Assembled Semiconductor Nanowire Thin Films for High-Performance Flexible Macroelectronics

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Semiconductor Nanowire Thin Films for High-Performance Flexible Macroelectronics Xiangfeng Duan

Abstract A new concept of macroelectronics using assembled semiconductor nanowire thin films holds the promise of significant performance improvement. In this new concept, a thin film of oriented semiconductor nanowires is used to produce thin-film transistors (TFTs) with conducting channels formed by multiple parallel single-crystal nanowire paths. Therefore, charges travel from source to drain within single crystals, ensuring high carrier mobility. Recent studies have shown that high-performance silicon nanowire TFTs and high-frequency circuits can be readily produced on a variety of substrates including glass and plastics using a solution assembly process. The device performance of these nanowire TFTs not only greatly surpasses that of solution-processed organic TFTs, but is also significantly better than that of conventional amorphous or polycrystalline silicon TFTs, approaching single-crystal silicon-based devices. Furthermore, with a similar framework, Group III–V or II–VI nanowire or nanoribbon materials of high intrinsic carrier mobility or optical functionality can be assembled into thin films on flexible substrates to enable new multifunctional electronics/optoelectronics that are not possible with traditional macroelectronics. This can have an impact on a broad range of existing applications, from flat-panel displays to image sensor arrays, and enable a new generation of flexible, wearable, or disposable electronics for computing, storage, and wireless communication.

Introduction: Macroelectronics Semiconductor electronics have become increasingly pervasive in many aspects of our daily lives over the past half century. The advancement of electronics is moving toward two extremes in terms of physical scale. On one hand, rapid miniaturization of microelectronics according to Moore’s law has led to remarkable increases in computing power while at the same time

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enabling reductions in cost.1,2 In parallel, extraordinary progress has also been made in a relatively less noticed area of macroelectronics, where electronic components are integrated over large-area substrates with sizes measured in square meters.3–7 In macroelectronics, the large-area substrate is required because the system must be physically large and the active

components must be distributed over a large area for desired functions such as large-area flat-panel display. Unfortunately, traditional electronic materials are characterized by a roughly inverse relationship between the electronic performance, determined primarily by carrier mobility μ, and the available substrate size (Figure 1). Therefore, the welldeveloped single-crystal semiconductorbased microelectronics can not be easily implemented in macroelectronics due to limited substrate size and prohibitively high cost. This leaves a tremendous void in material space where high electronic performance and large area are required at the same time. Current macroelectronics technology primar

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