Staggered and Inverted Staggered Type Organic-Inorganic Hybrid TFTs with ZnO Channel Layer Deposited by Atomic Layer Deposition

Two different organic-inorganic hybrid thin film transistors (OITFTs) with the structures of glass/ITO/ZnO/PMMA/Al (staggered structure) and glass/ITO/PMMA/ZnO/Al (inverted staggered structure), were fabricated and their electrical and structural properties were compared. The ZnO thin films used as active channel layers were deposited by the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method at a temperature of 100℃. To investigate the effect of the substrates on their properties, the ZnO films were deposited on bare glass, PMMA/glass and ITO/glass substrates and their crystal properties and surface morphologies were analyzed. The structural properties of the ZnO films varied with the substrate conditions. The ZnO film deposited on the ITO/glass substrate showed better crystallinity and morphologies, such as a higher preferred c-axis orientation, lower FWHM value and larger particle size compared with the one deposited on the PMMA/glass substrate. The field effect mobility (µ), threshold voltage (VT) and Ion/off switching ratio for the OITFT with the staggered structure were about 0.61 cm²/V·s, 5.5 V and 102, whereas those of the OITFT with the inverted staggered structure were found to be 0.31 cm²/V·s, 6.8 V and 10, respectively. The improved electrical properties for the staggered OITFTs may originate from the improved crystal properties and larger particle size of the ZnO active layer.