(Invited) Carbon Nanotube Transistors for Flat Panel Display Application

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes are promising materials which can provide more functions at low cost for macroelectronics application, such as backplane electronics for display, flexible electronics, bio-chemical sensors, solar cells and others. Among these macroelectronics applications, carbon nanotube thin film transistors (CNT-TFTs) are expected to be used soon for backplanes electronics in flat panel displays (FPDs). This is due to the performance of CNT-TFTs surpasses the current commercialized TFT technologies, e.g., high mobility, high on/off ratio and high on-current surpass. Moreover, the fabrication process of CNT-TFTs is regarded facile, scalable, and compatible with the current TFT manufacturing process. Prototype AMOLED devices driven by CNT-TFTs have been demonstrated. However, most of the efforts on the application of CNT-TFTs for the backplane electronics are in research laboratories, and there are still many challenges before it is commercialized. In this presentation, we will report our progress on CNT-TFTs for FPD application, which includes the following aspects: high efficient fabrication of highly uniform carbon nanotube films on large area substrates (from 4 inch silicon wafers to 2.5th generation backplane glasses (370mm × 470mm)), manufacturing compatible fabrication process of CNT-TFTs, contact effect on the performance and scaling behavior of CNT-TFTs, hysteresis and ambipolarity suppression. Our results indicate practical application of CNT-TFTs in FPD products is expectable in a near future.