*3.2.2.4. Laser-assisted annealing*

A femtosecond (fs) laser annealing was applied for an effective and rapid fabrication of AOS thin films [63]. The method led to improvements in *μ* (9.0 cm<sup>2</sup> V−1 s−1) and in "on/off" ratio due to the efficient removal of impurities and enhanced metal-oxide composition.

is an inevitable requisite, which is considered achievable in solution processable AOS when the chemical/physical challenges addressed. The development of new chemical precursors for impurity-free AOS, the incorporation of dopants that can improve the electrical characteristics, and bias stability, and advanced annealing techniques for the generation of high-quality AOS would significantly improve the electrical performance of AOS processed by a solution process

Low-Temperature Solution-Processable Functional Oxide Materials for Printed Electronics

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75610

The use of highly conductive and highly transparent thin films in the visible range of the spectrum is of great importance for a variety of optoelectronic device applications such as displays, solar cells, opto-electrical interfaces, and circuitries. Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), in contrast to glass fiber, silicon, and compound semiconductors, are highly flexible intermediate states, whose conductivity can be tuned from insulating through semiconducting to conducting as well as their transparency adjustable. Furthermore, main carriers can be switched between n-type and p-type, opening a wide range of new technological applications. So far, TCOs including binary, ternary, and quaternary oxide systems are mainly based on

some dopants to tune structural and opto-electrical properties (**Figure 6**). The plot of In<sup>2</sup>

includes results for Sn-doped c (ITO) and other dopants, and the plot for various deposition methods is shown in **Figure 7** [69]. The slopes of the plots for improvement versus time in

and 2 × 10−4 Ω cm, respectively. Thus, it is likely that further technological improvement in lowering resistivity of these materials is limited. However, the doped ZnO plot still presents a descending slope of improvement versus time. Therefore, it can be considered that further

O3

, wurtzite ZnO, and rutile SnO<sup>2</sup>

.

), zinc (II) oxide (ZnO), and their mixtures with

resistivities appear to plateau at approximately 10−4

O3

87

at a low temperature, thus making various practical electronic applications possible.

**4. Conducing oxide thin films prepared from low-temperature** 

**4.1. Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) in general**

O3

O3

**Figure 6.** Unit structure of typical binary oxides: bixbyite In<sup>2</sup>

), tin (IV) oxide (SnO<sup>2</sup>

improvement of conductivity of ZnO-based systems would be possible.

and doped SnO<sup>2</sup>

**solution processing**

indium (III) oxide (In<sup>3</sup>

lowering doped In<sup>2</sup>

A summary of solution-processed AOS-TFTs fabricated at a low temperature (<300°C) is given in **Table 2**.
