Ionic amorphous oxide semiconductors: Material design, carrier transport, and device application

Recently we have reported the room temperature fabrication of transparent and flexible thin film transistors on a polyethylene tereplithalate (PET) film substrate using an ionic amorphous oxide semiconductor (IAOS) in an In2O3-ZnO-Ga2O3 system. These transistors exhibit a field effect mobility of similar to 10 cm(2) (V s)(-1), which is higher by an order of magnitude than those of hydrogenated amorphous Si and pentacene transistors. This article describes a chemical design concept of IAOS, and its unique electron transport properties, and electronic structure, by comparing them with those of conventional amorphous semiconductors. High potential of IAOS for flexible electronics is addressed. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.