Fabrication of high-performance solution processed thin film transistors by introducing a buffer layer

Abstract

In this paper, high quality ZrO2 and In2O3 films were prepared by solution method. Based on the solution-processed ZrO2 dielectric and In2O3 semiconductor layer, bottom-gate top-contact thin-film transistors (TFTs) were integrated. XPS depth profile was carried out to investigate the intersecting region between ZrO2 insulator and In2O3 active layer due to the diffusion of the subsequent precursor solution, and the effect of intersecting region on the electrical performance of TFTs was discussed. In order to narrow the intersecting region, a simple way that introducing a buffer layer between the active layer and the insulating layer was proposed. The effect of buffer layer was investigated by the multifactor analysis on Minitab software and the result indicated that the buffer layer can effectively improve the performance of TFTs. Finally, high-performance solution processed Thin Film Transistor was fabricated with 0.05 M buffer layer solution and 0.10 M active layer solution. Compared with the TFT without buffer layer, the mobility of TFT with buffer layer increased from 4.35 to 43.94 cm2/Vs, and the Ion/Ioff increased from 1.87 × 105 to 3.90 × 106.