An amorphous oxide semiconductor thin-film transistor route to oxide electronics

•Amorphous oxide semiconductor thin-film transistor technology is introduced.•A strategy for designing amorphous oxide semiconductors is offered.•The case for choosing IGZO for AMLCD and AMOLED applications is presented.•Three amorphous oxide semiconductor topics meriting future study are proposed. Amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) thin-film transistors (TFTs) invented only one decade ago are now being commercialized for active-matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) backplane applications. They also appear to be well positioned for other flat-panel display applications such as active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) applications, electrophoretic displays, and transparent displays. The objectives of this contribution are to overview AOS materials design; assess indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) TFTs for AMLCD and AMOLED applications; identify several technical topics meriting future scrutiny before they can be confidently relied upon as providing a solid scientific foundation for underpinning AOS TFT technology; and briefly speculate on the future of AOS TFTs for display and non-display applications.