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Hybrid organic–metal oxide multilayer channel transistors with high operational stability

Nature Electronics volume 2, pages 587–595 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Metal oxide thin-film transistors are increasingly used in the driving backplanes of organic light-emitting diode displays. Commercial devices currently rely on metal oxides processed via physical vapour deposition methods, but the use of solution-based processes could provide a simpler, higher-throughput approach that would be more cost effective. However, creating oxide transistors with high carrier mobility and bias-stable operation using such processes has proved challenging. Here we show that transistors with high electron mobility (50 cm2 V−1 s−1) and operational stability can be fabricated from solution-processed multilayer channels composed of ultrathin layers of indium oxide, zinc oxide nanoparticles, ozone-treated polystyrene and compact zinc oxide. Insertion of the ozone-treated polystyrene interlayer passivates electron traps in the channel and reduces bias-induced instability during continuous transistor operation over a period of 24 h and under a high electric-field flux density (2.1 × 10−6 C cm−2). Furthermore, incorporation of the pre-synthesized aluminium-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles enables controlled n-type doping of the hybrid channels, providing additional control over the operating characteristics of the transistors.

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Fig. 1: Surface topography and current mapping of ZnO-NP and ZnO-NPs/PS layers.
Fig. 2: Current–voltage characteristics of oxide transistors and EELS analysis of oxide nanocomposites.
Fig. 3: Bias-stress measurement and analysis of DNC-based transistors.
Fig. 4: Threshold voltage and trap state distribution for transistors before and after bias stress.
Fig. 5: 3D scatter plot of transistor bias-stress data.

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The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Y.-H.L., H.F., D.K. and T.D.A. are grateful to the European Research Council (ERC) AMPRO project no. 280221 for financial support. N.A.H. and T.D.A. are grateful to the European Research Council (ERC) Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant no. 661127 for financial support. The authors thank King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for financial support and for facilitating access to the Core Laboratories. L.T. acknowledges support for the computational time granted from GRNET in the National HPC facility—ARIS—under project STEM-2.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yen-Hung Lin, Wen Li.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Yen-Hung Lin, Wen Li, Hendrik Faber, Nikolaos A. Hastas, Dongyoon Khim & Thomas D. Anthopoulos

  2. Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Yen-Hung Lin & Donal D. C. Bradley

  3. Institute of Flexible Electronics (IFE), Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China

    Wen Li & Wei Huang

  4. Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China

    Wen Li & Wei Huang

  5. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Centre, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Hendrik Faber, Akmaral Seitkhan & Thomas D. Anthopoulos

  6. Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Nikolaos A. Hastas, Nikolaos Pliatsikas & Panos A. Patsalas

  7. Physical Science and Engineering Division, KAUST, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Qiang Zhang, Xixiang Zhang & Donal D. C. Bradley

  8. Department of Physics, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Leonidas Tsetseris

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Contributions

T.D.A. and Y.-H.L. conceived the project. T.D.A. guided and supervised the project. Y.-H.L. and W.L. fabricated the devices and thin-film samples and performed electrical measurements. Y.-H.L. and W.L. analysed all the device data. Y.-H.L. and W.L. carried out the c-AFM, AFM and KP measurements and analysed the data. N.A.H. performed trap state analysis. H.F. and D.K. assisted with bias-stress measurements. Q.Z. and X.Z. carried out TEM characterization. N.P. and P.A.P. carried out XPS characterization and analysis. L.T. performed DFT analysis. D.D.C.B. and W.H. provided suggestions for material characterization. Y.-H.L. and T.D.A. wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the writing of the paper.

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Correspondence to Yen-Hung Lin or Thomas D. Anthopoulos.

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Lin, YH., Li, W., Faber, H. et al. Hybrid organic–metal oxide multilayer channel transistors with high operational stability. Nat Electron 2, 587–595 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-019-0342-y

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