Fully transparent thin-film transistors based on aligned carbon nanotube arrays and indium tin oxide electrodes

A fully transparent thin-film-transistor (TFTs) based on a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNTs) arrays and indium tin oxide electrodes (ITO) was demonstrated. A technique for realizing aligned SWNTs arrays on quartz substrate was used to place SWNTs into a specific area for the active channel layer. This TFT used an aligned array of SWNTs as the active channel, ITO as the gate and source/drain electrodes, and HfO₂ as gate dielectric. Transparent ITO source/drain and gate electrodes provided excellent contacts to the SWNTs for high performance transistor characteristics. It was observed that fully transparent SWNT-TFTs improved aperture ratio efficiency in an active matrix arrays. This demonstration opened new opportunities for manufacturing transparent electronic circuits by using transparent SWNT-TFTs with ITO contacts.