Enabling thin-film transistor technologies and the device metrics that matter

The field-effect transistor kickstarted the digital revolution that propelled our society into the information age. One member of the now large family of field-effect devices is the thin-film transistor (TFT), best known for its enabling role in modern flat-panel displays. TFTs can be used in all sorts of innovative applications because of the broad variety of materials they can be made from, which give them diverse electrical and mechanical characteristics. To successfully utilize TFT technologies in a variety of rapidly emerging applications, such as flexible, stretchable and transparent large-area microelectronics, there are a number of metrics that matter.