Low-Temperature Deposition of Inorganic–Organic HfO2–PMMA Hybrid Gate Dielectric Layers for High-Mobility ZnO Thin-Film Transistors

Abstract

Low-temperature solution-processed inorganic–organic hybrid gate dielectrics are considered as emerging candidates for future low-cost flexible electronic devices, which are alternatives to high-temperature inorganic-based gate dielectric materials. In the present work, we developed a novel inorganic–organic HfO2–PMMA hybrid dielectric material by an efficient eco-friendly sol–gel method, deposited by spin-coating technique and converted into dielectric thin films at a very low thermal annealing temperature of 185 °C. The HfO2–PMMA hybrid thin-film formation was systematically investigated by FTIR and XPS techniques. Subsequently, a very low surface roughness of 0.8 nm and high uniformity of hybrid thin films were observed by tapping-mode AFM. Also, the thin films showed a hydrophilic nature with a high surface energy of 59.9 mJ/m2 as observed by the contact angle technique. The insulating properties of this hybrid film, studied by C–V and I–V measurements, showed very low leakage current density under 1 ...