All-inkjet-printed thin-film transistors: manufacturing process reliability by root cause analysis

We report on the detailed electrical investigation of all-inkjet-printed thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays focusing on TFT failures and their origins. The TFT arrays were manufactured on flexible polymer substrates in ambient condition without the need for cleanroom environment or inert atmosphere a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sowade, Enrico (author)
Other Authors: Ramon, Eloi (author), Mitra, Kalyan Yoti (author), Martinez-Domingo, Carme (author), Pedro, Marta (author), Pallares, Jofre (author), Loffredo, Fausta (author), Villani, Fulvia (author), Gomes, Henrique L. (author), Teres, Lluis (author), Baumann, Reinhard R. (author)
Format: article
Language:eng
Published: 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/9289
Country:Portugal
Oai:oai:sapientia.ualg.pt:10400.1/9289
Description
Summary:We report on the detailed electrical investigation of all-inkjet-printed thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays focusing on TFT failures and their origins. The TFT arrays were manufactured on flexible polymer substrates in ambient condition without the need for cleanroom environment or inert atmosphere and at a maximum temperature of 150 degrees C. Alternative manufacturing processes for electronic devices such as inkjet printing suffer from lower accuracy compared to traditional microelectronic manufacturing methods. Furthermore, usually printing methods do not allow the manufacturing of electronic devices with high yield (high number of functional devices). In general, the manufacturing yield is much lower compared to the established conventional manufacturing methods based on lithography. Thus, the focus of this contribution is set on a comprehensive analysis of defective TFTs printed by inkjet technology. Based on root cause analysis, we present the defects by developing failure categories and discuss the reasons for the defects. This procedure identifies failure origins and allows the optimization of the manufacturing resulting finally to a yield improvement.