Thin-Film Transistor

A thin-film transistor (TFT) is a special kind of field-effect transistor made by depositing thin films of an active semiconductor layer as well as the dielectric layer and metallic contacts over a supporting (but non-conducting) substrate. A common substrate is glass, because the primary application of TFTs is in liquid-crystal displays. This differs from the conventional transistor, where the semiconductor material typically is the substrate, such as a silicon wafer.

TFTs can be made using a wide variety of semiconductor materials. A common material is silicon. The characteristics of a silicon-based TFT depend on the silicon's crystalline state; that is, the semiconductor layer can be either amorphous silicon,microcrystalline silicon, or it can be annealed into polysilicon.

Other materials which have been used as semiconductors in TFTs include compound semiconductors such as cadmium selenide, or metal oxides such as zinc oxide or hafnium oxide. An application for hafnium oxide is as a high-κ dielectric . TFTs have also been made using organic materials, referred to as organic field-effect transistors or OTFTs.

By using transparent semiconductors and transparent electrodes, such as indium tin oxide (ITO), some TFT devices can be made completely transparent. Such transparent TFTs (TTFTs) can be used for construction of video display panels.

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