Organic passivation layers for pentacene organic thin-film transistors

We studied the passivation layers for pentacene organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) that were used to drive the active-matrix organic-light-emitting-diodes (AMOLEDs) fabricated by inkjet process. Conventional polyvinyl acetate (PVA) passivation layer could not protect OTFT channel from poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PEDOT:PSS) inkjet process so that the performance was degraded critically after the process. By applying PVA/PVA/photoacryl (PA) multi-passivation layers, we could get OTFT arrays with switching ratio over 10⁶ even after PEDOT:PSS process. Using these OTFTs, we could drive AMOLEDs made by inkjet process.     

Polymer thin-film transistors with high dielectric constant gate insulators

Field-effect transistors consisting of poly(3-hexylthiophene) have been fabricated with high dielectric constant SrBi₂Ta₂O₉ films working as the gate insulator. Significantly enhanced gate effects were observed in these devices compared to similar transistors with conventional SiO₂ gate dielectric. Our devices exhibited operating voltages around 10 V, as compared to about 100 V for devices employing SiO₂ as the gate dielectric. Moreover, inverters based on such polymer transistors were demonstrated with nice input–output characteristics. PACS 82.35.Cd     

Characterization of magnesium oxide gate insulators grown using RF sputtering for ZnO thin-film transistors

A ZnO thin-film transistor (TFT) with an MgO insulator was fabricated on a silicon (100) substrate using a radiofrequency magnetron sputtering system. The MgO insulator was deposited using the same deposition system; the total pressure during the deposition process was maintained at 5 mTorr, and the oxygen percentage of O₂/(Ar + O₂) was set at 30%, 50%, or 70%. The process temperature was maintained at below 300 °C. The dielectric constant of the MgO thin layer was approximately 11.35 with an oxygen percentage of 70%. This ZnO TFT displayed enhanced transistor properties, with a field-effect mobility of 0.0235 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, an I_ON/I_OFF ratio of ∼10⁵, and an SS value of 1.18 V decade⁻¹; these properties were superior to those measured for the MgO insulators synthesized using oxygen percentages of 30% and 50%.     

A photosensitive copolymer for the gate insulator of organic thin-film transistors

A novel cross-linkable copolymer for the gate insulators of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) was synthesized by free radical copolymerization with methyl methacrylate and ethylene methylacrylate cinnamoylate. Copolymers of molecular weights (Mn: 109200–160000 g mol⁻¹) and polydispersities (1.59–2.24) were characterized by FTIR and NMR. Spin-coated thin films had smooth surfaces with the root-mean-square (RMS) surface roughness of 0.23 nm, 0.41 nm, respectively, before and after UV irradiation. Exposure of the copolymers to UV light produced cross-linking of the polymeric chains that could be confirmed by comparing the FTIR and UV spectra recorded prior and after irradiation. Moreover, the vanadyl-phthalocyanine (VOPc) OTFTs with the photosensitive copolymer as gate insulator were fabricated and found to exhibit a carrier mobility of 0.25 cm²/V s, an on/off ratio of 10⁴.     

Spatially resolved photoresponse measurements on pentacene thin-film transistors

A confocal setup with a spatial resolution in the submicron regime is employed for investigating the response of pentacene transistors to local illumination. The transistors show enhanced and inhomogeneous photoresponse in the proximity of the hole-injecting contact. These inhomogeneities represent contact areas of varying injection efficiency. Thus, this technique allows imaging of contact efficiencies with submicron resolution over large areas up to hundreds of microns. Drift–diffusion simulations including a photogeneration/recombination process have been performed to model the photoresponse. The simulations illustrate that the potential drop along the channel is dramatically reduced in the illuminated area due to photoconductance (i.e. photoinjection of excitons and subsequent dissociation). Also, the injection barrier for holes is reduced if the illumination is close to the hole-injecting electrode. The rapid decay of the photoresponse with increasing distance to the positively biased electrode is caused by the limited electron mean free path in our devices.     

