Wafer-Scale Microwire Transistor Array Fabricated via Evaporative Assembly

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2016 Jun 22;8(24):15543-50. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b04340. Epub 2016 Jun 7.

Abstract

One-dimensional (1D) nano/microwires have attracted significant attention as promising building blocks for various electronic and optical device applications. The integration of these elements into functional device networks with controlled alignment and density presents a significant challenge for practical device applications. Here, we demonstrated the fabrication of wafer-scale microwire field-effect transistor (FET) arrays based on well-aligned inorganic semiconductor microwires (indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO)) and organic polymeric insulator microwires fabricated via a simple and large-area evaporative assembly technique. This microwire fabrication method offers a facile approach to precisely manipulating the channel dimensions of the FETs. The resulting solution-processed monolithic IGZO microwire FETs exhibited a maximum electron mobility of 1.02 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) and an on/off current ratio of 1 × 10(6). The appropriate choice of the polymeric microwires used to define the channel lengths enabled fine control over the threshold voltages of the devices, which were employed to fabricate high-performance depletion-load inverters. Low-voltage-operated microwire FETs were successfully fabricated on a plastic substrate using a high-capacitance ion gel gate dielectric. The microwire fabrication technique involving evaporative assembly provided a facile, effective, and reliable method for preparing flexible large-area electronics.

Keywords: blade−coating; metal oxide semiconductor; microwire transistor; plasma−induced metallization.