Improvement in the bias stability of zinc oxide thin-film transistors using Si3N4 insulator with SiO2 interlayer

The performance of ZnO thin film transistors (TFT) subjected to SiO₂ interlayer treatments on Si₃N₄ insulators was investigated. In the case of a SiO₂ interlayer of 10 nm on Si₃N₄ insulator, a drastic improvement in device performance was obtained. ZnO TFT with this interlayer showed reduced trap density between the Si₃N₄ and ZnO channel, bringing remarkable improvement in bias stability characteristics. These devices show good performance and exhibit a high field-effect mobility of 6.41 cm²/Vs, an on/off current ratio of 10⁸, and a subthreshold swing of 1.46 V/decade. Also, the turn-on voltage shifted from − 2 V to − 6 V with negligible changes in the subthreshold swing and field effect mobility after total stress time.     

High-performance amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide thin-film transistors with polymer gate dielectric

The fabrication of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) with a spin-coated polymer gate dielectric on a glass substrate is reported. The interface state density at the poly(4-vinylphenol)/a-IGZO interface is only around 4.05 × 10¹¹ cm^− 2. The TFTs' threshold voltage, subthreshold swing, on-off current ratio, and carrier mobility are 2.6 V, 1.3 V/decade, 1 × 10⁵, and 21.8 cm²/V s, respectively. These characteristics indicate that the TFTs are suitable for use as nonvolatile memory devices and in flexible electronic applications.     

Polymer binder effects on the electrical characteristics of 6, 13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene thin-film transistors in different solvents

This paper presents the effects of the polymer binder on the electrical properties of 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) which have been fabricated using a variety of 2 wt.% TIPS-pentacene solutions that have been prepared in different solutions, including anisole, toluene, and chlorobenzene. Poly(triarylamine) (PTAA) is added as a polymer binder to help the TIPS-pentacene form a stronger binding, thus improving device performances. By using these materials as the active channel, a molecular guest-host system is formed, with TIPS-pentacene as the host and the PTAA as the guest. Introducing the TIPS-pentacene solutions means that the polymer binder and the solvent dependent electrical characteristics can be investigated to determine if the device exhibits the best performance when the solution is prepared with anisole as the solvent and PTAA as the polymer binder. Consequently, a device made from anisole with PTAA exhibits superior electrical properties in comparison to the devices made with the other solutions including the saturation field-effect mobility (μ_sat) ?of 0.21 cm²/V?s, current on/off ratios of 5 × 10⁶, and a sub-threshold slope (SS) of 0.46 V/dec at a gate bias V_GS = -40 V.     

Enhanced variant designs and characteristics of the microstructured solid-state neutron detector

Silicon diodes with large aspect ratio perforated microstructures backfilled with ⁶LiF show a dramatic increase in neutron detection efficiency beyond that of conventional thin-film coated planar devices. Described in this work are advancements in the technology with increased microstructure depths and detector stacking methods to increase thermal neutron detection efficiency. The highest efficiency devices thus far have delivered over 37% intrinsic thermal neutron detection efficiency by device-coupling stacking methods. The detectors operate as conformally diffused pn junction diodes with 1 cm² square-area. Two individual devices were mounted back-to-back with counting electronics coupling the detectors together into a single dual-detector device. The solid-state silicon device operated at 3 V and utilized simple signal amplification and counting electronic components. The intrinsic detection efficiency for normal-incident 0.0253 eV neutrons was found by calibrating against a ³He proportional counter and a ⁶LiF thin-film planar semiconductor device. This work is a part of on-going research to develop solid-state semiconductor neutron detectors with high detection efficiencies and uniform angular responses.     

