Monolithic Metal Oxide Transistors

We devised a simple transparent metal oxide thin film transistor architecture composed of only two component materials, an amorphous metal oxide and ion gel gate dielectric, which could be entirely assembled using room-temperature processes on a plastic substrate. The geometry cleverly takes advantage of the unique characteristics of the two components. An oxide layer is metallized upon exposure to plasma, leading to the formation of a monolithic source-channel-drain oxide layer, and the ion gel gate dielectric is used to gate the transistor channel effectively at low voltages through a coplanar gate. We confirmed that the method is generally applicable to a variety of sol-gel-processed amorphous metal oxides, including indium oxide, indium zinc oxide, and indium gallium zinc oxide. An inverter NOT logic device was assembled using the resulting devices as a proof of concept demonstration of the applicability of the devices to logic circuits. The favorable characteristics of these devices, including (i) the simplicity of the device structure with only two components, (ii) the benign fabrication processes at room temperature, (iii) the low-voltage operation under 2 V, and (iv) the excellent and stable electrical performances, together support the application of these devices to low-cost portable gadgets, i.e., cheap electronics.