Patent ID: 8679587

Claim:
A method for making a semiconducting thin film by solution deposition, and not suspension deposition, of inorganic compounds, comprising: providing a first solution consisting of at least a first metal halide and an aprotic solvent capable of dissolving the metal halide; depositing the solution onto a substrate in a predetermined pattern using a digital fabrication technique; evaporating the solvent, or allowing the solvent to evaporate, under ambient conditions to form a continuous thin film of a precursor material comprising an inorganic compound comprising the metal halide and having a thickness of at least 5 nanometers to 300 nanometers; exposing the precursor material to water; and annealing in the presence of oxygen or an oxygen-containing reactive species after exposing the precursor material to water, thereby forming an amorphous semiconducting thin film comprising a metal oxide suitable as a channel layer for thin film transistors with a field effect mobility value higher than 1 cm 2 /V·s.