Effect of substituents on electronic properties, thin film structure and device performance of dithienothiophene-phenylene cooligomers

Dithienothiophene-phenylene cooligomers with n-hexyloxy or n-dodecyloxy substituents have been synthesized and compared to the previously reported unsubstituted parent compound. The effect of substituents on the thermal, electronic, optical, thin film structure and field-effect transistor (OFET) properties was investigated. Structural phase transitions from highly-ordered nanocrystalline to liquid crystalline were observed at 241 and 213 °C for n-hexyloxy- and n-dodecyloxy-substituted compounds respectively, different from the parent compound. For the alkoxy-substituted compounds, the absorption spectra in thin film blue shift 50 nm, while the fluorescence spectra in thin film red shift 88-100 nm compared to those in solution. The OFET devices based on the alkoxy-substituted compounds exhibit mobilities as high as ca 0.02 cm²V^− 1s^− 1 and their performance is sensitive to the alkoxy substituents and substrate temperatures.     

Polymer light-emitting devices based on plasma-polymerized benzene and plasma-polymerized naphthalene

Polymer light-emitting devices (PLED) were fabricated utilizing plasma-polymerized benzene (PPB) and plasma-polymerized naphthalene (PPN) as an electroluminescent (EL) emitting layer. The plasma polymerization is well suited for forming the transparent, sturdy thin film for EL polymer layers. For the ITO/PPB/Al and ITO/PPN/Al devices, the turn-on voltage of the device was at 12V and 6V, respectively. The luminance of the PPB device reached 6 cdm ^-2 at 10 V, whereas the PPN device reached 11 cd m ^-2 at 14 V. The external quantum efficency was 0.0035% for the PPB device and 0.0056% for the PPN device. The dense crosslinked structure formed by the plasma polymerization makes the EL device relatively stable during operation. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers     

A new DRAM-type memory devices based on polymethacrylate containing pendant 2-methylbenzothiazole

A polymethacrylate containing pendant 2-methylbenzothiazole (pBVMA) with good thermal stability was synthesized by free radical polymerization. The devices based on pBVMA possess a sandwich structure comprising bottom indium-tin oxide (ITO) electrode and top Al electrode. The as-fabricated device exhibits the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) behavior with an ON/OFF current ratio up to 10⁵ and can endure 10⁸ read cycles under −1 V pulse voltage. The effect of the film thickness on the device performance was investigated and the devices fabricated with 75 nm and 45 nm thick pBVMA films were both found to exhibit DRAM type memory behaviors, which may indicate that the Al nanoparticles had no penetration into the thin film during the vacuum-deposition process. The molecular simulation and physical theoretical models were analyzed and the mechanism of the DRAM performance may be attributed to the weak electron withdrawing ability of the molecule.     

Highly efficient orange–red electroluminescence from a single layer MEH-PPV-POSS:CdS0.75Se0.25 hybrid PLED

In this study, poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] end capped with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (MEH-PPV-POSS): cadmium sulfide selenide quantum dots (CdS_0.75Se_0.25 QDs) nanocomposites based OLEDs were fabricated. By the addition of CdS_0.75Se_0.25 QDs into the polymer active layer, a considerable enhancement was observed in terms of hole and electron injection in devices. Additionally, the presence of QDs reduced the interchain interaction of polymer that resulted in narrower electroluminescence (EL) spectrum. The device structure of ITO/PEDOT: PSS/MEH-PPV-POSS: 25 wt% CdS_0.75Se_0.25/Ca (40 nm)/Al demonstrated the best performance with a brightness of 8672 cd/m² at 10 V, current efficiency of 2.5 cd/A at 8 V, and an EQE of 0.55% at 150 mA/cm².     

Oligomer semiconductor/dielectric interface modification for organic thin film transistor hysteresis reduction

In this work, we investigate the hydroxyl group effect on hysteresis of the low voltage organic thin film transistor (OTFT). A high k material, hafnium oxide, is utilized as gate dielectric to reduce OTFT operational voltage. By using the hydroxyl-free polymer, polystyrene, the hydroxyl groups on hafnium oxide surface will be shielded. The modification at semiconductor/dielectric interface prevents accumulated charges from trapping in surface states. Such a polymer coverage layer reduces hysteresis and suppresses the off current as low as 10⁻¹¹ A. The interface traps resulted from ambient water absorption significantly decrease according to the hysteresis cancellation. By stacking polystyrene on hafnium oxide, the pentacene-based OTFT shows the threshold voltage of − 2.2 V, on/off current ratio of 10⁵, subthreshold swing of 0.34 V/dec, and mobility of 0.24 cm²/V s under operational voltage of 10 V.     

