p-Type transparent amorphous oxide thin-film transistors using low-temperature solution-processed nickel oxide

Transparent amorphous oxide semiconductor (TAOS) represented by a-InGaZnO (IGZO) has achieved their commercial success in the display industry due to its superior material properties (e.g. high mobility (>10 cm2 V−1 s−1), good transparency and excellent uniformity). However, TAOSs with excellent electrical properties are all n-type due to the particular electronic structures of oxide materials. The absence of high performance p-type TAOS limits the device application such as complimentary circuit and is now the largest drawback for oxide electronics. Here, we propose a low-temperature solution method to fabricate p-type transparent amorphous nickel oxide (NiO). The influence of processing parameters such as annealing temperature, precursor concentration, source/drain electrode, and dielectric layer is systematically investigated to maximum the NiO device performance. The optimized NiO TFT exhibits outstanding p-channel behavior, including a high hole mobility of 6.0 cm2 V−1 s−1, remarkable on/off current modulation ratio of ∼107, and good subthreshold swing of 0.13 V/decade. The high performance NiO device is attributed to the synergistic optimization of annealing temperature, channel thickness, source/drain electrodes, and dielectric materials. The properties of our p-type TAOS are comparable with that of traditional n-type TAOS. [Display omitted] •Developed a low temperature solution route for p-type NiO TFTs.•The influence of processing parameters was systematically investigated.•The optimized NiO TFTs exhibited high mobility and on/off ratio at low processing temperature.•The properties of our p-type TAOS is comparable with that of traditional n-type TAOS.