Atomic-Layer-Deposited SnO2 as Gate Electrode for Indium-Free Transparent Electronics

Alshammari, Fwzah Hamud; Hota, Mrinal Kanti; Wang, Zhenwei; Aljawhari, Hala; Alshareef, Husam N.

Atomic-Layer-Deposited SnO2 as Gate Electrode for Indium-Free Transparent Electronics

Type

Article

Authors

Alshammari, Fwzah Hamud
Hota, Mrinal Kanti

Wang, Zhenwei

Aljawhari, Hala
Alshareef, Husam N.

KAUST Department

Functional Nanomaterials and Devices Research Group
Material Science and Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Visual Computing Center (VCC)

Online Publication Date

2017-08-04

Print Publication Date

2017-09

Date

2017-08-04

Abstract

Atomic-layer-deposited SnO2 is used as a gate electrode to replace indium tin oxide (ITO) in thin-film transistors and circuits for the first time. The SnO2 films deposited at 200 °C show low electrical resistivity of ≈3.1 × 10−3 Ω cm with ≈93% transparency in most of the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Thin-film transistors fabricated with SnO2 gates show excellent transistor properties including saturation mobility of 15.3 cm2 V−1 s−1, a low subthreshold swing of ≈130 mV dec−1, a high on/off ratio of ≈109, and an excellent electrical stability under constant-voltage stressing conditions to the gate terminal. Moreover, the SnO2-gated thin-film transistors show excellent electrical characteristics when used in electronic circuits such as negative channel metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) inverters and ring oscillators. The NMOS inverters exhibit a low propagation stage delay of ≈150 ns with high DC voltage gain of ≈382. A high oscillation frequency of ≈303 kHz is obtained from the output sinusoidal signal of the 11-stage NMOS inverter-based ring oscillators. These results show that SnO2 can effectively replace ITO in transparent electronics and sensor applications.

Citation

Alshammari FH, Hota MK, Wang Z, Al-jawhari Hala, Alshareef HN (2017) Atomic-Layer-Deposited SnO2 as Gate Electrode for Indium-Free Transparent Electronics. Advanced Electronic Materials 3: 1700155. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aelm.201700155.

Acknowledgements

Research reported in this publication was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The authors wish to thank core laboratory staff, especially M. N. Hedhili for their support. Figure 4 was produced by Heno Hwang, scientific illustrator at KAUST.