Large-area (64 × 64 array) inkjet-printed high-performance metal oxide bilayer heterojunction thin film transistors and n-metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS) inverters

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2021.01.003

Abstract

Abstract:

It is a big challenge to construct large-scale, high-resolution and high-performance inkjet-printed metal oxide thin film transistor (TFT) arrays with independent gates for the new printed displays. Here, a self-confined inkjet printing technology has been developed to construct large-area (64 × 64 array), high-resolution and high-performance metal oxide bilayer (In₂O₃/IGZO) heterojunction TFTs with independent bottom gates on transparent glass substrates. Inkjet printing In₂O₃ dot arrays with the diameters from 55 to 70 μm and the thickness of ~10 nm were firstly deposited on UV/ozone treated AlO_x dielectric layers, and then IGZO dots were selectively printed on the top of In₂O₃ dots by self-confined technology to form In₂O₃/IGZO heterojunction channels. When the inkjet-printed IO layers treated by UV/ozone for more than 30 min or oxygen plasma for 5 min prior to print IGZO thin films, the mobility of the resulting printed In₂O₃/IGZO heterojunction TFTs are correspondingly enhanced to be 18.80 and 28.44 cm² V^-1 s^-1 with excellent on/off ratios (>10⁸) and negligible hysteresis. Furthermore, the printed N-Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (NMOS) inverter consisted of an In₂O₃/IGZO TFT and an IGZO TFT has been demonstrated, which show excellent performance with the voltage gain up to 112. The strategy demonstrated here can be considered as general approaches to realize a new generation of high-performance printed logic gates, circuits and display driving circuits.

Key words: Inkjet printing, Heterojunction channel, 64×64 arrays, High mobility, NMOS inverter

Shuangshuang Shao, Kun Liang, Xinxing Li, Jinfeng Zhang, Chuan Liu, Zheng Cui, Jianwen Zhao. Large-area (64 × 64 array) inkjet-printed high-performance metal oxide bilayer heterojunction thin film transistors and n-metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS) inverters[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2021, 81: 26-35.

Figures/Tables 11

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the fabrication steps of a bottom-gate top-contact printed IO/IGZO heterojunction TFT arrays with independent gate electrodes. (a) Deposition of the bottom gate electrode layer on the glass substrate, (b) patterning metal gate electrode layer, (c) depositing the dielectric layer, (d) wettability the AlOx thin film by UV/ozone treatment and inkjet printing the IO front channel layer, (e) improving the wettability of the IO front channel layer by UV/ozone treatment, then inkjet printing the IGZO back channel, thermal annealing to form IO/IGZO heterojunction channel layer and (f) achieving the heterojunction TFT devices after deposition of source/drain electrodes.

Fig. 2. Printed IO ink droplets on AlOx with different treatments: (a) as-prepared AlOx thin films without any treatment and with UV/ozone treatment for 10 min, and then waiting for (b) 0, (c) 5 min, (d) 10 min, (e) 20 min, (f) 30 min, (g) 40 min and (h) 50 min, respectively.

Fig. 3. The thicknesses of the printed IO dots with different sizes.

Fig. 4. Optical images of printed (a) IO and (b) IO/IGZO dot array on independent bottom gate electrodes, and (c-e) the thicknesses of the IO/IGZO dots with different sizes.

Fig. 5. Typical transfer curves of printed IO/IGZO TFTs. The IO film treated by UV-ozone for (a) 5 min, (b) 10 min, (c) 30 min and (d) 60 min, and treated by O2 plasma for (e) 1 min, (f) 3 min, (g) 5 min and (h) 10 min, respectively.

Table 1 Extracted parameters of the printed TFTs shown in Fig. 5.

Metal oxide	μ (cm² V^-1 s^-1)	V_th (V)	SS (mV dec^-1)	I_on/I_off	N_c (cm^-3)
IGZO	4.82	7.7	366	10⁷	3.78 × 10 ¹⁶
IO	Conductive				1.26 × 10 ¹⁸
IO(UV/5 min)/IGZO	11.78	1	853	10⁷	2.83 × 10 ¹⁷
IO(UV/15 min)/IGZO	11.92	0.8	820	10⁸	2.89 × 10 ¹⁷
IO(UV/30 min)/IGZO	18.78	0.5	537	10⁸	3.27 × 10 ¹⁷
IO(UV/60 min)/IGZO	18.03	-1.5	556	10⁸	3.26 × 10 ¹⁷
IO(Plasma/1 min)/IGZO	19.82	-8.8	510	10⁸	5.54 × 10 ¹⁷
IO(Plasma/3 min)/IGZO	23.60	-11.8	419	10⁸	6.67 × 10 ¹⁷
IO(Plasma/5 min)/IGZO	28.44	-11	348	10⁸	8.89 × 10 ¹⁷
IO(Plasma/10 min)/IGZO	Conductive				1.76 × 10 ¹⁸

Fig. 6. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data of O 1s peaks: the IO film treatment with UV/ozone for (a) 5 min, (b) 15 min, (c) 30 min, and (d) 60 min; the IO film treatment with O2 plasma for (e) 1 min, (f) 3 min, (g) 5 min, and (h) 10 min. The extracted atomic concentration of the M-O and oxygen vacancy is shown in (i) and (j).

