Cost-Effective Integration of an a-Si:H Solar Cell and a ZnO TFT Ring Oscillator—Toward an Autonomously Powered Circuit

Author

Hang-Beum Shin ; Ramirez, J. Israel ; Jackson, Thomas N.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, USA

Volume

34

Issue

12

fYear

2013

fDate

Dec. 2013

Firstpage

1530

Lastpage

1532

Abstract

Cost-effective integration of a-Si:H solar cells and oxide-based thin-film transistor (TFT) circuits may lead to broader battery-free device applications. We demonstrate a n-i-p a-Si:H 15-series connected solar cell that supplies power to a ZnO-based ring oscillator. The ring oscillator can operate at 28 kHz at 6 V, corresponding to ≈100 mW/cm² illumination. This letter describes the integration and compact fabrication of the a-Si:H solar cell and ZnO TFT ring oscillator. The fabrication process includes several mask steps to reduce the number of processing steps.

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; amorphous semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; hydrogenation; silicon; solar cells; thin film transistors; wide band gap semiconductors; zinc compounds; Si:H; TFT ring oscillator; ZnO; autonomously powered circuit; battery-free device applications; cost-effective integration; fabrication process; frequency 28 kHz; oxide-based thin-film transistor circuits; series connected solar cell; voltage 6 V; Atomic layer deposition; Inverters; Photovoltaic cells; Ring oscillators; Thin film transistors; Zinc oxide; a-Si:H solar cell; autonomously powered circuit; plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs); seven-stage ring oscillator;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2013.2285117

Filename

6646206