Transparent Electronics: An Enabling Display Technology?

SID Pacific Northwest Chapter

Beaverton, OR 1 August 2007

J. F. Wager OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Corvallis, OR 97331-5501 U. S. A.
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Transparent Electronics & Displays? Transparent electronics

Overview

Display applications
AMLCD transparent switch AMOLED backplanes Spatial light modulator projection display Transparent display

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Transparent Electronics?

Electronic devices which are optically transparent

see-through invisible transparent in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum
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J. F. Wager

Transparent Electronics @ OSU OSU

A WORLD LEADER IN TRANSPARENT ELECTRONICS First fully-transparent thin-film transistor (TTFT) (2003) TTFT First ZnO (2003), SnO2 (2004), zinc tin oxide (2005), zinc indium oxide (2005), indium gallium oxide (2006) TTFTs First spin-coat synthesized channel layer TTFT (2003) First transparent circuits; inverters + ring oscillators (2006)

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TTFTs
SOURCE ITO Channel Insulator ITO Glass GATE
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DRAIN ITO

Sputtered ZnO TTFTs

Patterned ZnO transparent transistor test structures are evident in the upper portion of the glass substrate, which sits on a penny.
J. F. Wager, Science 300, 1245-1246 (2003).
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Sputtered ZnO TTFTs

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Spin-Coated ZnO TTFTs

56 patterned ZnO TTFTs and 24 contact resistance test structures are present inside the red box.
B. J. Norris et al., J. Phys. D. 36, L105 (2003).
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SnO2 TTFTs

VGS 40 V 35 V 30 V 25 V 20 V 15 V 10 V

R. E. Presley et al., J. Phys. D. 37, 2810 (2004).

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SnO2 TTFTs

~105

R. E. Presley et al., J. Phys. D. 37, 2810 (2004).

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SnO2 TTFTs
CORRECTED [T/(1-R)]

RAW

R. E. Presley et al., J. Phys. D. 37, 2810 (2004).

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TTFTs
SOURCE ITO Channel Insulator ITO Glass GATE
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DRAIN ITO ZnO SnO2 ZTO!!!!

600C ANNEAL

ZTO TTFTs

~108

VGS = 15 V (top) 0 V (3 V steps) Enhancement-mode (E-mode)

H. Q. Chiang et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 013503 (2005).

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600C ANNEAL

ZTO TTFTs
Zn2SnO4 ZTO ZnSnO3 200 nm 100,000 X

SCHERRER < ~ 5 nm
H. Q. Chiang et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 013503 (2005).
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J. F. Wager

ZITO TTFTs
Polycrystalline

Amorphous

M. S. Grover et al., J. Phys. D 40, 1335 (2007).

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ZTO TTFTs
ZTO attractive attributes:
Mobility ~10-30 cm2V-1s-1 Device stability = excellent (using SiO2+T) Chemical stability (oxidation & etching) Physically robust (scratch resistant) Low cost Amorphous (extremely smooth surfaces) Easy to integrate & manufacture Superior reliability (no grain boundaries) Enhanced performance (compared to poly)
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Polycrystalline Channel TFT & TTFTs

ITO CHANNEL ATO ITO NEG Glass Mobility reduction Integration challenges Reliability issues
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ITO ZnO, SnO2

SURFACE & INTERFACE ROUGHNESS

Amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOS)

11 29 12 30 13 31 14 32 15 33

Cu
63.54

Zn
65.37

Ga
69.72

Ge
72.59

As
74.92

47

48

49

50

51

Ag
107.87

Cd
112.40

In
114.82

Sn
118.69

Sb
121.75

79

80

81

82

83

Au
196.97

Hg
200.59
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Tl
204.37

Pb
207.19

Bi
208.98

H. Hosono et al., J. Non-Crystalline Solids 203, 334 (1996).

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AOS

O M O M M
small metal cation

O M M

large metal cation

H. Hosono et al., J. Non-Crystalline Solids 203, 334 (1996).

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AOS

O
crystalline

O M O M M M

O M

O M

O M

M O M M O M O

4s,5s,6s

M
amorphous

O
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H. Hosono et al., J. Non-Crystalline Solids 203, 334 (1996).

