Inkjet-printed co-continuous mesoporous oxides for high-current power transistors

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electronics Engineering
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Limited printing resolution hinders printed electronics, leading to low On-state conductance and slow switching speeds in conventional long-channel printed field-effect transistors (FETs).
• Previous attempts to create narrow-channel printed FETs have rarely achieved high On-currents or channel conductance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a general method for printing co-continuous mesoporous structures from various metallic and semiconducting oxides.
• To engineer an innovative transistor architecture that enhances performance in printed FETs.

Main Methods:

• A novel recipe was used to print co-continuous mesoporous structures (n- and p-type metallic and semiconducting oxides) with high surface-to-volume ratios.
• An additional silver layer was printed on top of the porous channel, creating a new transistor architecture.
• A composite solid polymer electrolyte was employed as the gate insulator.

Main Results:

• The new architecture significantly reduced the electronic transport distance to a few tens of nanometres.
• Achieved unprecedented channel length-independent transport with an On-current of 67 μA μm⁻¹ and transconductance of 143 μS μm⁻¹ at a low supply voltage of 0.5 V.
• Demonstrated a general recipe applicable to a wide range of metallic and semiconducting oxides.

Conclusions:

• The developed method and transistor architecture overcome previous limitations in printed electronics, enabling significantly higher performance.
• These high-performance printed transistors hold potential for applications in high power switches and low-power electronic circuits for battery-powered devices.