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Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2017) | Viewed by 61382

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Pedro Barquinha

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Guest Editor
CENIMAT/I3N, Departamento de Ciência dos Materiais (DCM), and CEMOP/UNINOVA, NOVA School of Science and Technology (FCT NOVA), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Interests: oxide transistors; flexible electronics; nanogenerators; oxide nanostructures; oxide thin films; nanolithography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

When thinking about large-area electronics breakthroughs over the last decade, it is impossible not to include “oxide TFTs” in the list. The big boom of oxide TFT research started in the new millennium, with low-temperature and high-performance oxide semiconductor thin films, where multicomponent materials such as indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO) emerged as a unanimous winner. Now, after only about 10 years, display industry giants, such as LG, Sharp and Samsung, are producing 100,000s of sheets per month of oxide TFT backplanes in Gen 5–8 plants.

Despite of all this commercial success, research on oxide TFTs is far from over, embracing materials, fabrication processes, devices and circuit integration. Within this context, this Special Issue welcomes submissions in the list of topics below:

  • Materials and fabrication processes – novel n- and p-type oxide semiconductors, as thin films or 1D, 2D nanostructures; hybrid organic/inorganic materials for oxide TFTs; transparent conductive materials for TFT electrodes (oxides, metallic nanostructures); advances in vacuum-based and solution processing techniques for fabrication of oxide transistor materials.
  • TFTs: structures and physics – advances in device structures (e.g., conventional thin film and nanostructure networks as oxide semiconductors, self-alignment, hybrid organic/inorganic); device reliability, stability, modeling and simulation; device passivation; advances in mechanical robustness of oxide TFTs.
  • Circuits and systems – displays and going beyond displays; analog and digital circuits; bio-medical and chemical applications, RF-ID, etc.

Prof. Dr. Pedro Barquinha
Guest Editor

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • oxide TFTs
  • oxide electronics
  • hybrid materials/devices
  • flexible electronics
  • oxide nanostructures

