Electroless-plated Ni pattern with catalyst printing on indium-gallium-zinc oxide surface

Electroless plated metals have been used for wiring and electrodes in the manufacture of electronic devices. To obtain plated patterns, etching and photoresist are generally used. However, through catalyst patterning by printing, we can obtain metal patterns without etching and photoresists by electroless plating. Solution-processed indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO) has received significant attention for showing high performance and ease of preparation in air atmosphere. In this study, we prepared an electroless plated pattern by catalyst printing as electrodes of IGZO TFT. There are few reports on the application of plated metal electrodes prepared by catalyst printing to the source and drain electrodes of IGZO TFT. The prepared IGZO TFT exhibits a typical current-voltage (I-V) curve. The plated electrodes caused many problems such as performance degradation. However, our result showed that the plated metal electrodes can drive IGZO TFT. In addition, we confirm plated metal growth into the catalyst layer by cross sectional scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) of the plated Ni. We discuss the relevance of the measured work function (WF) of the electrode materials and the performance of IGZO TFT.