Radio-Frequency Operation of Transparent Nanowire Thin-Film Transistors

In this letter, radio-frequency characterization of fully transparent thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on chemically synthesized nanowires (NWs) has been carried out. The NW TFTs show current-gain cutoff frequency $f_{T}$ of 109 MHz and power-gain cutoff frequency $f_{max}$ of 286 MHz. The TFTs were fabricated on glass substrates using aligned $hbox{SnO}_{2}$ NWs as the transistor channel and sputtered indium–tin–oxide films as the source–drain and gate electrodes. Besides exhibiting $≫$ 100-MHz operation frequencies, the transparent NW TFTs show a narrow distribution of performance metrics among different devices. These results suggest the NW-TFT approach may be promising for high-speed transparent and flexible integrated circuits fabricated on diverse substrates.