Enhanced electrical properties of pentacene-based organic thin-film transistors by modifying the gate insulator surface

A reliable surface treatment for the pentacene/gate dielectric interface was developed to enhance the electrical transport properties of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). Plasma-polymerized fluorocarbon (CFx) film was deposited onto the SiO₂ gate dielectric prior to pentacene deposition, resulting in a dramatic increase of the field-effect mobility from 0.015 cm²/(V s) to 0.22 cm²/(V s), and a threshold voltage reduction from −14.0 V to −9.9 V. The observed carrier mobility increase by a factor of 10 in the resulting OTFTs is associated with various growth behaviors of polycrystalline pentacene thin films on different substrates, where a pronounced morphological change occurs in the first few molecular layers but the similar morphologies in the upper layers. The accompanying threshold voltage variation suggests that hole accumulation in the conduction channel-induced weak charge transfer between pentacene and CFx.     

Laser forward transfer of silver electrodes for organic thin-film transistors

Organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) with top- and bottom-contact configurations were fabricated using silver nano-inks printed by laser forward transfer for the gate and source/drain electrodes with pentacene and poly-4-vinylphenol as the organic semiconductor and dielectric layers, respectively. The volume of the laser-printed Ag pixels was typically in the subpicoliter (0.2–0.4 pl) range. The top-contact OTFTs resulted in lower contact resistance compared to those obtained from the bottom-contact OTFTs, and showed improved overall device performance. The top-contact OTFTs exhibited field-effect mobilities of ∼0.16 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and on/off current ratios of ∼10⁵.     

Bias stress effect in low-voltage organic thin-film transistors

The bias stress effect in pentacene organic thin-film transistors has been investigated. The transistors utilize a thin gate dielectric based on an organic self-assembled monolayer and thus can be operated at low voltages. The bias stress-induced threshold voltage shift has been analyzed for different drain-source voltages. By fitting the time-dependent threshold voltage shift to a stretched exponential function, both the maximum (equilibrium) threshold voltage shift and the time constant of the threshold voltage shift were determined for each drain-source voltage. It was found that both the equilibrium threshold voltage shift and the time constant decrease significantly with increasing drain-source voltage. This suggests that when a drain-source voltage is applied to the transistor during gate bias stress, the tilting of the HOMO and LUMO bands along the channel creates a pathway for the fast release of trapped carriers.     

High mobility organic thin-film transistors on plastic substrate

We have fabricated organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) based on di-n-decyldinaphtho[2,3-b:2′,3′-f]thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (C₁₀-DNTT) on a polyimide gate dielectric coated on a polycarbonate substrate with a bottom-gate, top-contact configuration. Mobilities of the C₁₀-DNTT-based TFTs were as high as 2.4 cm² V^?1 s^?1, which are much better than those of the parent dinaphtho[2,3-b:2′,3′-f]thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (DNTT)-based TFTs (mobility ～ 0.5 cm²/V) fabricated on the same substrate. Compared to the C₁₀-DNTT-TFTs on the conventional Si/SiO₂ substrate, the present mobility of C₁₀-DNTT-TFTs are somewhat reduced, which can be attributed to reduced crystallinity on the polyimide gate dielectric, although the crystalline phase on the polyimide is the same as on the Si/SiO₂ substrate.     

Effect of modifying a methyl siloxane-based dielectric by a polymer thin film for pentacene thin-film transistors

We report on the fabrication of pentacene thin-film transistors (TFTs) utilizing a spun methyl siloxane-based spin-on-glass (SOG) dielectric and show that these devices can give a similar electrical performance as achieved by using pentacene TFTs with a silicon dioxide (SiO₂) dielectric. To improve the electrical performance of pentacene TFTs with the SOG dielectric, we employed a hybrid dielectric of an SOG/cross-linked poly-4-vinylphenol (PVP) polymer. The PVP film was deposited onto the spun SOG dielectric prior to pentacene evaporation, resulting in an improvement of the saturation field effect mobility (μ_sat) from 0.01 cm²/(V s) to 0.76 cm²/(V s). The good surface morphology and the matching surface energy of the SOG dielectric that was modified with the polymer thin film allow the optimized growth of crystalline pentacene domains whose nuclei are embedded in an amorphous phase.     

