Inverter circuits on glass substrates based on ZnO-nanoparticle thin-film transistors

The integration technique and the properties of inverter circuits on glass substrates using ZnO nanoparticles as semiconductor material are presented. The inverter device consists of a switching and a load metal–insulator–semiconductor field-effect transistor with poly(4-vinylphenol) as the gate dielectric. Although the semiconductor is deposited by spin-coating of a colloidal ZnO dispersion and the process temperature is limited to 200 °C, the inverters show reasonable maximum peak gains at low power consumption. The maximum peak gain was 6 V/V, whereas the maximum static power dissipation density was less than 26 nW/μm2. Additionally, the influence of the geometry ratio as well as of the supply voltage on the device performance has been investigated. With regard to the optical characteristics, the proposed technique leads to circuits with an optical transmittance of up to 80%.

► ZnO nanoparticles are used as semiconducting material in low-cost TFT.
► Integration technique with low thermal budget.
► Transparent inverter circuits due to glass substrates.
► Inverter performance is partially superior to competing devices.