High-performance and low-power source-gated transistors enabled by a solution-processed metal oxide homojunction
Xinming Zhuang, Joon‐Seok Kim, Wei Huang, Yao Chen, Gang Wang, Jianhua Chen, Yao Yao, Zhi Wang, Fengjing Liu, Junsheng Yu, Yuhua Cheng, Zaixing Yang, Lincoln J. Lauhon, Tobin J. Marks, Antonio Facchetti
Abstract
Cost-effective fabrication of mechanically flexible low-power electronics is important for emerging applications including wearable electronics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. Here, solution-processed source-gated transistors (SGTs) with an unprecedented intrinsic gain of ~2,000, low saturation voltage of +0.8 ± 0.1 V, and a ~25.6 μW power consumption are realized using an indium oxide In 2 O 3 /In 2 O 3 :polyethylenimine (PEI) blend homojunction with Au contacts on Si/SiO 2 . Kelvin probe force microscopy confirms source-controlled operation of the SGT and reveals that PEI doping leads to more effective depletion of the reverse-biased Schottky contact source region. Furthermore, using a fluoride-doped AlO x gate dielectric, rigid (on a Si substrate) and flexible (on a polyimide substrate) SGTs were fabricated. These devices exhibit a low driving voltage of +2 V and power consumption of ~11.5 μW, yielding inverters with an outstanding voltage gain of >5,000. Furthermore, electrooculographic (EOG) signal monitoring can now be demonstrated using an SGT inverter, where a ~1.0 mV EOG signal is amplified to over 300 mV, indicating significant potential for applications in wearable medical sensing and human–computer interfacing.