Fig. 7. (a) Optical images of printed 64 × 64 IO/IGZO TFT arrays and printed IO/IGZO TFTs on the glass substrate, (b) transfer characteristics of IO/IGZO TFTs with independent gates, (c) statistical distributions of effective mobilities and (d) threshold voltages for 30 printed IO/IGZO TFTs.

Fig. 8. Transfer characteristics of printed IO/IGZO TFTs using PMMA as passivation thin films under (a) PBS and (b) NBS.

Fig. 9. (a) Optical image of an NMOS inverter based on printed IGZO and IO/IGZO TFTs. (b) Diagram of a printed NMOS inverter. (c) Transfer characteristics of a printed IGZO TFT and an IO/IGZO TFT. (d) Voltage transfer characteristics of a printed NMOS inverter (Vdd=-10 V). (e) Voltage gains (Vdd=-25 V). (f) Dynamic response of a printed NMOS inverter at Vdd=-5 V when voltage gate was pulsed at 3 kHz.

Table 2 The performance comparison of the heterojunction oxide TFTs and inverters.

Refs.	Materials	Deposition method	Substrate	μ (cm² V^-1 s^-1)	on/off ratios	V_th (V)	Stability	Inverter
[15]	In₂O₃/ZnO	Spin coating (200 °C)	SiO₂/Si	13	>10⁸	0	PBS: V_gs = 40 V, Δ V_th = 3 V (32400s)	None
[8]	In₂O₃/IGO	Spin coating (250 °C) (250 °C)	SiO₂/Si	2.56	10⁸	0	None	None
[14]	ZnO/SnO₂	Spin coating (300 °C)	SiO₂/Si	15.4	~	~	PBTS: V_gs = 20 V, Δ V_th = 1.98 V; NBTS: V_gs=-20 V, Δ V_th=-0.59 V (60 °C,10 h)	None
[13]	ITZO/IGZO	Spin coating (450 °C)	SiO₂/Si	22.16	10⁷	9.69	PBS: V_gs = 20 V, Δ V_th = 5.01 V (10,000 s)	None
[1]	ITZO/IGZO	Spin coating (450 °C)	SiO₂/Si	20.24	6.0 × 10 ⁸	0.26	None	None
[11]	In₂O₃/ZnO	Spray pyrolysis and spin coating (300 °C)	SiO₂/Si	45	10⁶	-7.3	None	None
[9]	In₂O₃/ZnO	ALD (200 °C)	SiO₂/Si	9.3	5.3 × 10 ⁹	2.1	PBS: V_gs = 20 V, Δ V_th = 0.54 V; NBS: V_gs=-20 V, ΔV_th=-0.61 V (2 h)	None
[7]	IGZO/In₂O₃	RF magnetron sputtering (RT)	SiO₂/Si	64.4	2.5 × 10 ⁷	-0.3	None	None
[7]	IGZO/In₂O₃	RF magnetron sputtering (RT)	Si₃N₄/Si	79.1	3.3 × 10 ⁹	-0.3	None	None
[19]	ITO/GIZO	RF magnetron sputtering (RT)	Si	105	>10⁷	0.5	PBS: V_gs = 10 V, Δ V_th<1 V; NBS:V_gs=-10 V, ΔV_th=-0.75 V (60 °C, 4 h)	None
[58]	ZTO/IZO	DC sputtering (RT)	SiO₂/Mo/ glass	32.3	>10⁸	0.5	PBS: V_gs = 20 V, Δ V_th = 0.2 V; NBS: V_gs=-20 V, ΔV_th=-0.3V (7200 s)	None
[17]	ZTO/In₂O₃	Inkjet printing (400 °C)	SiO₂/Si	8.6	10⁶	2.76	PBS: V_gs = 20 V, Δ V_th = 9.45 V (3600 s)	None
[18]	In₂O₃/IGZO	Inkjet printing (400 °C)	SiO₂/Si	14.5	10⁶	13.2	PBS: V_gs = 20 V, Δ V_th = 1.8 V; NBS: V_gs=-20 V, ΔV_th=-2.3 V (3600 s)	None
This work	In₂O₃/IGZO	Inkjet printing (400 °C)	Al₂O₃/Mo- Nb/glass (Independent gate)	18.78	>10⁸	0.5	PBS: V_gs = 20 V, Δ V_th = 0.9 V; NBS: V_gs=-20 V, ΔV_th=-1 V; (3600 s)	Gain:112

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