Sol-gel metal oxide dielectrics for all-solution-processed electronics

Abstract Metal oxide (MOx) dielectric materials are considered to be a key element for diverse thin-film electronic systems owing to their superior electrical and mechanical properties. While the vast majority of conventional methods for processing these materials rely on vacuum-based deposition, which seriously limits their potential for practical applications, the solution-based deposition of sol-gel MOx materials can ideally reduce both material and processing costs by introducing large-area printing methods. Nonetheless, the fundamental understanding of their film-forming mechanisms and optimum device architectures is still immature, and significant efforts should be devoted to reducing both temperature and duration for MOx polycondensation and film densification. This article reviews recent advances in solution-based MOx dielectric materials, with a specific focus on the extensive categorization of their structures/compositions and on advanced approaches for realizing ultimate material properties and next-generation device platforms. We expect that this review will manifest the strong potentials of sol-gel MOx dielectric materials toward all-solution-processed low-voltage transparent electronics with freedom in mechanical form factors along with unrivaled performance.