Solution processed inverter based on zinc oxide nanoparticle thin-film transistors with poly(4-vinylphenol) gate dielectric

An enhancement-load inverter using bottom-gated ZnO nanoparticle thin-film transistors and a polymer gate dielectric is demonstrated. The deposition of the ZnO active layer is done by spin coating of a colloidal dispersion and is hence cost-effective. Since the maximum process temperature is 200 °C, the presented device is furthermore suitable for plastic substrates. Although hysteresis is observed, the inverter shows reasonable transfer characteristics with a gain of up to 5.5 V/V at a supply voltage between 10 V and 15 V, whereas the static power dissipation is lower than 6 μW.

Research highlights
► ZnO nanoparticles are used as semiconducting material in low-cost TFT.
► The integration technique is simple and compatible to plastic substrates.
► Inverters based on nanoparticle-TFTs are functional blocks for low-cost circuits.
► The inverter performance is partially superior to competing devices.