Influence of annealing to the defect of inkjet-printed ZnO thin film

The advantages of additive manufacturing for electronic devices have led to the demand of printing functional material in search of a replacement for the conventional subtractive fabrication process. Zinc oxide (ZnO), thanks to its interesting properties for the electronic and photonic applications, has gathered many attentions in the effort to fabricate functional devices additively. Although many potential methods have been proposed, most of them focus on the low-temperature processing of the printed material to be compatible with the polymer substrate. These low-temperature fabrication processes could establish a high concentration of defects in printed ZnO which significantly affect the performance of the device. In this study, ZnO thin film for UV photodetector application was prepared by inkjet printing of zinc acetate dihydrate solution following by different heat treatment schemes. The effects of annealing to the intrinsic defect of printed ZnO and photoresponse characteristics under UV illumination were investigated. A longer response/ decay time and higher photocurrent were observed after the annealing at 350 degrees C for 30 minutes. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis suggests that the reducing of defect concentration, such as oxygen vacancy, and excess oxygen species in printed ZnO is the main mechanism for the variation in photoresponse. The result provides a better understanding on the defect of inkjet-printed ZnO and could be applied in engineering the properties of the printed oxide-based semiconductor.