Inkjet-printed Thin-film Transistors Research Articles

Annealing Temperature Dependence of ZTO Thin Film Properties and Its Application on Thin Film Transistors by Inkjet Printing

In this study, inkjet-printed zinc tin oxide:Cl (ZTO:Cl) thin films were analyzed using x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and all the films were annealed at temperatures ranging from 100°C to 600°C. XPS analysis showed that the formation of metal-oxide bonds in the films was complete with annealing temperatures at or above 500°C. Furthermore, inkjet-printed thin film transistors (TFTs) were examined using scanning electron microscopy and current–voltage characteristic measurements. The ZTO:Cl TFTs performed best when annealed at 500°C. The average carrier mobility and the on/off ratio were found to be 2.71 cm2/V s and 1.82 × 107, respectively.

Inkjet-Printed Oxide Thin-Film Transistors Based on Nanopore-Free Aqueous-Processed Dielectric for Active-Matrix Quantum-Dot Light-Emitting Diode Displays.

Inkjet-printed thin-film transistors (TFTs) for active-matrix light-emitting diode display are drawing much attention for the advantages of low material waste and simple fabrication processes without vacuum deposition and photolithography steps. Herein, for the first time, solution-processed quantum-dot light-emitting diode (QLED) array displays driven with the inkjet-printed oxide TFT backplane were realized and demonstrated using a general "solvent printing" method. To suppress nanopore formation in the thick oxide films, carbon-free aqueous inks were employed for gate dielectrics. No nanopore was found in the whole 120 nm-thick gate dielectrics. However, compared to the organic inks, the aqueous inks have very low viscosity, resulting in uncontrollable ink spreading especially in transline printing. The ink easily shrinks on the low-surface-energy area and spreads on the high-surface-energy area, leading to serious uniformity problems (the upper lines even break at the top of underlying lines). To solve the problem, a "solvent printing" method was employed to form coffee-line surface-energy patterns, which were uniform without shape distortion. The surface-energy patterns can restrain the ink spreading and tune the morphology of the printed films. As a result, multilayer TFT arrays with ideal shapes were achieved. The mobilities of the printed top-gate TFTs in the backplane array were 3.13 ± 0.87 cm2 V-1 s-1 for switching TFTs and 2.22 ± 0.38 cm2 V-1 s-1 for driving TFTs. Finally, an active-matrix red QLED character display based on the printed oxide TFT backplane and solution-processed QLEDs was demonstrated. The "solvent printing" method opens a general route for inkjet-printed multilayer electronic devices.

Electrical properties of solution-deposited ZnO thin-film transistors by low-temperature annealing.

Flexible oxide thin-film transistors (Oxide-TFTs) have emerged as next generation transistors because of their applicability in electronic device. In particular, the major driving force behind solution-processed zinc oxide film research is its prospective use in printing for electronics. A low-temperature process to improve the performance of solution-processed n-channel ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) fabricated via spin-coating and inkjet-printing is introduced here. ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized using a facile sonochemical method that was slightly modified based on a previously reported method. The influence of the annealing atmosphere on both nanoparticle-based TFT devices fabricated via spin-coating and those created via inkjet printing was investigated. For the inkjet-printed TFTs, the characteristics were improved significantly at an annealing temperature of 150 degrees C. The field effect mobility, V(th), and the on/off current ratios were 3.03 cm2/Vs, -3.3 V, and 10(4), respectively. These results indicate that annealing at 150 degrees C 1 h is sufficient to obtain a mobility (μ(sat)) as high as 3.03 cm2/Vs. Also, the active layer of the solution-based ZnO nanoparticles allowed the production of high-performance TFTs for low-cost, large-area electronics and flexible devices.