47. Silicon on Mechanically Flexible Substrates for Large-Area Electronics

Low-temperature thin-film semiconductors and dielectrics are critical requirements for large-area electronics, including displays and imagers. Despite the presence of structural disorder, these materials show promising electronic transport properties that are vital for devices such as thin-film transistors (TFTs). This chapter presents an overview of material and transport properties pertinent to large-area electronics on mechanically flexible substrates. We begin with a summary of process challenges for low-temperature fabrication of a-Si:H TFTs on plastic substrates, followed by a description of transport properties of amorphous semiconducting films, along with their influence on TFT characteristics. The TFTs must maintain electrical integrity under mechanical stress, induced by bending of the flexible substrates. Bending-induced changes are not limited to alteration of device dimensions and involve modulation of electronic transport of the active semiconducting layer.