Inkjet‐Printed Narrow‐Channel Mesoporous Oxide‐Based n‐Type TFTs and All‐Oxide CMOS Electronics

Abstract

AbstractOxide semiconductors are becoming the materials of choice for modern‐day display industries. The performance of solution‐processed oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) has also improved dramatically over the last few years. However, while oxygen deficient n‐type semiconductors can demonstrate excellent electronic transport, the performance of p‐type materials has remained unsatisfactory. Consequently, only the n‐type semiconductor‐based pseudo‐complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology has attracted tremendous interests recently; yet, the high power dissipation remains a problem. Here, this work demonstrates all‐oxide CMOS invertors with high‐performance narrow‐channel n‐type TFTs, which can compensate for the limited carrier mobility of the p‐type transistors. These n‐type TFTs are fabricated with polymer‐templated mesoporous In2O3 and with a device geometry that allows near‐vertical current transport, thereby rendering the TFT channel lengths to be equal to the semiconductor film thickness (≈50 nm). Unprecedented On‐current (1.02 mA µm−1) and transconductance (950 µS µm−1) are achieved. The CuO‐based p‐type TFTs also show a device mobility of no less than 0.5 cm2 V−1 s−1. The printed all‐oxide CMOS inverters are found to operate at very low supply voltages and demonstrate sharp transfer curves with maximum signal gain of 31 and low power dissipation of only 4 nW, at a supply voltage of 1 V.