Fabrication and Modeling of pn-Diodes Based on Inkjet Printed Oxide Semiconductors

Oxide semiconductors have the potential to increase the performance of inkjet printed microelectronic devices such as field-effect transistors (FETs), due to their high electron mobilities. Typical metal oxides are n-type semiconductors, while p-type oxides, although realizable, exhibit lower carrier mobilities. Therefore, the circuit design based on oxide semiconductors is mostly in n-type logic only. Here we present an inkjet printed pn-diode based on p- and n-type oxide semiconductors. Copper oxide or nickel oxide is used as p-type semiconductor whereas n-type semiconductor is realized with indium oxide. The measurements show that the pn-diodes operate in the voltage window typical for printed electronics and the emission coefficient is 1.505 and 2.199 for the copper oxide based and nickel oxide based pn-diode, respectively. Furthermore, a pn-diode model is developed and integrable into a circuit simulator.