Fabrication of Al/MgO/C and C/MgO/InSe/C tunneling barriers for tunable negative resistance and negative capacitance applications

In this work, the design and characterization of magnesium oxide based tunneling diodes which are produced on Al and InSe films as rectifying substrates are investigated. It was found that when Al thin films are used, the device exhibit tunneling diode behavior of sharp valley at 0.15 V and peak to valley current ratio (PVCR) of 11.4. In addition, the capacitance spectra of the Al/MgO/C device show a resonance peak of negative capacitance (NC) values at 44.7 MHz. The capacitance and resistance–voltage characteristics handled at an ac signal frequency of 100 MHz reflected a build in voltage (V_bi) of 1.29 V and a negative resistance (NR) effect above 2.05 V. This device quality factor (Q)–voltage response is ~10⁴. When the Al substrate is replaced by InSe thin film, the tunneling diode valley appeared at 1.1 V. In addition, the PVCR, NR range, NC resonance peak, Q and V_bi are found to be 135, 0.94–2.24 and 39.0 MHz, ~10⁵ and 1.34 V, respectively. Due to the wide differential negative resistance and capacitance voltage ranges and due to the response of the C/MgO/InSe/C device at 1.0 GHz, these devices appear to be suitable for applications as frequency mixers, amplifiers, and monostable–bistable circuit elements (MOBILE).     

Ammonia-free chemically deposited CdS films as active layers in thin film transistors

In this work we have grown CdS thin films using an ammonia-free chemical bath deposition process for the active layer in thin film transistors. The CdS films were deposited substituting sodium citrate for ammonia as the complexing agent. The electrical characterization of the as-deposited CdS-based thin film transistors shows that the field effect mobility and threshold voltage were in the range of 0.12-0.16 cm²V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and 8.8-25 V, respectively, depending on the channel length. The device performance was improved considerably after thermal annealing in forming gas at 250 °C for 1 h. The mobility of the annealed devices increased to 4.8-8.8 cm²V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and the threshold voltage decreased to 8.4-12 V. I_on/I_off for the annealed devices was approximately 10⁵-10⁶.     

Synthesis and electroluminescent properties of blue-emitting t-butylated bis(diarylaminoaryl)anthracenes for OLEDs

A new series of blue fluorescent emitters based on t-butylated bis(diarylaminoaryl) anthracenes were synthesized and their electroluminescent properties investigated. Into these blue materials, t-butyl groups were introduced to both prevent molecular aggregation between the blue emitters through steric hindrance and reduce self-quenching. As such, this would contribute to overall improvement in OLED efficiency. To explore the electroluminescent properties of these materials, multilayered OLEDs were fabricated into a device structure of: ITO/NPB(50 nm)/blue emitters doped in ADN(30 nm)/Alq₃(20 nm)/Liq(2 nm)/Al(100 nm). All devices showed efficient blue emissions. In particular, one device exhibited highly efficient sky blue emissions with a maximum luminance of 11,060 cd/m² at 12.0 V and respective luminous and power efficiencies of 6.59 cd/A and 2.58 lm/W at 20 mA/cm². The peak wavelength of the electroluminescence was 468 nm with CIEx,y coordinates of (0.159, 0.198) at 12.0 V. In addition, a deep blue device with CIEx,y coordinates of (0.159, 0.151) at 12.0 V showed a luminous efficiency of 4.2 cd/A and power efficiency of 1.66 lm/W at 20 mA/cm².     