Degradation mechanisms for a-InGaZnO thin-film transistors functioning under simultaneous DC gate and drain biases

Degradation of a-InGaZnO thin-film transistors working under simultaneous DC gate and drain bias stress is investigated, and the corresponding degradation mechanism is proposed and verified. The maximum degradation occurs under the bias stress condition that makes the electric field and electron concentration relatively high at the same time. Trapping of hot electrons in the etching-stop layer under the extended drain electrode is proven to be the underlying mechanism. The observed degradation phenomena, including distortion in the transfer curve on a logarithmic scale and two-slope dependence on gate bias on a linear scale, current crowding in the output curve, and smaller degradation in transfer curves measured under large drain bias, can all be well explained with the proposed degradation mechanism.     

Surface potential-based analytical model for InGaZnO thin-film transistors with independent dual-gates

An analytical drain current model on the basis of the surface potential is proposed for indium-gallium zinc oxide(InGaZnO)thin-film transistors(TFTs)with an independent dual-gate(IDG)structure.For a unified expression of carriers’distribution for the sub-threshold region and the conduction region,the concept of equivalent flat-band voltage and the Lambert W function are introduced to solve the Poisson equation,and to derive the potential distribution of the active layer.In addition,the regional integration approach is used to develop a compact analytical current-voltage model.Although only two fitting parameters are required,a good agreement is obtained between the calculated results by the proposed model and the simulation results by TCAD.The proposed current-voltage model is then implemented by using Verilog-A for SPICE simulations of a dual-gate InGaZnO TFT integrated inverter circuit.     

Effects of a single defect in composite gate insulators of carbon nanotube transistors

The polar phonon modes in BaFe₁₂O₁₉ single crystal are studied in the temperature range from 6 to 300 K by polarized infrared spectroscopy. The phonon spectrum of the crystal is strongly anharmonic and unstable with respect to long-wavelength fluctuations of the dielectric permittivity along the hexagonal axis. Our results suggests that in BaFe₁₂O₁₉ hexaferrite symmetry lowering to the polar phase with the space group P6₃ mc can be expected.     

Enhancement of long-term stability of pentacene thin-film transistors encapsulated with transparent SnO2

The long-term stability of pentacene thin-film transistors (TFTs) encapsulated with a transparent SnO₂ thin-film prepared by ion beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) was investigated. After encapsulation process, our organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) showed somewhat degraded field-effect mobility of 0.5 cm²/(V s) that was initially 0.62 cm²/(V s), when a buffer layer of thermally evaporated 100 nm SnO₂ film had been deposited prior to IBAD process. However, the mobility was surprisingly sustained up to 1 month and then gradually degraded down to 0.35 cm²/(V s) which was still three times higher than that of the OTFT without any encapsulation layer after 100 days in air ambient. The encapsulated OTFTs also exhibited superior on/off current ratio of over 10⁵ to that of the unprotected devices (∼10⁴) which was reduced from ∼10⁶ before aging. Therefore, the enhanced long-term stability of our encapsulated OTFTs should be attributed to well protection of permeation of H₂O and O₂ into the devices by the IBAD SnO₂ thin-film which could be used as an effective inorganic gas barrier for transparent organic electronic devices.     

Degradation and its fast recovery in a-IGZO thin-film transistors under negative gate bias stress

A new type of degradation phenomena featured with increased subthreshold swing and threshold voltage after negative gate bias stress (NBS) is observed for amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs), which can recover in a short time. After comparing with the degradation phenomena under negative bias illumination stress (NBIS), positive bias stress (PBS), and positive bias illumination stress (PBIS), degradation mechanisms under NBS is proposed to be the generation of singly charged oxygen vacancies ($V_{\mathrm{o}}^{+}$) in addition to the commonly reported doubly charged oxygen vacancies ($V_{\mathrm{o}}^{2+}$). Furthermore, the NBS degradation phenomena can only be observed when the transfer curves after NBS are measured from the negative gate bias to the positive gate bias direction due to the fast recovery of $V_{\mathrm{o}}^{+}$ under positive gate bias. The proposed degradation mechanisms are verified by TCAD simulation.     

