High Performance all Transparent Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Thin-Film Transistors (26105)

Transparent and flexible inorganic – organic hybrid n-type thin film transistors (TFTs) with operating properties suitable for “invisible” electronics have been developed at Northwestern.

ADVANTAGE: Transparent and flexible TFTs with field effect mobility, drain-source current on/off modulation and threshold voltage characteristics operating at low power conditions. Hybrid TFTs are produced in a scalable process utilizing conventional semiconductor operations

SUMMARY: The growing interest in switching devices for portable “invisible” electronics requires thin film transistors (TFTs) having high electrical performance, mechanical flexibility, transparency, light weight and low cost manufacture. Current inorganic and organic materials do not meet all these objectives. A new approach utilizing hybrid inorganic-organic TFTs provides a platform to achieve “invisible” electronics. Utilization of highly transparent In2O3 n-type semiconductor, transparent and flexible self assembled superlattice nanodielectric (SAS) or crosslinked polymer blend (CPB) dielectric on inexpensive transparent plastic substrates (PET) produced all transparent TFTs.

Hybrid TFT construct Glass/ITO gate/16 nm SAS dielectric/ In2O3 semiconductor / In2O3 drain/source electrodes (Figure 1) exhibited 120 cm2/(V-s) mobility, 105 Ion / Ioff drain-source current modulation ratio and 0.19 V threshold potential (Figure 2). A 70 device TFT array of this hybrid displayed .80% transparency in the visible region.


A hybrid TFT fabricated as PET/ITO gate/160 nm CPB dielectric/ In2O3 semiconductor/ In2O3 source-drain electrodes afforded 10 cm2/(V-s) mobility, 102 Ion / Ioff drain-source ratio and 0.23 V threshold potential (Figure 3). A 30 device TFT array prepared with the hybrid displayed also exhibited ~80% transparency in the visible region and excellent flexibility (Figure 4). TFTs were fabricated at room temperature employing scaleable semiconductor operations. The hybrid TFT platform employing glass or plastic substrates provides access to all transparent devices with performance suitable to many potential “invisible” electronic applications.

STATUS: A patent application has been filed. (see also NU 25093)

Type of Offer: Licensing



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