Wet etching rates of InGaZnO for the fabrication of transparent thin-film transistors on plastic substrates

The wet etch process for amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO or a-InGaZnO) by using various etchants is reported. The etch rates of a-IGZO, compared to another indium-based oxides including indium gallium oxide (IGO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), and indium tin oxide (ITO), are measured by using acetic acid, citric acid, hydrochloric acid, perchloric acid, and aqua ammonia as etchants, respectively. In our experimental results, the etch rate of the transparent oxide semiconductor (TOS) films by using acid solutions ranked accordingly from high to low are IZO, IGZO, IGO and ITO. Comparatively, the etch rate of the TOS films by using alkaline ammonia solution ranked from high to low are IGZO, IZO, IGO and ITO, in that order.Using the proposed wet etching process with high etch selectivity, bottom-gate-type thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on a-IGZO channels and Y₂O₃ gate-insulators were fabricated by radio-frequency sputtering on plastic substrates. The wet etch processed TFT with 30 µm gate length and 120 µm gate width exhibits a saturation mobility of 46.25 cm² V^− 1 s^− 1, a threshold voltage of 1.3 V, a drain current on-off ratio > 10⁶ , and subthreshold gate voltage swing of 0.29 V decade^− 1. The performance of the TFTs ensures the applicability of the wet etching process for IGZO to electronic devices on organic polymer substrates.     

Non-aqueous solution processed ZnO thin film transistors

Zinc oxide based thin film transistors (TFT) fabricated by a non-aqueous sol-gel solution process with a zinc neodecanoate precursor are demonstrated. X-ray diffraction measurement reveals that the ZnO films adopt a hexagonal structure with a random crystal orientation. Atomic force microscope and scanning electron microscope characterizations show that the films are closely packed and consisted of particles with an average size of 45 nm. The devices exhibit an n-channel enhancement mode behavior, with saturation mobility in the range of 0.95-1.29 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, drain current on-to-off ratios higher than 10⁷ and threshold voltages between 5.3 and 16.8 V in an ambient environment. The results imply that high-performance ZnO TFTs produced by a simple and low-cost technique could be applicable to electronic devices.     

High efficiency removal of dissolved As(III) using iron nanoparticle-embedded macroporous polymer composites

Novel nanocomposite materials where iron nanoparticles are embedded into the walls of a macroporous polymer were produced and their efficiency for the removal of As(III) from aqueous media was studied. Nanocomposite gels containing α-Fe₂O₃ and Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were prepared by cryopolymerisation resulting in a monolithic structure with large interconnected pores up to 100 μm in diameter and possessing a high permeability (ca. 3 × 10⁻³ m s⁻¹). The nanocomposite devices showed excellent capability for the removal of trace concentrations of As(III) from solution, with a total capacity of up to 3 mg As/g of nanoparticles. The leaching of iron was minimal and the device could operate in a pH range 3-9 without diminishing removal efficiency. The effect of competing ions such as SO₄²⁻ and PO₄³⁻ was negligible. The macroporous composites can be easily configured into a variety of shapes and structures and the polymer matrix can be selected from a variety of monomers, offering high potential as flexible metal cation remediation devices.     

Source/drain junction fabrication for Ge metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors

We established fabrication methods for high-quality Ge n⁺/p and p⁺/n junctions using thermal diffusion of P and implantation of B, respectively. The carrier concentrations in n⁺ and p⁺ layers were as high as 4 × 10¹⁹ and 2 × 10¹⁹ cm^− 3, respectively. It was found that a peripheral surface-state current dominates the reverse leakage current in an n⁺/p junction diode. The protection of junction surfaces from plasma damage during the SiO₂ deposition was essential to achieve high-quality source/drain junctions. The surface passivation with a GeO₂ interlayer was harmful to an n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) because of an increase in a surface leakage current due to inversion carriers. For a p-channel MOSFET, on the other hand, the GeO₂ interlayer plays a role in decreasing the surface leakage current.     

