Transparent Oxide Semiconductors for Advanced Display Applications

The article discusses the progress and issues related to transparent oxide semiconductor (TOS) TFTs for advanced display and imaging applications. Amorphous oxide semiconductors continue to spark new technological developments in transparent electronics on a multitude of non-conventional substrates. Applications range from high-frame-rate interactive displays with embedded imaging to flexible electronics, where speed and transparency are essential requirements. TOS TFTs exhibit high transparency as well as high electron mobility even when fabricated at room temperature. Compared to conventional a-Si TFT technology, TOS TFTs have higher mobility and sufficiently good uniformity over large areas, similar in many ways to LTPS TFTs. Moreover, because the amorphous oxide semiconductor has higher mobility compared to that of conventional a-Si TFT technology, this allows higher-frame-rate display operation. This would greatly benefit OLED displays in particular because of the need for lower-cost higher-mobility analog circuits at every subpixel.