Abstract
High-throughput manufacturing of oxide electronics will enable new applications ranging from large-area displays to flexible medical devices and low-cost solar panels. However, high-quality oxide films from solution-based precursors typically require 20 min or more of thermal annealing at high temperature (>250 °C) for each layer, severely limiting both the throughput and substrate choice. Here, we report high-speed photonic curing of ZrO2 dielectric thin films on flexible plastic substrates. The curing and patterning processes can be achieved simultaneously by using shadow mask patterning or adjusting conditions to convert oxide only on top of underlying metal contacts, i.e. self-aligned patterning. Metal–insulator–metal capacitors using two layers of ZrO2 films photonically cured in just 100 s per layer show non-dispersive capacitance–frequency behaviour from 102 to 106 Hz, high areal capacitance of 200 nF/cm2 and low dissipation factor of 0.03 at 105 Hz, leakage current density of ~10−7 A/cm2 at an applied field of 2 MV/cm, and a breakdown field of nearly 8 MV/cm. Using an upgraded tool, similar dielectric properties are achieved in as short as 100 ms using a single pulse of light, revealing a pathway to oxide film processing beyond 30 m/min.
Highlights
Thin film electronics are currently used extensively in large-area applications including flat panel displays[1] and photovoltaics[2]
Roll-to-roll manufacturing has enabled the proliferation of low-cost radio frequency identification tags over the last 2 decades[6] and is a major goal in the production of organic electronics[7] and perovskite solar cells (PSC)[8,9] When sheet-to-sheet PSC throughput is increased from 0.5 to 2.5 m2/min, manufacturing costs decrease by ~35%10
Solution-combustion synthesis alone is inadequate for making oxide electronics on low-temperature polymer substrates, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET, 150 °C) and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN, 220 °C)[22]
Summary
Thin film electronics are currently used extensively in large-area applications including flat panel displays[1] and photovoltaics[2]. Solution-based printing (ink-jet, screen, gravure, flexo) and coating (blade, slot-die, spray) methods have lower costs and higher throughput than vacuum-based methods, and can already exceed 10 m/min web speed[7,11] Both solution- and vacuum-deposited oxide films require post-deposition annealing to achieve optimal electrical performance[12,13]. Conversion of combustion films still requires heating the substrate and film to a relatively high temperature of 250–300 °C17–19 for at least 20 min plus additional time for heating and cooling This is repeated for each layer of oxide deposited; typically, multiple layers for each material (conductor, semiconductor, or dielectric) are required.
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