Readily Accessible Metallic Micro-Island Arrays for High-Performance Metal Oxide Thin-Film Transistors

Thin-film transistors using metal oxide semiconductors are essential in many unconventional electronic devices. Nevertheless, further advances will be necessary to broaden their technological appeal. Here, a new strategy is reported to achieve high-performance solution-processed metal oxide thin-film transistors (MOTFTs) by introducing a metallic micro-island array (M-MIA) on top of the MO back channel, where the MO is a-IGZO (amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide). Here Al-MIAs are fabricated using honeycomb cinnamate cellulose films, created by a scalable breath-figure method, as a shadow mask. For IGZO TFTs, the electron mobility (mu(e)) increases from approximate to 3.6 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) to near 15.6 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) for optimal Al-MIA dimension/coverage of 1.25 mu m/51%. The Al-MIA IGZO TFT performance is superior to that of controls using compact/planar Al layers (Al-PL TFTs) and Au-MIAs with the same channel coverage. Kelvin probe force microscopy and technology computer-aided design simulations reveal that charge transfer occurs between the Al and the IGZO channel which is optimized for specific Al-MIA dimensions/surface channel coverages. Furthermore, such Al-MIA IGZO TFTs with a high-k fluoride-doped alumina dielectric exhibit a maximum mu(e) of >50.2 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) . This is the first demonstration of a micro-structured MO semiconductor heterojunction with submicrometer resolution metallic arrays for enhanced transistor performance and broad applicability to other devices.

Automated summary

A new strategy was reported to achieve high-performance solution-processed metal oxide thin-film transistors by introducing metallic micro-island array on top of the metal oxide back channel. Al-MIA IGZO TFTs exhibited superior performance compared to controls, with high electron mobility and broad applicability.