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AOS
11 29 12 30 III 13 31

IV 14 32

Cu
63.54

Zn
65.37

Ga
69.72

Ge
72.59

74.92

X
As
51 83

V 15 33

107.87

196.97

X X X X X X
Ag
79

47

48

49

50

Cd
80

In

Sn
82

Sb
121.75

112.40

114.82

118.69

81

Au

Hg

Tl

Pb

Bi
208.98

200.59

204.37

207.19

H. Hosono et al., J. Non-Crystalline Solids 203, 334 (1996).

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AOS
Total # of binary combinations = 105 # of restricted binary combinations = 28
CuZnO ZnGaO CuGaO ZnGeO CuGeO ZnInO CuInO ZnSnO CuSnO ZnSbO CuSbO ZnBiO CuBiO GaGeO GaInO GaSnO GaSbO GaBiO GeInO InSnO SnSbO SbBiO GeSnO InSbO SnBiO GeSbO InBiO GeBiO

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ZTO & ZIO

ZnO hexagonal wurtzite SnO2 tetragonal rutile

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In203 cubic bixebyte

24

Transparent Circuits
25.0

20.0

Vout (V)

15.0

10.0

INVERTER
5.0

0.0 -20

-10

10

20

30

40

Vin (V)
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Transparent Circuits
16 15 14

f = 1/(0.00067-0.00032) f = 2.8 kHz

0.00032

0.00067

Vout (V)

13 12 11 10 9 0.0000 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 0.0008 0.0010

RING OSCILLATOR
Vbias

Vdd

Time ( s)

Vout

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Applications
Printed electronics
Low-cost electronics Disposable electronics Large-area electronics Macroelectronics Flexible electronics Wearable electronics Better performance than organics & polymers mobility (theoretical limit ~ 10 cm2V-1s-1) chemical stability physical durability manufacturability

Transparency not required.

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Transparent Electronics & Displays? Transparent electronics

Overview

Display applications
AMLCD transparent switch AMOLED backplanes Spatial light modulator projection display Transparent display

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AMLCD Flat-Panel Displays

Data line Select line

Storage capacitor

LC pixel

TFT

Common

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AMLCD Flat-Panel Displays

TTFTs are an alternative to amorphous silicon TFT technology!
Superior performance: performance mobility (~X10-30) device stability + turn-on voltage transparency (a bonus) Simpler to manufacture: manufacture no source-drain doping sputtering vs CVD hazard, toxicity issues
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AMLCD Flat-Panel Displays

Switching transistor: transistor on-to-off ratio 106 manufacturability voltage-control mobility () stability ()
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AMLCD Flat-Panel Displays

It is UNLIKELY that TTFTs will soon displace amorphous silicon TFT technology in mainstream AMLCD applications!
a-Si advantages: advantages adequate solution proven technology industrially well established immense capital investment Why fix it, if its not broken?
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AMOLED Flat-Panel Displays

Select line

Data line

T1

Vdd

T2

T3

T4

CS

OLED

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AMOLED Flat-Panel Displays

1 TFT addressing: addressing smart pixel light emitted only when addressing 1/N = fraction of frame period during which light emission occurs (N = number of display rows) impractical

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AMOLED Flat-Panel Displays

h 2 TFT addressing: addressing T1 = select transistor T2 = drive transistor CS = storage capacitor store charge on CS during addressing voltage on CS keeps T2 turned on after addressing (T2 = current source) OLED brightness depends on & VT uniformity and stability
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AMOLED Flat-Panel Displays

4 TFT addressing: addressing T1,T2 = select transistors T3,T4 = current mirror CS = storage capacitor compensated for & VT non-uniformity & instability minimum-complexity practical OLED circuit (using a-Si TFTs)

C. Church and A. Nathan, Information Display 3&4/05, 22 (2005). K. Sakariya et al., IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 51, 2019 (2005).
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AMOLED Flat-Panel Displays

+ 4 TFT operation: operation ADDRESSING: Select line = on CS charges thru T2 current flow thru T1, T3, OLED, to ground voltage programming of Cs does not depend on VT of T3 or T4

+ VCS + h

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AMOLED Flat-Panel Displays

0 4 TFT operation: operation AFTER ADDRESSING: Select line = off T1, T2 = off current thru T4, OLED, to ground T3,T4 = current mirror current programming does not depend on VTs

0 VCS +

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AMOLED Flat-Panel Displays

TTFTs = alternative to a-Si TFT technology!
Superior performance: performance mobility (~X10-30) (!) device stability (!?!) transparency (a bonus) Simpler to manufacture: manufacture no source-drain doping sputtering vs CVD hazard, toxicity issues AMOLED applications: applications 2-TFT circuit? peripheral drive circuitry? aperature ratio
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AMOLED Flat-Panel Displays

Property Manufacturability, infrastructure Grain size Threshold voltage uniformity Threshold voltage stability Mobility Mobility uniformity Device type Transparency Amorphous silicon (a-Si) mature, proven amorphous good poor <1 good NMOS opaque, light-sensitive
J. F. Wager

Polycrystalline silicon emerging 0.5-5 m fair good 100-500 fair CMOS opaque, light-sensitive

Transparent electronics early stage R&D amorphous ? good ~10-30 ? NMOS transparent

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Amorphous silicon TFTs

a-Si is a metastable material! VT(t)

M. J. Powell et al., Phys. Rev. B 45, 4160 (1992).

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Amorphous silicon TFTs

Amorphous silicon is a metastable material!

