Direct Electrohydrodynamic Patterning of High-Performance All Metal Oxide Thin-Film Electronics

In this paper, we propose a scalable approach toward all-printed high-performance metal oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs), using a high-resolution electrohydrodynamic (EHD) printing process. Direct EHD micropatterning of metal oxide TFTs is based on diverse precursor solutions to form semiconducting materials (In2O3, In-Ga-ZnO (IGZO)), conductive metal oxide (Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO)), as well as aluminum oxide (Al2O3) gate dielectric at low temperatures. The fully printed TFT devices exhibit excellent electron transport characteristics (average electron mobilities of up to 117 cm2 V–1 s–1), negligible hysteresis, excellent uniformity, and stable operation at low-operating voltage. Furthermore, integrated logic gates such as NOT and NAND have been printed and demonstrated. All-printed logic with individual gating and symmetric input/output behavior, which is crucial for large-scale integration, is also demonstrated. The devices and fabrication process described in this paper enable high-performance and high-reliability transparent electronics.