Graduation date: 2006
This thesis focuses on two aspects of transparent electronics, SnO2 transparent thin-film transistors (TTFTs) and transparent circuits. Both depletion- and
enhancement-mode SnO2 TTFTs are realized. The maximum effective mobility for
the depletion- and enhancement-mode devices are 2 cm²V¯¹s¯¹ and 0.8 cm²V¯¹s¯¹,
respectively. A variety of techniques to decrease the carrier concentration in the SnO2 channel are investigated. However, the only successful technique is to decrease the
channel thickness, which effectively decreases the channel conductivity, and is the procedure employed for successful realization of an enhancement-mode TTFT.
The second part of this thesis focuses on the fabrication procedure and the electrical characteristics of transparent circuits, which include inverters and ring oscillators. These circuits are highly transparent, exhibiting ~75% optical transmittance in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, and are fabricated using indium gallium oxide as the active channel material and standard photolithography techniques. The n-channel indium gallium oxide thin-film transistors exhibit a peak incremental mobility of ~7 cm²V¯¹s¯¹ and a turn-on voltage of ~2 V. A five-stage ring oscillator circuit (which does not employ level-shifting) is fabricated, and exhibits an oscillation frequency of ~2.2 kHz with the gate and drain of the load transistor biased at 30 V; the maximum oscillation frequency observed is ~9.5 kHz, with the gate and drain of the load transistor biased at ~80 V.