Flexible organic field-effect transistors and complementary inverters based on a solution-processable quinoidal oligothiophene derivative

We report on the fabrication and characterization of ambipolar organic field-effect transistors based on the solution-processable quinoidal oligothiophene [QQT(CN)4] and using a new fluorinated polymer (AL-X601) with a dielectric constant of 3.1 as dielectric material layer. As-prepared devices show ambipolar transport with hole and electron field-effect mobilities of 6 × 10⁻² and 5 × 10⁻³ cm²/V s respectively as well as an on and off state current ratio higher than 10³. Influence of a thermal annealing on the device performances was investigated and was found to lead to a majority carrier type conversion from a p-type to an n-type dominant behavior. QQT(CN)4 based field-effect transistors and complementary inverters fabricated on flexible substrates and using Al-X601 as gate dielectric material show high performance and good mechanical stability.     

Pentacene nanostructural interlayer for the efficiency improvement of polymer solar cells

In poly(3-hexylthiophene) mixed with phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester heterojunction polymer solar cells, organic small molecular pentacene was introduced as the interfacial layer between PEDOT:PSS coated ITO substrates and polymer layer. It is found that the short circuit current density and power conversion efficiency were distinctly improved due to the introduction of the nanostructural pentacene interlayer. The nearly 100% power conversion efficiency improvement was obtained on the cells with a 4 nm pentacene interlayer, which benefits from the increased short circuit current from 2.34 mA/cm² to 5.76 mA/cm². The morphology of different thicknesses of pentacene thin films was observed by atomic force microscopy. The effect of pentacene interlayer's thickness on the distribution of light in the active layer was simulated by using a transfer matrix mode.     

The role of transparent conducting oxides in metal organic chemical vapour deposition of CdTe/CdS Photovoltaic solar cells

A systematic study is made between the relationship of Cd_0.9Zn_0.1S/CdTe photovoltaic (PV) device properties for three different commercial transparent conducting oxide (TCO) materials and some experimental CdO to determine the role of the TCO in device performance. The resistance contribution from the TCO was measured after depositing the gold contact architectures directly onto the TCOs. These were compared with the Cd_0.9Zn_0.1S/CdTe device properties using the same contact arrangements. Series resistance for the commercial TCOs correlated with their sheet resistance and gave good agreement with the PV device series resistance for the indium tin oxide (ITO) and fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) 15 Ω/Sq. superstrates. The devices on the thicker FTO 7 Ω/sq superstrates were dominated by a low shunt resistance, which was attributed to the rough surface morphology causing micro-shorts. The device layers on the CdO substrate delaminated but devices were successfully made for ultra-thin CdTe (0.8 μm thick) and compared favourably with the comparable device on ITO. From the measurements on these TCOs it was possible to deduce the back contact resistance and gave an average value of 2 Ω.cm². The correlation of fill factor with series resistance has been compared with the predictions of a 1-D device model and shows excellent agreement. For high efficiency devices the combined series resistance from the TCO and back contact need to be less than 1 Ω.cm².     

Red-phosphorescent OLEDs employing iridium (III) complexes based on 5-benzoyl-2-phenylpyridine derivatives

A series of red-phosphorescent iridium (III) complexes 1-4 based on 5-benzoyl-2-phenylpyridine derivatives was synthesized. Their photophysical and electrophosphorescent properties were investigated. Multilayered OLEDs were fabricated with a device structure ITO/4,4′,4″-tris(N-(naphtalen-2-yl)-N-phenyl-amino)triphenylamine (60 nm)/4,4′-bis(N-naphtylphenylamino)biphenyl (20 nm)/Ir(III) complexes (8%) doped in 4,4′-N,N′-dicarbazolebiphenyl (30 nm)/2,9-Dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (10 nm)/tris(8-hydroxyquinolinyl)aluminum(III) (20 nm)/Liq (2 nm)/Al (100 nm). All devices exhibited efficient red emissions. Among those, in a device containing iridium complex 1 dopant, the maximum luminance was 14200 cd/m² at 14.0 V. Also, its luminous, power, and quantum efficiency were 10.40 cd/A, 3.44 lm/W and 9.21% at 20 mA/cm², respectively. The peak wavelength of the electroluminescence was 607 nm, with CIE coordinates of (0.615, 0.383) at 12.0 V, and the device also showed a stable color chromaticity with various voltages.