Low-voltage Hf-ZnO thin film transistors with Ag nanowires gate electrode and their application in logic circuit

Abstract

The high performance Hf doped ZnO (Hf-ZnO) flexible thin film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated using Ag NWs as gate electrode and high-k HfO2 as dielectric. The field effect mobility of Hf-ZnO is 14.7 cm2/Vs, Ion/Ioff ratio is more than 106, and the subthreshold swing is about 0.26 V/dec. Furthermore, after 5000 bending cycles test, the TFTs with Ag NWs still maintain a superior performance, such as the high mobility of 12.6 cm2/Vs and the small subthreshold swing of 0.33 V/dec. The operating voltage of Hf-ZnO is only 5 V, showing the great potential of application in low-powered devices. We also fabricated the resistor-loaded inverter based on the flexible TFTs. The shift of input voltage is negligible with different supplied voltages, indicating the highly-stable property of the inverter. As a result, the low consumption optoelectronics provide great inspiration for researchers to construct the next generation high performance wearable and flexible devices.