Abstract
Cost-effective fabrication of mechanically flexible low-power electronics is important for emerging applications including wearable electronics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. Here, solution-processed source-gated transistors (SGTs) with an unprecedented intrinsic gain of ~2,000, low saturation voltage of +0.8 ± 0.1 V, and a ~25.6 μW power consumption are realized using an indium oxide In2O3/ In2O3:polyethylenimine (PEI) blend homojunction with Au contacts on Si/SiO2. Kelvin probe force microscopy confirms source-controlled operation of the SGT and reveals that PEI doping leads to more effective depletion of the reverse-biased Schottky contact source region. Furthermore, using a fluoride-doped AlOx gate dielectric, rigid (on a Si substrate) and flexible (on a polyimide substrate) SGTs were fabricated. These devices exhibit a low driving voltage of +2 V and power consumption of ~11.5 μW, yielding inverters with an outstanding voltage gain of >5,000. Furthermore, electrooculographic (EOG) signal monitoring can now be demonstrated using an SGT inverter, where a ~1.0 mV EOG signal is amplified to over 300 mV, indicating significant potential for applications in wearable medical sensing and human–computer interfacing.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | e2216672120 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
Volume | 120 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 17 2023 |
Funding
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. This work was supported by the NSF MRSEC program (grant DMR-1720139) and by AFOSR (grants FA9550-18-1-0320 and FA9550-22-1-0423). This work made use of the Northwestern University Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility (NUFAB),and EPIC facility of Northwestern University’s NUANCE Center, which has received support from the Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205); the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1720139) at the Materials Research Center; the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN); the Keck Foundation; and the State of Illinois, through the IIN. X.Z. thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Nos. U21A20492 & 62104133); Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2021QA011); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M701976); Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents of Shandong Province (SDBX2021002). We also gratefully acknowledge Q. Zhang’s kind help in drawing the eye diagram.
Keywords
- EOG monitoring
- Kelvin probe force microscopy
- metal oxide–polymer blend material
- solution processing
- source-gated transistor (SGT)
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General