Large-Scale, Reliable Fabrication of Indium Oxide Nanowire Transistors on Paper Using a Combination of High Throughput Solution Processing Techniques.

Abstract

The growing demand for electronic gadgets generates a large volume of electronic waste, resulting in significant environmental risks and health hazards. Therefore, it is essential to promote the use of recyclable materials for a sustainable future. Typically, the substrate of an electronic component comprises most of its material weight. Therefore, the use of biocompatible cellulose/paper as the substrate can be a game-changer for high-volume wearable and consumer electronics. However, papers limit the process temperature of thin film transistors (TFTs) to ≤100 °C; consequently, the only possible solution-based approach would be the use of high-quality, pre-synthesized semiconductor materials, such as oxide nanowires. However, the nanowires are difficult to process/ align using high throughput and scalable techniques. In this regard, it is shown that a combination of solution-processing methods can enable the fabrication of high-performance, large-scale indium oxide nanowire TFTs on paper, where the nanowires are dielectrophoretically-aligned, and electrolytic insulator and gate electrodes are inkjet-printed. The solution-processed TFTs demonstrate excellent device performance, an On/Off ratio >10⁷, an average linear mobility as high as 42 cm² V^-1 s^-1, low device-to-device variability, extreme tensile strain tolerance of 10%, and excellent environmental stability. Furthermore, the depletion-load type pseudo-CMOS inverters demonstrate a low dynamic power consumption of 35 nW.