Ultraviolet light-densified oxide-organic self-assembled dielectrics: Processing thin-film transistors at room temperature

Wei Huang, Xinge Yu*, Li Zeng, Binghao Wang, Atsuro Takai, Gabriele Di Carlo, Michael J. Bedzyk, Tobin J. Marks*, Antonio F Facchetti*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Low-temperature, solution-processable, high-capacitance, and low-leakage gate dielectrics are of great interest for unconventional electronics. Here, we report a near room temperature ultraviolet densification (UVD) methodology for realizing high-performance organic-inorganic zirconia self-assembled nanodielectrics (UVD-ZrSANDs). These UVD-ZrSAND multilayers are grown from solution in ambient, densified by UV radiation, and characterized by X-ray reflectivity, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and capacitance measurements. The resulting UVD-ZrSAND films exhibit large capacitances of >700 nF/cm2 and low leakage current densities of <10-7 A/cm2, which rival or exceed those synthesized by traditional thermal methods. Both the p-type organic semiconductor pentacene and the n-type metal oxide semiconductor In2O3 were used to investigate UVD-ZrSANDs as the gate dielectric in thin-film transistors, affording mobilities of 0.58 and 26.21 cm2/(V s), respectively, at a low gate voltage of 2 V. These results represent a significant advance in fabricating ultra-thin high-performance dielectrics near room temperature and should facilitate their integration into diverse electronic technologies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3445-3453
Number of pages9
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume13
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 20 2021

Funding

We thank Flexterra Corp., AFOSR (grant FA9550-18-1-0320) the Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (grant NSF DMR-1720139), the City University of Hong Kong (grant 9610423, 9667199), and Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (grant 21210820) for support of this research. This work made use of the NIFTI, NUFAB, and KECK II facilities of Northwestern University's NUANCE Center, which has received support from the SHyNE Resource (NSF ECCS-2025633), the IIN, and Northwestern's MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1720139).

Keywords

  • high- k dielectrics
  • low-voltage TFTs
  • room temperature oxide film growth
  • self-assembled nanodielectrics
  • ultraviolet annealing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science

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