1 research outputs found
Low-Temperature Postfunctionalization of Highly Conductive Oxide Thin-Films toward Solution-Based Large-Scale Electronics
Although
transparent conducting
oxides (TCOs) have played a key role in a wide range of solid-state
electronics from conventional optoelectronics to emerging electronic
systems, the processing temperature and conductivity of solution-processed
materials seem to be far exceeding the thermal limitations of soft
materials and insufficient for high-perfomance large-area systems,
respectively. Here, we report a strategy to form highly conductive
and scalable solution-processed oxide materials and their successful
translation into large-area electronic applications, which is enabled
by photoassisted postfunctionalization at low temperature. The low-temperature
fabrication of indium–tin-oxide (ITO) thin films was achieved
by using photoignited combustion synthesis combined with photoassisted
reduction process under hydrogen atmosphere. It was noteworthy that
the photochemically activated hydrogens on ITO surface could be triggered
to facilitate highly crystalline oxygen deficient structure allowing
significant increase of carrier concentration and mobility through
film microstructure modifications. The low-temperature postfunctionalized
ITO films demonstrated conductivity of >1607 S/cm and sheet resistance
of <104 Ω/□ under the process temperature of less
than 300 °C, which are comparable to those of vacuum-deposited
and high-temperature annealed ITO films. Based on the photoassisted
postfunctionalization route, all-solution-processed transparent metal-oxide
thin-film-transistors and large-area integrated circuits with the
ITO bus lines were demonstrated, showing field-effect mobilities of
>6.5 cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>–1</sup> s<sup>–1</sup> with relatively good operational stability and oscillation frequency
of more than 1 MHz in 7-stage ring oscillators, respectively