Self-aligned amorphous-silicon TFTs on clear plastic substrates

I. Chun Cheng, Alex Z. Kattamis, Ke Long, James C. Sturm, Sigurd Wagner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

We fabricated the first bottom-gate amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film transistors (TFTs) on a clear plastic substrate with source and drain self-aligned to the gate. The top source and drain are self-aligned to the bottom gate by backside exposure photolithography through the plastic substrate and the TFT tri-layer. The a-Si:H channel in the tri-layer is made only 30 nm thick to ensure high optical transparency at the exposure wavelength of 405 nm. The TFTs have a threshold voltage of ∼3 V, subthreshold slope of ∼0.5 V/dec, linear mobility of ∼1cm2V-1 S-1, saturation mobility of ∼0.8 cm2V-1 S-1 and on/off current ratio of >106. These results show that self-alignment by backside exposure provides a solution to the fundamental challenge of making electronics on plastics: overlay misalignment.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)166-168
Number of pages3
JournalIEEE Electron Device Letters
Volume27
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2006

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Keywords

  • Amorphous-silicon (a-Si:H)
  • Plastic substrates
  • Self-aligned process
  • Thin-film transistors (TFTs)

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