All-Aluminum Thin Film Transistor Fabrication at Room Temperature

Bottom-gate all-aluminum thin film transistors with multi conductor/insulator nanometer heterojunction were investigated in this article. Alumina (Al(2)O(3)) insulating layer was deposited on the surface of aluminum doping zinc oxide (AZO) conductive layer, as one AZO/Al(2)O(3) heterojunction unit. The measurements of transmittance electronic microscopy (TEM) and X-ray reflectivity (XRR) revealed the smooth interfaces between ~2.2-nm-thick Al(2)O(3) layers and ~2.7-nm-thick AZO layers. The devices were entirely composited by aluminiferous materials, that is, their gate and source/drain electrodes were respectively fabricated by aluminum neodymium alloy (Al:Nd) and pure Al, with Al(2)O(3)/AZO multilayered channel and AlO(x):Nd gate dielectric layer. As a result, the all-aluminum TFT with two Al(2)O(3)/AZO heterojunction units exhibited a mobility of 2.47 cm(2)/V·s and an I(on)/I(off) ratio of 10(6). All processes were carried out at room temperature, which created new possibilities for green displays industry by allowing for the devices fabricated on plastic-like substrates or papers, mainly using no toxic/rare materials.