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

1722 KiB  
Article
Bias Stress and Temperature Impact on InGaZnO TFTs and Circuits
by Jorge Martins, Pydi Bahubalindruni, Ana Rovisco, Asal Kiazadeh, Rodrigo Martins, Elvira Fortunato and Pedro Barquinha
Materials 2017, 10(6), 680; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma10060680 - 21 Jun 2017
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 5574
Abstract
This paper focuses on the analysis of InGaZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) and circuits under the influence of different temperatures and bias stress, shedding light into their robustness when used in real-world applications. For temperature-dependent measurements, a temperature range of 15 to 85 °C [...] Read more.
This paper focuses on the analysis of InGaZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) and circuits under the influence of different temperatures and bias stress, shedding light into their robustness when used in real-world applications. For temperature-dependent measurements, a temperature range of 15 to 85 °C was considered. In case of bias stress, both gate and drain bias were applied for 60 min. Though isolated transistors show a variation of drain current as high as 56% and 172% during bias voltage and temperature stress, the employed circuits were able to counteract it. Inverters and two-TFT current mirrors following simple circuit topologies showed a gain variation below 8%, while the improved robustness of a cascode current mirror design is proven by showing a gain variation less than 5%. The demonstration that the proper selection of TFT materials and circuit topologies results in robust operation of oxide electronics under different stress conditions and over a reasonable range of temperatures proves that the technology is suitable for applications such as smart food packaging and wearables. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor)
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2531 KiB  
Communication
Frequency-Stable Ionic-Type Hybrid Gate Dielectrics for High Mobility Solution-Processed Metal-Oxide Thin-Film Transistors
by Jae Sang Heo, Seungbeom Choi, Jeong-Wan Jo, Jingu Kang, Ho-Hyun Park, Yong-Hoon Kim and Sung Kyu Park
Materials 2017, 10(6), 612; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma10060612 - 03 Jun 2017
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5180
Abstract
In this paper, we demonstrate high mobility solution-processed metal-oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) by using a high-frequency-stable ionic-type hybrid gate dielectric (HGD). The HGD gate dielectric, a blend of sol-gel aluminum oxide (AlOx) and poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVP), exhibited high dielectric constant (ε~8.15) and [...] Read more.
In this paper, we demonstrate high mobility solution-processed metal-oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) by using a high-frequency-stable ionic-type hybrid gate dielectric (HGD). The HGD gate dielectric, a blend of sol-gel aluminum oxide (AlOx) and poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVP), exhibited high dielectric constant (ε~8.15) and high-frequency-stable characteristics (1 MHz). Using the ionic-type HGD as a gate dielectric layer, an minimal electron-double-layer (EDL) can be formed at the gate dielectric/InOx interface, enhancing the field-effect mobility of the TFTs. Particularly, using the ionic-type HGD gate dielectrics annealed at 350 °C, InOx TFTs having an average field-effect mobility of 16.1 cm2/Vs were achieved (maximum mobility of 24 cm2/Vs). Furthermore, the ionic-type HGD gate dielectrics can be processed at a low temperature of 150 °C, which may enable their applications in low-thermal-budget plastic and elastomeric substrates. In addition, we systematically studied the operational stability of the InOx TFTs using the HGD gate dielectric, and it was observed that the HGD gate dielectric effectively suppressed the negative threshold voltage shift during the negative-illumination-bias stress possibly owing to the recombination of hole carriers injected in the gate dielectric with the negatively charged ionic species in the HGD gate dielectric. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor)
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1081 KiB  
Article
Transparent Thin-Film Transistors Based on Sputtered Electric Double Layer
by Wensi Cai, Xiaochen Ma, Jiawei Zhang and Aimin Song
Materials 2017, 10(4), 429; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma10040429 - 20 Apr 2017
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5770
Abstract
Electric-double-layer (EDL) thin-film transistors (TFTs) have attracted much attention due to their low operation voltages. Recently, EDL TFTs gated with radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtered SiO2 have been developed which is compatible to large-area electronics fabrication. In this work, fully transparent Indium-Gallium-Zinc-Oxide-based [...] Read more.
Electric-double-layer (EDL) thin-film transistors (TFTs) have attracted much attention due to their low operation voltages. Recently, EDL TFTs gated with radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtered SiO2 have been developed which is compatible to large-area electronics fabrication. In this work, fully transparent Indium-Gallium-Zinc-Oxide-based EDL TFTs on glass substrates have been fabricated at room temperature for the first time. A maximum transmittance of about 80% has been achieved in the visible light range. The transparent TFTs show a low operation voltage of 1.5 V due to the large EDL capacitance (0.3 µF/cm2 at 20 Hz). The devices exhibit a good performance with a low subthreshold swing of 130 mV/dec and a high on-off ratio > 105. Several tests have also been done to investigate the influences of light irradiation and bias stress. Our results suggest that such transistors might have potential applications in battery-powered transparent electron devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor)
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1569 KiB  
Communication
High Performance Complementary Circuits Based on p-SnO and n-IGZO Thin-Film Transistors
by Jiawei Zhang, Jia Yang, Yunpeng Li, Joshua Wilson, Xiaochen Ma, Qian Xin and Aimin Song
Materials 2017, 10(3), 319; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma10030319 - 21 Mar 2017
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 6810
