Sulfur redox mediator for low-temperature flexible amorphous oxide CMOS electronics
Amorphous p-type oxides are essential for next-generation flexible and scalable complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies. Among emerging candidates, tellurium-based oxides (Te-TeO<i><sub>x</sub></i>) show great promise due to their unique Te-Te conduction networks embedded within the amorphous TeO<sub>2</sub> matrix. However, controlled formation of these conduction channels remains challenging, limiting both hole transport and dopability under low thermal budgets. Here, we report a sulfur-mediated redox strategy that modulates the local bonding environment via TeO<sub>2</sub> dissociation and partial Te<sup>4+</sup> reduction, promoting formation of short-chain Te-Te networks. This enables high-performance p-channel thin-film transistors processed at an ultralow temperature of 120°C, exhibiting an average hole mobility of 11.5 cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>-1</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> and on/off current ratios around 10<sup>6</sup> with high uniformity and reproducibility. Integration with n-type counterparts enables all-oxide CMOS circuits on both flexible and rigid substrates, including inverters with gain up to 1694, ring oscillators operating at 339 kHz, and large-scale functional circuits with rail-to-rail output.
Authors
- Yongyoung Park
- Yong‐Young Noh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7222-2401)
- Youjin Reo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7939-5946)
- Taoyu Zou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4477-051X)
- Ao Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2232-1633)
- Young Jae Kang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5329-096X)
- Kiyeon Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6106-7607)
- Mingyang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4731-6830)
- Min Gyu Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2366-6898)
- Yong‐Sung Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6057-2997)
- Min-Woo Choi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-9690)
- Huihui Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7241-3344)
Institutions
- Pohang University of Science and Technology (KR)
- University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Samsung (South Korea) (KR)
- Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KR)
- National Engineering Research Center of Electromagnetic Radiation Control Materials (CN)
- Pohang TechnoPark (South Korea) (KR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2025-10-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adz6914
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Thin-Film Transistor Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.92