All-Solution-Processed Electronics with Sub-Microscale Resolution and Nanoscale Fidelity Fabricated Via a Humidity-Controlled, Surface Energy-Directed Assembly Process

Abstract

Solution-based processes have received considerable attention in the fabrication of electronics and sensors owing to their merits of being low-cost, vacuum-free, and simple in equipment. However, the current solution-based processes either lack patterning capability or have low resolution (tens of micrometers) and low pattern fidelity in terms of line edge roughness (LER, several micrometers). Here, we present a surface energy-directed assembly (SEDA) process to fabricate metal oxide patterns with up to 2 orders of magnitude improvement in resolution (800 nm) and LER (16 nm). Experiment results show that high pattern fidelity can be achieved only at low relative humidities of below 30%. The reason for this phenomenon lies in negligible water condensation on the solution droplet. Employing the SEDA process, all-solution-processed metal oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) are fabricated by using indium oxide as channel layers, indium tin oxide as source/drain electrodes and gate electrodes, and aluminum oxide as gate dielectrics. TFT-based logic gate circuits, including NOT, NOR, NAND, and AND are fabricated as well, demonstrating the applicability of the SEDA process in fabricating large area functional electronics.