Abstract
Oxide semiconductors are regarded as promising materials for large-area and/or flexible electronics. In this work, a ring oscillator based on n-type indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) and p-type tin monoxide (SnO) is presented. The IGZO thin-film transistor (TFT) shows a linear mobility of [...] Read more.
Oxide semiconductors are regarded as promising materials for large-area and/or flexible electronics. In this work, a ring oscillator based on n-type indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) and p-type tin monoxide (SnO) is presented. The IGZO thin-film transistor (TFT) shows a linear mobility of 11.9 cm2/(V∙s) and a threshold voltage of 12.2 V. The SnO TFT exhibits a mobility of 0.51 cm2/(V∙s) and a threshold voltage of 20.1 V which is suitable for use with IGZO TFTs to form complementary circuits. At a supply voltage of 40 V, the complementary inverter shows a full output voltage swing and a gain of 24 with both TFTs having the same channel length/channel width ratio. The three-stage ring oscillator based on IGZO and SnO is able to operate at 2.63 kHz and the peak-to-peak oscillation amplitude reaches 36.1 V at a supply voltage of 40 V. The oxide-based complementary circuits, after further optimization of the operation voltage, may have wide applications in practical large-area flexible electronics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor)
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2745 KiB  
Article
All-Aluminum Thin Film Transistor Fabrication at Room Temperature
by Rihui Yao, Zeke Zheng, Yong Zeng, Xianzhe Liu, Honglong Ning, Shiben Hu, Ruiqiang Tao, Jianqiu Chen, Wei Cai, Miao Xu, Lei Wang, Linfeng Lan and Junbiao Peng
Materials 2017, 10(3), 222; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma10030222 - 23 Feb 2017
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5575
Abstract
Bottom-gate all-aluminum thin film transistors with multi conductor/insulator nanometer heterojunction were investigated in this article. Alumina (Al2O3) insulating layer was deposited on the surface of aluminum doping zinc oxide (AZO) conductive layer, as one AZO/Al2O3 heterojunction [...] Read more.
Bottom-gate all-aluminum thin film transistors with multi conductor/insulator nanometer heterojunction were investigated in this article. Alumina (Al2O3) insulating layer was deposited on the surface of aluminum doping zinc oxide (AZO) conductive layer, as one AZO/Al2O3 heterojunction unit. The measurements of transmittance electronic microscopy (TEM) and X-ray reflectivity (XRR) revealed the smooth interfaces between ~2.2-nm-thick Al2O3 layers and ~2.7-nm-thick AZO layers. The devices were entirely composited by aluminiferous materials, that is, their gate and source/drain electrodes were respectively fabricated by aluminum neodymium alloy (Al:Nd) and pure Al, with Al2O3/AZO multilayered channel and AlOx:Nd gate dielectric layer. As a result, the all-aluminum TFT with two Al2O3/AZO heterojunction units exhibited a mobility of 2.47 cm2/V·s and an Ion/Ioff ratio of 106. All processes were carried out at room temperature, which created new possibilities for green displays industry by allowing for the devices fabricated on plastic-like substrates or papers, mainly using no toxic/rare materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor)
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1958 KiB  
Article
Amorphous InGaMgO Ultraviolet Photo-TFT with Ultrahigh Photosensitivity and Extremely Large Responsivity
by Yiyu Zhang, Ling-Xuan Qian, Zehan Wu and Xingzhao Liu
Materials 2017, 10(2), 168; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma10020168 - 13 Feb 2017
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4552
Abstract
Recently, amorphous InGaZnO ultraviolet photo thin-film transistors have exhibited great potential for application in future display technologies. Nevertheless, the transmittance of amorphous InGaZnO (~80%) is still not high enough, resulting in the relatively large sacrifice of aperture ratio for each sensor pixel. In [...] Read more.
Recently, amorphous InGaZnO ultraviolet photo thin-film transistors have exhibited great potential for application in future display technologies. Nevertheless, the transmittance of amorphous InGaZnO (~80%) is still not high enough, resulting in the relatively large sacrifice of aperture ratio for each sensor pixel. In this work, the ultraviolet photo thin-film transistor based on amorphous InGaMgO, which processes a larger bandgap and higher transmission compared to amorphous InGaZnO, was proposed and investigated. Furthermore, the effects of post-deposition annealing in oxygen on both the material and ultraviolet detection characteristics of amorphous InGaMgO were also comprehensively studied. It was found that oxygen post-deposition annealing can effectively reduce oxygen vacancies, leading to an optimized device performance, including lower dark current, higher sensitivity, and larger responsivity. We attributed it to the combined effect of the reduction in donor states and recombination centers, both of which are related to oxygen vacancies. As a result, the 240-min annealed device exhibited the lowest dark current of 1.7 × 10−10 A, the highest photosensitivity of 3.9 × 106, and the largest responsivity of 1.5 × 104 A/W. Therefore, our findings have revealed that amorphous InGaMgO photo thin-film transistors are a very promising alternative for UV detection, especially for application in touch-free interactive displays. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor)
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1795 KiB  
Article
High Responsivity MgZnO Ultraviolet Thin-Film Phototransistor Developed Using Radio Frequency Sputtering
by Jyun-Yi Li, Sheng-Po Chang, Ming-Hung Hsu and Shoou-Jinn Chang
Materials 2017, 10(2), 126; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma10020126 - 04 Feb 2017
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 8093
Abstract
We investigated the electrical and optoelectronic properties of a magnesium zinc oxide thin-film phototransistor. We fabricate an ultraviolet phototransistor by using a wide-bandgap MgZnO thin film as the active layer material of the thin film transistor (TFT). The fabricated device demonstrated a threshold [...] Read more.
