Inverter Circuits Using ZnO Nanoparticle Based Thin-Film Transistors for Flexible Electronic Applications

Abstract

Innovative systems exploring the flexibility and the transparency of modern semiconducting materials are being widely researched by the scientific community and by several companies. For a low-cost production and large surface area applications, thin-film transistors (TFTs) are the key elements driving the system currents. In order to maintain a cost efficient integration process, solution based materials are used as they show an outstanding tradeoff between cost and system complexity. In this paper, we discuss the integration process of ZnO nanoparticle TFTs using a high-k resin as gate dielectric. The performance in dependence on the transistor structure has been investigated, and inverted staggered setups depict an improved performance over the coplanar device increasing both the field-effect mobility and the ION/IOFF ratio. Aiming at the evaluation of the TFT characteristics for digital circuit applications, inverter circuits using a load TFT in the pull-up network and an active TFT in the pull-down network were integrated. The inverters show reasonable switching characteristics and V/V gains. Conjointly, the influence of the geometry ratio and the supply voltage on the devices have been analyzed. Moreover, as all integration steps are suitable to polymeric templates, the fabrication process is fully compatible to flexible substrates.

Trial of Ga-doping on ZnO Nanoparticles by Thermal Treatment with Ga₂O₃ Nanoparticles

“…Oxide semiconductors such as ZnO do not form an insulating layers at the NP surfaces when dispersed in water and/or handled in the air, which make it easy to TFT fabrication process. Therefore, many efforts have been made to form and demonstrate TFTs with the n-type ZnO-NP channels on various substrates [1, 6−12] including demonstration of the logic operations [13].…”

Optoelectronic Properties of Ti-doped SnO2 Thin Films Processed under Different Annealing Temperatures

“…In addition, various authors have investigated the properties of three-layer TCO films with oxide/metal/oxide or metallic oxide/metal/metallic oxide structures [21]. The results have shown that such films not only suppress the reflection from the metallic layer in the visible light range but also produce a transmittance effect [22,23]. Consequently, the TCO thin films are used in solar cells, gas sensors, LCD displays, etc.…”

Highly Optimized Complementary Inverters Based on p-SnO and n-InGaZnO With High Uniformity

“…Oxide-based inverters, which are the basic building blocks in both digital and analog circuits, have been intensively studied for phase reversals, amplifications, wave shaping, etc. Up to date, most reported inverters based on oxide semiconductors were composed by two n-type oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) [3][4][5][6][7][8], due to the lack of high-performance p-type oxide TFTs. These inverters generally show a low voltage gain mainly due to their weak ability of logic pull-up.…”