The effect of sintering temperature on the microstructure and electrical performance of sol-gel-deposited SnInZnO thin film transistors

We reported the capability of the SnInZnO (TIZO) film, fabricated using the sol-gel process, to act as a channel layer for printed electronics. We varied the sintering temperature to examine the potential of both the material and the process for application at low processing temperatures. The structure of the film sintered at 300 °C consisted of amorphous phase and the nanocrystalline structure began to appear locally at 400 °C. With increasing sintering temperature, the ratio of the crystalline structure was increased. In addition, the saturation mobility (μsat) and off current were increased, the Ion/Ioff was decreased, and the threshold voltage was shifted in the negative direction by increasing the sintering temperature (μsat of 11.91 cm² V ^-1s^-1 and 0.11 cm² V² s² for the 700 °C- and 300 °C-sintered samples, respectively). This study could encourage in developing cost-effective TIZO TFTs with robust performances.