Preparation of High-Performance Transparent AlO Dielectric Films via Self-Exothermic Reaction Based on Solution Method and Applications.

As the competition intensifies in enhancing the integration and performance of integrated circuits, in accordance with the famous Moore's Law, higher performance and smaller size requirements are imposed on the dielectric layers in electronic devices. Compared to vacuum methods, the production cost of preparing dielectric layers via solution methods is lower, and the preparation cycle is shorter. This paper utilizes a low-temperature self-exothermic reaction based on the solution method to prepare high-performance AlO dielectric thin films that are compatible with flexible substrates.

Effects of Laser Treatment of Terbium-Doped Indium Oxide Thin Films and Transistors.

In this study, a KrF excimer laser with a high-absorption coefficient in metal oxide films and a wavelength of 248 nm was selected for the post-processing of a film and metal oxide thin film transistor (MOTFT). Due to the poor negative bias illumination stress (NBIS) stability of indium gallium zinc oxide thin film transistor (IGZO-TFT) devices, terbium-doped Tb:InO material was selected as the target of this study. The XPS test revealed the presence of both Tb and Tb ions in the Tb:InO film.

High-Performance and Stability Electrochromic Devices with a Water Isotopologue.

In this report, an ammonium metatungstate (AMT) and ferrous chloride [Fe(II)Cl] electrochromic liquid (ECL) was synthesized using a hydrothermal method, with DO used as the solvent instead of HO. The results show that the use of DO can improve the stability and performance of ECLs. The hydrogen evolution process in electrochromic devices (ECDs) filled with ECL becomes more difficult, while the material exchange process becomes easier.

Flexible High-Entropy Poly(vinyl alcohol) Dielectric Films Were Prepared at a Low Temperature and Applied to an Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide Thin-Film Transistor.

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to flexible thin-film transistors (TFTs). Therefore, we combined HfMgTiYZrO high-entropy metal oxide and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) organic material to prepare a flexible dielectric layer. We fabricated metal-insulator-metal (MIM) and TFT devices and carried out flexible tests.

Study on the Film-Forming Mechanism of Polymer-Metal Oxide Composite Ink Systems Containing Different Polymer Molecules.

A printable, flexible display panel is an important trend in the field of information display, which requires better mechanical and electrical properties of device materials. Polymer-metal oxide composite materials are promising in the functional layer of a thin-film transistor (TFT) and can be sufficiently fabricated by polymer-metal salt solution systems through the sol-gel process. For the development of polymer-metal oxide composite ink, it is necessary to study the film-forming mechanism of the composite film during solidification, which is an important reference in ink component design.

Research and Progress of Inorganic Infrared Electrochromic Materials and Devices.

Background: Electrochromic materials can dynamically change their optical properties (such as transmittance, absorbance, and reflectance under the action of an applied voltage, and their research and application in the visible band have been widely concerned. In recent years, with the continuous development of electrochromic technology, the related research has been gradually extended to the infrared region.

Objective: This invited review aims to provide an overview of the current status of several inorganic infrared electrochromic materials, to provide some references for future research, and to promote the research and application of electrochromic technology in the infrared region.

From Traditional to Novel Printed Electrochromic Devices: Material, Structure and Device.

Electrochromic materials have been considered as a new way to achieve energy savings in the building sector due to their potential applications in smart windows, cars, aircrafts, etc. However, the high cost of manufacturing ECDs using the conventional manufacturing methods has limited its commercialization. It is the advantages of low cost as well as resource saving, green environment protection, flexibility and large area production that make printing electronic technology fit for manufacturing electrochromic devices.

Investigation of an Electrochromic Device Based on Ammonium Metatungstate-Iron (II) Chloride Electrochromic Liquid.

Even though electrochromism has been around for more than 50 years, it still has several issues. Multi-layered films, high manufacturing costs, and a short lifetime are present in existing electrochromic devices. We demonstrate a unique high-performance device with a basic structure and no solid electrochromic sheets in this work.

Morphological Regulation of Printed Low-Temperature Conductive Ink.

The unbalanced evaporation of solvents in low-temperature sintered inks for printed electronics leads to a series of problems in the actual printing process, including printed pattern distortion, surface cracking, and the coffee ring effect, which has become a serious obstacle to this technique. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of the influence of the solvent composition, environmental, and sintering conditions on the complicated pattern formation process of reactive silver inks. The results first showed that only inks with a certain wettability of solvents could form well-defined patterns.

Solution-Processed Silicon Doped Tin Oxide Thin Films and Thin-Film Transistors Based on Tetraethyl Orthosilicate.

Recently, tin oxide (SnO) has been the preferred thin film material for semiconductor devices such as thin-film transistors (TFTs) due to its low cost, non-toxicity, and superior electrical performance. However, the high oxygen vacancy (V) concentration leads to poor performance of SnO thin films and devices. In this paper, with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as the Si source, which can decompose to release heat and supply energy when annealing, Si doped SnO (STO) films and inverted staggered STO TFTs were successfully fabricated by a solution method.

Transparent Flexible IGZO Thin Film Transistors Fabricated at Room Temperature.

Flexible and fully transparent thin film transistors (TFT) were fabricated via room temperature processes. The fabricated TFT on the PEN exhibited excellent performance, including a saturation mobility (μ) of 7.9 cm/V·s, an I/I ratio of 4.