We investigated the electrical and optoelectronic properties of a magnesium zinc oxide thin-film phototransistor. We fabricate an ultraviolet phototransistor by using a wide-bandgap MgZnO thin film as the active layer material of the thin film transistor (TFT). The fabricated device demonstrated a threshold voltage of 3.1 V, on–off current ratio of 105, subthreshold swing of 0.8 V/decade, and mobility of 5 cm2/V·s in a dark environment. As a UV photodetector, the responsivity of the device was 3.12 A/W, and the rejection ratio was 6.55 × 105 at a gate bias of −5 V under 290 nm illumination. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor)
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3956 KiB  
Article
Direct Inkjet Printing of Silver Source/Drain Electrodes on an Amorphous InGaZnO Layer for Thin-Film Transistors
by Honglong Ning, Jianqiu Chen, Zhiqiang Fang, Ruiqiang Tao, Wei Cai, Rihui Yao, Shiben Hu, Zhennan Zhu, Yicong Zhou, Caigui Yang and Junbiao Peng
Materials 2017, 10(1), 51; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma10010051 - 10 Jan 2017
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5926
Abstract
Printing technologies for thin-film transistors (TFTs) have recently attracted much interest owing to their eco-friendliness, direct patterning, low cost, and roll-to-roll manufacturing processes. Lower production costs could result if electrodes fabricated by vacuum processes could be replaced by inkjet printing. However, poor interfacial [...] Read more.
Printing technologies for thin-film transistors (TFTs) have recently attracted much interest owing to their eco-friendliness, direct patterning, low cost, and roll-to-roll manufacturing processes. Lower production costs could result if electrodes fabricated by vacuum processes could be replaced by inkjet printing. However, poor interfacial contacts and/or serious diffusion between the active layer and the silver electrodes are still problematic for achieving amorphous indium–gallium–zinc–oxide (a-IGZO) TFTs with good electrical performance. In this paper, silver (Ag) source/drain electrodes were directly inkjet-printed on an amorphous a-IGZO layer to fabricate TFTs that exhibited a mobility of 0.29 cm2·V−1·s−1 and an on/off current ratio of over 105. To the best of our knowledge, this is a major improvement for bottom-gate top-contact a-IGZO TFTs with directly printed silver electrodes on a substrate with no pretreatment. This study presents a promising alternative method of fabricating electrodes of a-IGZO TFTs with desirable device performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor)
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7117 KiB  
Article
Effect of Intrinsic Stress on Structural and Optical Properties of Amorphous Si-Doped SnO2 Thin-Film
by Honglong Ning, Xianzhe Liu, Hongke Zhang, Zhiqiang Fang, Wei Cai, Jianqiu Chen, Rihui Yao, Miao Xu, Lei Wang, Linfeng Lan, Junbiao Peng, Xiaofeng Wang and Zichen Zhang
Materials 2017, 10(1), 24; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma10010024 - 01 Jan 2017
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 6334
Abstract
The effect of intrinsic stress on the structure and physical properties of silicon-tin-oxide (STO) films have been investigated. Since a state of tensile stress is available in as-deposited films, the value of stress can be exponentially enhanced when the annealing temperature is increased. [...] Read more.
The effect of intrinsic stress on the structure and physical properties of silicon-tin-oxide (STO) films have been investigated. Since a state of tensile stress is available in as-deposited films, the value of stress can be exponentially enhanced when the annealing temperature is increased. The tensile stress is able to not only suppress the crystallization and widen the optical band gap of STO films, but also reduce defects of STO films. In this report, the good electrical performance of STO thin-film transistors (TFTs) can be obtained when annealing temperature is 450 °C. This includes a value of saturation mobility that can be reached at 6.7 cm2/Vs, a ratio of Ion/Ioff as 7.34 × 107, a steep sub-threshold swing at 0.625 V/decade, and a low trap density of 7.96 × 1011 eV−1·cm−2, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor)
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4334 KiB  
Article
Morphological Influence of Solution-Processed Zinc Oxide Films on Electrical Characteristics of Thin-Film Transistors
by Hyeonju Lee, Xue Zhang, Jaeeun Hwang and Jaehoon Park
Materials 2016, 9(10), 851; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma9100851 - 19 Oct 2016
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 6266
Abstract
We report on the morphological influence of solution-processed zinc oxide (ZnO) semiconductor films on the electrical characteristics of ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs). Different film morphologies were produced by controlling the spin-coating condition of a precursor solution, and the ZnO films were analyzed using [...] Read more.
We report on the morphological influence of solution-processed zinc oxide (ZnO) semiconductor films on the electrical characteristics of ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs). Different film morphologies were produced by controlling the spin-coating condition of a precursor solution, and the ZnO films were analyzed using atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and Hall measurement. It is shown that ZnO TFTs have a superior performance in terms of the threshold voltage and field-effect mobility, when ZnO crystallites are more densely packed in the film. This is attributed to lower electrical resistivity and higher Hall mobility in a densely packed ZnO film. In the results of consecutive TFT operations, a positive shift in the threshold voltage occurred irrespective of the film morphology, but the morphological influence on the variation in the field-effect mobility was evident. The field-effect mobility in TFTs having a densely packed ZnO film increased continuously during consecutive TFT operations, which is in contrast to the mobility decrease observed in the less packed case. An analysis of the field-effect conductivities ascribes these results to the difference in energetic traps, which originate from structural defects in the ZnO films. Consequently, the morphological influence of solution-processed ZnO films on the TFT performance can be understood through the packing property of ZnO crystallites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor)
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