Metal-oxide based transparent conductive oxides and thin film transistors for flexible electronics

The object of this study is to investigate and improve the performance/stability of the flexible thin film transistors (TFTs) and to study the properties of metal oxide transparent conductive oxides for wide range of flexible electronic applications.;Initially, a study has been done to improve the conductivity of ITO (indium tin oxide) films on PEN (p olyethylene naphthalate) by inserting a thin layer of silver layer between two ITO layers. The multilayer with an optimum Ag mid-layer thickness, of 8 nm, exhibited excellent photopic average transmittance (∼ 88 %), resistivity (∼ 2.7 x 10-5 micro-cm.) and has the best Hackee figure of merit (41.0 x 10-3 O -1). The electrical conduction is dominated by two different scattering mechanisms depending on the thickness of the Ag mid-layer. Optical transmission is explained by scattering losses and absorption of light due to inter-band electronic transitions.;A systematic study was carried out to improve the performance/stability of the TFTs on PEN. The performance and stability of a-Si:H and a-IZO (amorphous indium zinc oxide) TFTs were improved by performing a systematic low temperature (150 °C) anneals for extended times. For 96 hours annealed a-Si:H TFTs, the sub-threshold slope and off-current were reduced by a factor ∼ 3 and by 2 orders of magnitude, respectively when compared to unannealed a-Si:H TFTs. For a-IZO TFTs, 48 hours of annealing is found to be the optimum time for the best performance and elevated temperature stability. These devices exhibit saturation mobility varying between 4.5--5.5 cm2/V-s, ION/IOFF ratio was 10 6 and a sub-threshold swing variation of 1--1.25 V/decade. An in-depth study on the mechanical and electromechanical stress response on the electrical properties of the a-IZO TFTs has also been investigated. Finally, the a-Si:H TFTs were exposed to gamma radiation to examine their radiation resistance. The interface trap density (Nit) values range from 5 to 6 x 1011 cm-2 for only electrical stress bias case. For "irradiation only" case, the Nit value increases from 5x10 11 cm-2 to 2x1012 cm -2 after 3 hours of gamma radiation exposure, whereas it increases from 5x1011 cm-2 to 4x10 12 cm-2 for "combined gamma and electrical stress".