Review of flexible and transparent thin-film transistors based on zinc oxide and related materials

TL;DR

This review summarizes recent advances in flexible, transparent thin-film transistors based on zinc oxide and related materials, highlighting their fabrication, mechanical durability, and future challenges.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent progress in ZnO-based TFTs, including component preparation and mechanical performance analysis.

Findings

High electrical performance of ZnO TFTs

Good optical transparency of materials

Mechanical bending impacts electrical performance

Abstract

Flexible and transparent electronics presents a new era of electronic technologies. Ubiquitous applications involve wearable electronics, biosensors, flexible transparent displays, radio-frequency identifications (RFIDs), etc.Zinc oxide (ZnO) and related materials are the most commonly used inorganic semiconductors in flexible and transparent devices, owing to their high electrical performance, together with low processing temperature and good optical transparency.In this paper, we review recent advances in flexible and transparent thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on ZnO and related materials.After a brief introduction, the main progresses on the preparation of each component (substrate, electrodes, channel and dielectrics) are summarized and discussed. Then, the effect of mechanical bending on electrical performance was highlighted. Finally, we suggest the challenges and opportunities in future investigations.