Recent progress on jet printing of oxide-based thin film transistors

Abstract

Abstract Among the printing technologies for printed electronics, jet printing-based methods provide promising solutions to the fabrication of oxide-based thin film transistors (TFTs) for flexible and non-flexible electronics. Their direct patterning capability, non-vacuum and solution-based material formation process have attracted a significant amount of interests from both the academic and industry sectors. This topical review summarizes recent progress on the development of jet printed metal oxide TFTs with special attention given to the surface related effects, ink preparation and post-printing treatments, which are the critical aspects of obtaining high performance printed TFTs. Firstly, a brief introduction is made on the state of art jet printing technologies: the piezoelectric/thermal inkjet printing, the newly emerged electro-hydrodynamic jet printing and aerosol jet printing. Then, surface related issues of wettability and coffee-ring effect are discussed. Finally, jet printing of oxide-based TFTs is reviewed according to the classification of printed material types: metal oxide semiconductors, gate dielectrics and conductive electrodes. The extensive review of low temperature annealing methods make this work particularly interesting to the printing of oxide-based TFTs on flexible substrates.