A Simple, Low Cost Ink System for Drop-on-Demand Printing High Performance Metal Oxide Dielectric Film at Low Temperature

Abstract

We have successfully developed an ink system containing inexpensive raw materials through a simple process and have printed ZrO _x dielectric film at a relatively low annealing temperature of 250 °C. The ZrO _x dielectric film afforded a leakage current density of 5.4 × 10^-6 A/cm² at 1 MV/cm and a dielectric constant of 10 and shows a promising future for flexible electronics. The ink system shows a temperature-induced gelation behavior, and a gel network is formed when the temperature rises. A high concentration of oxide precursors is obtained near the network area through the absorption function of polymer groups, and thus oxide structure can be formed at a relatively low temperature due to the shorter diffusion path of precursor polymerization. The microstructure of the printed ZrO _x film was investigated by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the effect of annealing temperature on film structure was studied.