Photonic curing of solution-deposited ZrO2 dielectric on PEN: a path towards high-throughput processing of oxide electronics
Trey B. Daunis, Kurt Schroder, Julia W. P. Hsu
Abstract
Abstract High-throughput manufacturing of oxide electronics will enable new applications ranging from large-area displays to flexible medical devices and low-cost solar panels. However, high-quality oxide films from solution-based precursors typically require 20 min or more of thermal annealing at high temperature (>250 °C) for each layer, severely limiting both the throughput and substrate choice. Here, we report high-speed photonic curing of ZrO 2 dielectric thin films on flexible plastic substrates. The curing and patterning processes can be achieved simultaneously by using shadow mask patterning or adjusting conditions to convert oxide only on top of underlying metal contacts, i.e. self-aligned patterning. Metal–insulator–metal capacitors using two layers of ZrO 2 films photonically cured in just 100 s per layer show non-dispersive capacitance–frequency behaviour from 10 2 to 10 6 Hz, high areal capacitance of 200 nF/cm 2 and low dissipation factor of 0.03 at 10 5 Hz, leakage current density of ~10 −7 A/cm 2 at an applied field of 2 MV/cm, and a breakdown field of nearly 8 MV/cm. Using an upgraded tool, similar dielectric properties are achieved in as short as 100 ms using a single pulse of light, revealing a pathway to oxide film processing beyond 30 m/min.