Application of Laser Treatment in MOS-TFT Active Layer Prepared by Solution Method.

The active layer of metal oxide semiconductor thin film transistor (MOS-TFT) prepared by solution method, with the advantages of being a low cost and simple preparation process, usually needs heat treatment to improve its performance. Laser treatment has the advantages of high energy, fast speed, less damage to the substrate and controllable treatment area, which is more suitable for flexible and large-scale roll-to-roll preparation than thermal treatment. This paper mainly introduces the basic principle of active layer thin films prepared by laser treatment solution, including laser photochemical cracking of metastable bonds, laser thermal effect, photoactivation effect and laser sintering of nanoparticles.

High-Stability Silver Nanowire-AlO Composite Flexible Transparent Electrodes Prepared by Electrodeposition.

Silver nanowire (AgNW) conductive film fabricated by solution processing was investigated as an alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO) in flexible transparent electrodes. In this paper, we studied a facile and effective method by electrodepositing AlO on the surface of AgNWs. As a result, flexible transparent electrodes with improved stability could be obtained by electrodepositing AlO.

Effect of Sputtering Oxygen Partial Pressure on the Praseodymium-Doped InZnO Thin Film Transistor Using Microwave Photoconductivity Decay Method.

The praseodymium-doped indium-zinc-oxide (PrIZO) thin film transistor (TFT) shows broad application prospects in the new generation of display technologies due to its high performance and high stability. However, traditional device performance evaluation methods need to be carried out after the end of the entire preparation process, which leads to the high-performance device preparation process that takes a lot of time and costs. Therefore, there is a lack of effective methods to optimize the device preparation process.

Application of Amorphous Zirconium-Yttrium-Aluminum-Magnesium-Oxide Thin Film with a High Relative Dielectric Constant Prepared by Spin-Coating.

Amorphous metal oxide has been a popular choice for thin film material in recent years due to its high uniformity. The dielectric layer is one of the core materials of the thin film transistor (TFT), and it affects the ability of charges storage in TFT. There is a conflict between a high relative dielectric constant and a wide band gap, so we solved this problem by using multiple metals to increase the entropy of the system.

Binary Solvent Systems for Piezoelectric Printing Crack-Free PAM/ZrO Hybrid Thin Films through Nanostructure Modulation.

Polymer/oxide hybrid thin films, which have excellent electrical and mechanical performance, can be effectively fabricated through the sol-gel process, showing great potential in the future printed electronics. However, gelation of polymer/oxide ink systems can easily occur during a thermal process in which case capillary stress can lead to the crack of printed films due to the long period of stress accumulation. To solve this problem, the effect of different solvent systems on formed PAM/ZrO hybrid films, which were printed by piezoelectric printing, was studied in this paper, including single solvent systems of glycol and binary solvent systems of glycol and water.

Amorphous NdIZO Thin Film Transistors with Contact-Resistance-Adjustable Cu S/D Electrodes.

High-performance amorphous oxide semiconductor thin film transistors (AOS-TFT) with copper (Cu) electrodes are of great significance for next-generation large-size, high-refresh rate and high-resolution panel display technology. In this work, using rare earth dopant, neodymium-doped indium-zinc-oxide (NdIZO) film was optimized as the active layer of TFT with Cu source and drain (S/D) electrodes. Under the guidance of the Taguchi orthogonal design method from Minitab software, the semiconductor characteristics were evaluated by microwave photoconductivity decay (μ-PCD) measurement.

Alloy-Electrode-Assisted High-Performance Enhancement-Type Neodymium-Doped Indium-Zinc-Oxide Thin-Film Transistors on Polyimide Flexible Substrate.

Flexible thin-film transistors with high current-driven capability are of great significance for the next-generation new display technology. The effect of a Cu-Cr-Zr (CCZ) copper alloy source/drain (S/D) electrode on flexible amorphous neodymium-doped indium-zinc-oxide thin-film transistors (NdIZO-TFTs) was investigated. Compared with pure copper (Cu) and aluminum (Al) S/D electrodes, the CCZ S/D electrode changes the TFT working mode from depletion mode to enhancement mode, which is ascribed to the alloy-assisted interface layer besides work function matching.

Study of the Correlation between the Amorphous Indium-Gallium-Zinc Oxide Film Quality and the Thin-Film Transistor Performance.

In this work, we performed a systematic study of the physical properties of amorphous Indium-Gallium-Zinc Oxide (a-IGZO) films prepared under various deposition pressures, O2/(Ar+O2) flow ratios, and annealing temperatures. X-ray reflectivity (XRR) and microwave photoconductivity decay (μ-PCD) measurements were conducted to evaluate the quality of a-IGZO films. The results showed that the process conditions have a substantial impact on the film densities and defect states, which in turn affect the performance of the final thin-film transistors (TFT) device.

Bias Stress Stability of Solution-Processed Nano Indium Oxide Thin Film Transistor.

In this paper, the effects of annealing temperature and other process parameters on spin-coated indium oxide thin film transistors (InO-TFTs) were studied. The research shows that plasma pretreatment of glass substrate can improve the hydrophilicity of glass substrate and stability of the spin-coating process. With Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, it is found that InO thin films prepared by the spin coating method are amorphous, and have little organic residue when the annealing temperature ranges from 200 to 300 °C.