Low-temperature solution-processed zinc oxide field effect transistor by blending zinc hydroxide and zinc oxide nanoparticle in aqueous solutions

Abstract

We present a novel methods of fabricating low-temperature (180 °C), solution-processed zinc oxide (ZnO) transistors using a ZnO precursor that is blended with zinc hydroxide [Zn(OH)2] and zinc oxide hydrate (ZnO ∙ H2O) in an ammonium solution. By using the proposed method, we successfully improved the electrical performance of the transistor in terms of the mobility (μ), on/off current ratio (Ion/Ioff), sub-threshold swing (SS), and operational stability. Our new approach to forming a ZnO film was systematically compared with previously proposed methods. An atomic forced microscopic (AFM) image and an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that our method increases the ZnO crystallite size with less OH− impurities. Thus, we attribute the improved electrical performance to the better ZnO film formation using the blending methods.