All-Aluminum Thin Film Transistor Fabrication at Room Temperature

Rihui Yao; Zeke Zheng; Yong Zeng; Xianzhe Liu; Honglong Ning; Shiben Hu; Ruiqiang Tao; Jianqiu Chen; Wei Cai; Miao Xu; Lei Wang; Linfeng Lan; Junbiao Peng

doi:10.3390/ma10030222

All-Aluminum Thin Film Transistor Fabrication at Room Temperature

Materials (Basel). 2017 Feb 23;10(3):222. doi: 10.3390/ma10030222.

Authors

Rihui Yao¹, Zeke Zheng², Yong Zeng³, Xianzhe Liu⁴, Honglong Ning^{5

6}, Shiben Hu⁷, Ruiqiang Tao⁸, Jianqiu Chen⁹, Wei Cai¹⁰, Miao Xu¹¹, Lei Wang¹², Linfeng Lan¹³, Junbiao Peng¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. yaorihui@scut.edu.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. 201520114219@mail.scut.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. 15360452751@163.com.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. lxz900618@icloud.com.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. ninghl@scut.edu.cn.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China. ninghl@scut.edu.cn.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. hushiben@foxmail.com.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. 201510102158@mail.scut.edu.cn.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. c.jianqiu@mail.scut.edu.cn.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. c.w01@mail.scut.edu.cn.
¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. xumiao4049@126.com.
¹² State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. mslwang@scut.edu.cn.
¹³ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. lanlinfeng@scut.edu.cn.
¹⁴ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materialsand Devices, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. psjbpeng@scut.edu.cn.

Abstract

Bottom-gate all-aluminum thin film transistors with multi conductor/insulator nanometer heterojunction were investigated in this article. Alumina (Al₂O₃) insulating layer was deposited on the surface of aluminum doping zinc oxide (AZO) conductive layer, as one AZO/Al₂O₃ heterojunction unit. The measurements of transmittance electronic microscopy (TEM) and X-ray reflectivity (XRR) revealed the smooth interfaces between ~2.2-nm-thick Al₂O₃ layers and ~2.7-nm-thick AZO layers. The devices were entirely composited by aluminiferous materials, that is, their gate and source/drain electrodes were respectively fabricated by aluminum neodymium alloy (Al:Nd) and pure Al, with Al₂O₃/AZO multilayered channel and AlO_x:Nd gate dielectric layer. As a result, the all-aluminum TFT with two Al₂O₃/AZO heterojunction units exhibited a mobility of 2.47 cm²/V·s and an I_on/I_off ratio of 10⁶. All processes were carried out at room temperature, which created new possibilities for green displays industry by allowing for the devices fabricated on plastic-like substrates or papers, mainly using no toxic/rare materials.

Keywords: all-aluminum; conductor/insulator heterojunction; room temperature; thin film transistor.