Characteristics of ZnO Thin Film Transistors Fabricated Using a Microwave Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

We synthesized a gel-like phase of zinc oxide (ZnO) by employing a microwave-assisted technique and then used this gel-like phase to fabricate ZnO thin film transistors (TFTs). By utilizing this method, we were able to prepare the ZnO gel-like phase in a relatively short time and obtained polycrystalline ZnO thin films This microwave-assisted technique also allows the use of low-temperature thermal processes in the fabrication of ZnO-TFTs. The bottom-gate TFTs with a ZnO layer as the active channel exhibited a field effect mobility of 0.6 cm(2)/V.s, a sub-threshold slope of 9 V/decade, and an on/off current ratio greater than 10(4). These results point to the possibility of using microwave-assisted techniques for transparent and flexible electronic devices based on ZnO.