li‐Doped ZnO Transistors with Electron Mobility Exceeding 50 cm2/Vs , 2010, Advanced materials.

[24]  Randy Hoffman,et al.  High mobility transparent thin-film transistors with amorphous zinc tin oxide channel layer , 2005 .

[25]  D. Ginley,et al.  Handbook of transparent conductors , 2011 .

[26]  R. Street.  Thin‐Film Transistors , 2009 .

[27]  J. J. Jeon,et al.  Solution-Processed, High Performance Aluminum Indium Oxide Thin-Film Transistors Fabricated at Low Temperature , 2009 .

[28]  G. Scherer.  Sintering of Sol-Gel Films , 1997 .

[29]  Hideo Hosono,et al.  Material characteristics and applications of transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors , 2010 .

[30]  John A. Rogers,et al.  Inorganic Semiconductors for Flexible Electronics , 2007 .