M. J. Powell et al., Phys. Rev. B 45, 4160 (1992).

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Amorphous silicon TFTs

Nature of a-Si metastability: metastability 2 types of charged dangling bonds
Si

[Si4]o

Si

Si Si

Si

[Si3]o

Si

Si Si

Si

[Si4]o(weak bond) + electrons- [Si3]-(dangling bond) [Si4]o(weak bond) + holes+ [Si3]+(dangling bond)

Formation energy of dangling bonds depends on the Fermi level position

M. J. Powell et al., Phys. Rev. B 45, 4160 (1992).
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Amorphous silicon TFTs

EC EF Si Si Si Si
E(A-) = E(Ao) (EF - EA)

[Si3]-

EA o

A = [Si3]-

EV=0
44

M. J. Powell et al., Phys. Rev. B 45, 4160 (1992).

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Amorphous silicon TFTs

EC
o ED +

D=

[Si3]+

Si

Si Si

Si

Defect pool, rather than a discrete state.

E(D+) = E(Do) (ED - EF)

[Si3]+
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EF EV=0
M. J. Powell et al., Phys. Rev. B 45, 4160 (1992).
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Amorphous silicon TFTs

Defect pool
Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si Si

[Si3]-

[Si3]+

[Si3]o

M. J. Powell et al., Phys. Rev. B 45, 4160 (1992).

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Amorphous silicon TFTs

Why use nitride with a-Si TFTs? More positive fixed charge (VG-adjustable) Electron accumulation @ zero bias Fermi level position [Si3]+ and [Si3]Good for a large dynamic range switch! Bad for enhancement-mode operation

M. J. Powell et al., Phys. Rev. B 45, 4160 (1992).

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Amorphous silicon TFTs

Before stress After stress EC [Si3]EF EV EC - --- - Charge EF trapping EV State creation

EC EF EV

C. Van Berkel, in Amorphous & Microcrystalline Semiconductor Devices II (1992).

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Amorphous silicon TFTs

a-Si TFT SUMMARY: a-Si = inherently metastable state creation instability Fix this problem using a nitride gate charge trapping instability Works for voltage-controlled switching! What about current-controlled applications? Stability + mobility Peripheral drive circuitry
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ZIO + Thermal SiO2 TTFTs 200 C 400 C

28 hour aging @ +30 V

(aging = reversible, due to electron trapping at or the near channel/insulator interface.)
J. F. Wager et al., Transparent Electronics (Springer 2007).
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Light Valve Projector Displays

Vapplied

g l a s s

I T O

PC

g I l LC T a O s s

modulated UV, absorbed in PC incident & modulated visible light

optically-addressed spatial light modulator light valve

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Light Valve Projector Displays

Vapplied

AOSs!

g l a s s

I T O

PC

g I l LC T a O s s

modulated UV, absorbed in PC incident & modulated visible light

C. Spiegelberg, Fury Technologies, Corp, Vancouver, WA (2007).

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Transparent Displays

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Transparent Displays

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Transparent Electronics & Displays? Transparent electronics

a-TMOS channel layers

Display applications
AMLCD transparent switch - no AMOLED backplanes hmmmm Spatial light modulator projection display ? Transparent display difficult (requires global, rather than local transparency)

An enabling display technology YES!

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Acknowledgments
Participants: J.T. Anderson, J.P. Bender, H.Q. Chiang, N.L. Dehuff, A.D. Draeseke, M.S. Grover, D.P. Heineck, G.S. Herman, P.A. Hersh, R.L. Hoffman, D. Hong, K. Hoshino, C.M. Hung, M.K. Jayaraj, J. Jeong, D.A. Keszler, E.S. Kettenring, R. Kykyneshi, B.R. McFarlane, C.L. Munsee, S.T. Meyers, P.F. Newhouse, B.J. Norris, C.-H. Park, S. Park, R.E. Presley, M. Price, R.L. Schafer, M.C. Spiegelberg, J.A. Spies, J.K. Stowers, E.S. Sundholm, C.A. Tasker, J. Tate, M.M. Valencia, H. Yanagi, G.C. Yerubandi Funding: NSF, ARO, HP, DARPA

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