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Low-temperature fabrication of high-performance metal oxide thin-film electronics via combustion processing

Nature Materials volume 10, pages 382–388 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

The development of large-area, low-cost electronics for flat-panel displays, sensor arrays, and flexible circuitry depends heavily on high-throughput fabrication processes and a choice of materials with appropriate performance characteristics. For different applications, high charge carrier mobility, high electrical conductivity, large dielectric constants, mechanical flexibility or optical transparency may be required. Although thin films of metal oxides could potentially meet all of these needs, at present they are deposited using slow and equipment-intensive techniques such as sputtering. Recently, solution processing schemes with high throughput have been developed, but these require high annealing temperatures (Tanneal>400 °C), which are incompatible with flexible polymeric substrates. Here we report combustion processing as a new general route to solution growth of diverse electronic metal oxide films (In2O3, a-Zn–Sn–O, a-In–Zn–O, ITO) at temperatures as low as 200 °C. We show that this method can be implemented to fabricate high-performance, optically transparent transistors on flexible plastic substrates.

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Figure 1: Low-temperature solution-processing principles for metal oxides and fabricated device structures.
Figure 2: Thermal analysis of the present combustion precursors versus conventional precursors and the corresponding TFT performance.
Figure 3: Surface analysis of In2O3 films deposited with both types of precursors.
Figure 4: Transfer and output characteristics of combustion precursor-derived TFTs fabricated with the indicated semiconductors and 2,000 μm channel width, 100 μm channel length Al electrodes.
Figure 5: Flexible combustion-processed In2O3 TFTs fabricated on the indicated substrates.

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the MRSEC program of NSF (DMR-0520513) at the Northwestern University Materials Research Center and by AFOSR (FA9550-08-1-0331). Microscopy and XPS studies were performed in the EPIC, NIFTI, KECK-II facilities of NUANCE Center at Northwestern University. NUANCE Center is supported by NSF-NSEC, NSF-MRSEC, Keck Foundation, the State of Illinois, and Northwestern University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and the Materials Research Center, Northwestern University 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA

    Myung-Gil Kim, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, Antonio Facchetti & Tobin J. Marks

  2. Polyera Corporation, 8045 Lamon Avenue, Skokie, Illinois 60077, USA

    Antonio Facchetti

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  1. Myung-Gil Kim
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  2. Mercouri G. Kanatzidis
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M-G. Kim, M. G. Kanatzidis, A.F. and T.J.M. designed the research. M-G. Kim carried out the experiments. M-G. Kim, M. G. Kanatzidis, A.F. and T.J.M. analysed the data and co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, Antonio Facchetti or Tobin J. Marks.

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Kim, MG., Kanatzidis, M., Facchetti, A. et al. Low-temperature fabrication of high-performance metal oxide thin-film electronics via combustion processing. Nature Mater 10, 382–388 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3011

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