Effects of Amines on Chemical and Physical Behaviors of Viscous Precursor Sols to Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide

ABSTRACTWe synthesized viscous precursors to indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) using three kinds of alcoholamines, ethanolamine (EA), diethanolamine (DEA), and triethanolamine (TEA), by a simple process. The viscous precursors are obtained just by vigorous stirring of alcoholamine and urea in an aqueous solution containing the metal nitrates during heating at 150-160 °C. The precursor containing EA (EA-precursor) is a pale-orange suspension containing aggregates of the metal hydroxides and shows pseudoplastic flow. The precursors containing DEA (DEA-precursor) and TEA (TEA-precursor) are transparent pale-yellow and dark-orange sols, respectively. They give Newtonian flow in the lower shear rate and pseudoplastic flow in the higher shear rate. Higher concentration of metal salts leads to higher viscosity of the precursors. According to thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) for the EA- and DEA-precursors, evaporation of alcoholamine occurs at around each boiling point and subsequently formation of metal oxides occur at around 300 °C. In the case of the TEA-precursor, formation of metal oxides occurs before pyrolysis of TEA attributed to the higher boiling point of TEA. The thin IGZO film, which is prepared by spin-coating of the diluted DEA-precursor and subsequent sintering at 450 °C for 30 min, shows 0.02 cm2 ·V-1s-1 of the mobility and 10-5 of the on/off ratio. The highly viscous DEA-precursor containing high concentration of metal ions allows patterning in an area of 100 cm2 onto a surface of a silicon wafer with screen printing.