Direct Inkjet Printing of Silver Source/Drain Electrodes on an Amorphous InGaZnO Layer for Thin-Film Transistors

Honglong Ning; Jianqiu Chen; Zhiqiang Fang; Ruiqiang Tao; Wei Cai; Rihui Yao; Shiben Hu; Zhennan Zhu; Yicong Zhou; Caigui Yang; Junbiao Peng

doi:10.3390/ma10010051

Direct Inkjet Printing of Silver Source/Drain Electrodes on an Amorphous InGaZnO Layer for Thin-Film Transistors

Materials (Basel). 2017 Jan 10;10(1):51. doi: 10.3390/ma10010051.

Authors

Honglong Ning¹, Jianqiu Chen², Zhiqiang Fang³, Ruiqiang Tao⁴, Wei Cai⁵, Rihui Yao⁶, Shiben Hu⁷, Zhennan Zhu⁸, Yicong Zhou⁹, Caigui Yang¹⁰, Junbiao Peng¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. ninghl@scut.edu.cn.
² Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. c.jianqiu@mail.scut.edu.cn.
³ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. fangzq1230@126.com.
⁴ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. 201510102158@mail.scut.edu.cn.
⁵ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. c.w01@mail.scut.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. yaorihui@scut.edu.cn.
⁷ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. hushiben@foxmail.com.
⁸ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. zhu.zhennan@mail.scut.edu.cn.
⁹ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. zhou.yicong@mail.scut.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. 201520114097@mail.scut.edu.cn.
¹¹ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. psjbpeng@scut.edu.cn.

Abstract

Printing technologies for thin-film transistors (TFTs) have recently attracted much interest owing to their eco-friendliness, direct patterning, low cost, and roll-to-roll manufacturing processes. Lower production costs could result if electrodes fabricated by vacuum processes could be replaced by inkjet printing. However, poor interfacial contacts and/or serious diffusion between the active layer and the silver electrodes are still problematic for achieving amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) TFTs with good electrical performance. In this paper, silver (Ag) source/drain electrodes were directly inkjet-printed on an amorphous a-IGZO layer to fabricate TFTs that exhibited a mobility of 0.29 cm²·V^-1·s^-1 and an on/off current ratio of over 10⁵. To the best of our knowledge, this is a major improvement for bottom-gate top-contact a-IGZO TFTs with directly printed silver electrodes on a substrate with no pretreatment. This study presents a promising alternative method of fabricating electrodes of a-IGZO TFTs with desirable device performance.

Keywords: a-IGZO; inkjet printing; silver ink; thin film transistors.