Characteristics of Flexible Thin-Film Transistors With ZnO Channels

Author

Liang-Wen Ji ; Cheng-Zhi Wu ; Te-Hua Fang ; Yu-Jen Hsiao ; Teen-Hang Meen ; water, Wayne ; Zhe-Wei Chiu ; Kin-Tak Lam

Author_Institution

Grad. Inst. of Electro-Opt. & Mater. Sci., Nat. Formosa Univ., Yunlin, Taiwan

Volume

13

Issue

12

fYear

2013

fDate

Dec. 2013

Firstpage

4940

Lastpage

4943

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate the fabrication of ZnO-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) on flexible substrates (polyethylene terephthalate) through radio-frequency sputtering and low-temperature procedure. The device structure belongs to bottom-gate type TFTs where ZnO and HfO₂ are used as channel and gate dielectric layer, respectively. XRD results show that the ZnO channel layers are hexagonal wurtzite structure with (002) orientation. The properties of the fabricated devices are also characterized within several environmental and physics conditions. It can be found that the flexible TFT device is with a low operating voltage and high current ON/OFF ratio; the gate leakage current and transparency are found to be ~12 nA and 75%, respectively. The gate leakage current (IG), drain-source current (IDS), ON/OFF current ratio (I_ON/OFF), threshold voltage (V_th), and field-effect mobility (μ_FE) are measured under different bending modes.

Keywords

X-ray diffraction; carrier mobility; flexible electronics; hafnium compounds; leakage currents; semiconductor device measurement; semiconductor thin films; sputter deposition; thin film transistors; wide band gap semiconductors; zinc compounds; XRD results; ZnO channel layers; ZnO-HfO₂; ZnO-based TFT fabrication; bending modes; bottom-gate type TFT; device structure; drain-source current measurement; environmental conditions; field-effect mobility measurement; flexible TFT device; flexible substrates; flexible thin film transistor characteristics; gate dielectric layer; gate leakage current measurement; hexagonal wurtzite structure; high current ON/OFF ratio; low operating voltage; low-temperature procedure; physics conditions; polyethylene terephthalate; radiofrequency sputtering; threshold voltage measurement; Flexible electronics; polyethylene; zinc oxide;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Sensors Journal, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1530-437X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSEN.2013.2267808

Filename

6541957