Dong Yinmao

The impact of solvent and modifier on ZnO thin-film transistors fabricated by sol-gel process

Techniques for fabricating solution-processed zinc oxide (ZnO)-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) are feasible with solution using various routes. Here, ZnO TFTs were fabricated via sol-gel method using zinc acetate as the starting reagent with different modifiers and solvents. The ZnO thin-film semiconductors with well-controlled, preferential crystal orientation and densely packed ZnO crystals can be prepared with the optimized fabrication conditions, exhibiting excellent field-effect far exceeding those of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). However, the field-effect characteristics of ZnO TFTs were different for different precursor systems which were constituted by zinc acetate, modifiers and solvents. The co-modification of acetoin and monoethanolamine for the precursor system exhibited higher extent of crystal orientation and field-effect. The maximum mobility of 7.65 cm2V−1s−1 and current on-to-off ratio of ∼105–106 have been obtained.