Flat panel displays constitute the basis of many mass-production optoelectronic devices, including smart phones, notebooks, laptops and flat screens in general. Most of these devices are based in liquid crystal displays or in organic light-emitting diodes, and employ active-matrix control based on thin-film transistors (TFTs). These transistors allow to address singular pixels with a faster response time and with a reduced power consumption compared to other competing solutions. In this field, the current materials solution is hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), which enables to fabricate TFTs exhibiting field-effect mobilities in the order of 1 cm2/V·s. Unfortunately, such low mobilities do not meet the actual industrial needs, which require TFT backplanes with mobilities in the order of 20 cm2/V·s. Besides an enhanced mobility, next-generation TFTs will also need to meet more stringent requirements in terms of threshold voltage stability. The goal of ZONE is to provide a new materials solution to these problems based on ZnMg-oxynitrides (ZnMgNO) and to demonstrate TFTs with figures of merit better than the best reported to date at the research laboratory level (i.e. TFTs based on amorphous ZnNO showing field effect mobilities of 100 cm2/V·s and published by SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS in 2016). To achieve this ambitious technological objective we plan to grow new oxynitride materials by molecular beam epitaxy and by sputtering, which is the technique of choice of TFTs industry, in both crystalline and amorphous forms: this will give us the opportunity to determine the fundamental physical properties of ZnMgNO compounds, which are barely known (in many cases unknown), and to assess their evolution when going from single-crystalline, to polycrystalline and finally to amorphous material. Indeed, it should be noted that only amorphous ZnNO has been studied and this because of its promising electronic properties. To carry out this phenomenal work, ZONE will bring together two complementary teams recognized as specialist of MBE growth (CRHEA-CNRS, in France) and sputtering deposition (U. Leipzig, in Germany). Furthermore, their complimentary expertises and experimental facilities in terms of materials characterization will enable to cover the whole range of physical properties, including structural, optical and electrical ones. In particular, the more advanced transistors will be fabricated in CRHEA’s clean-room while their thorough electrical characterization, including light/bias stress tests, will be done in U. Leipzig. Overall, ZONE is a timely a project marrying fundamental research on materials science and realistic technological implementation.