Characteristics of pentacene organic thin film transistor with top gate and bottom contact

High performance pentacene organic thin film transistors (OTFT) were designed and fabricated using SiO₂ deposited by electron beam evaporation as gate dielectric material. Pentacene thin films were prepared on glass substrate with S--D electrode pattern made from ITO by means of thermal evaporation through self-organized process. The threshold voltage V_TH was --2.75± 0.1V in 0---50V range, and that subthreshold slopes were 0.42± 0.05V/dec. The field-effect mobility (μ_EF) of OTFT device increased with the increase of V_DS, but the μ_EF of OTFT device increased and then decreased with increased V_GS when V_DS was kept constant. When V_DS was --50V, on/off current ratio was 0.48× 10⁵ and subthreshold slope was 0.44V/dec. The μ_EF was 1.10cm²/(V.s), threshold voltage was --2.71V for the OTFT device.     

Photo-curable epoxy functionalized cyclotetrasiloxane as a gate dielectric for organic thin film transistors

We synthesized a new photo-curable organic/inorganic hybrid material, cyclotetrasiloxane (CTS) derivative containing cyclohexene-1,2-epoxide functional groups (CTS-EPOXY), and its characteristics are compared with a prototypical organic gate insulator of poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVP) in the organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) using pentacene as an active p-type organic semiconductor. Compared with PVP, CTS-EPOXY shows better insulating characteristics and surface smoothness. A metal/insulator/metal (MIM) device with the 300-nm-thick CTS-EPOXY film shows more than two orders of magnitude lower current (less than 40 nA/cm² over the voltage range up to 60 V) compared with PVP. In addition, the pentacene TFT with CTS-EPOXY as a gate dielectric layer shows slightly higher field-effect mobility of μ_FET = 0.20 cm²/V s compared to that with PVP.     

Effect of stacked dielectric with high dielectric constant and surface modification on current enhancement in pentacene thin-film transistors

The effect of a stacked dielectric has been studied on pentacene thin-film transistors (TFTs) with respect to the current enhancement, the crystalline polymorph, and the structural change of the film. Here we show that the performance improvement of the device is successfully achieved by the dielectric effects of the high dielectric constant and the surface modification in hybrid dielectric configuration. The systematic analysis on the device feature governed by the interfacial property was carried out for a hybrid structured insulator system using SiO₂ and cross-linked (C-L) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), including the surface modified layer of dilute polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). Through thickness combinations of bilayer dielectrics with low-k SiO₂ and high-k PVA, the device also exhibits noticeable enhancement of the current drivability up to the current level of 94 μA at a practical gate bias of ?30 V. Moreover, we present the effect of a surface-modified layer with dilute PMMA. After the formation of ultra-thin PMMA layer in a bilayer insulator, the organic dielectric shows an effectively changed surface property into hydrophobicity even on a strong hydroxyl-rich dielectric surface, resulting in the distinct increase of structural order in the film due to the reduction of surface free energy.     

Low-voltage-drive and high output current ZnO thin-film transistors with sputtering SiO2 as gate insulator

Low-voltage-drive ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) with room-temperature radio frequency magnetron sputtering SiO₂ as the gate insulator were fabricated successfully on the glass substrate. The ZnO-TFT operates in the enhancement mode with a threshold voltage of 4.2 V, a field effect mobility of 11.2 cm²/V s, an on/off ratio of 3.1 × 10⁶ and a subthreshold swing of 0.61 V/dec. The drain current can reach to 1 mA while the gate voltage is only of 12 V and drain voltage of 8 V. The C–V characteristics of a MOS capacitor with the structure of ITO/SiO₂/ZnO/Al was investigated. The carrier concentration N_D in the ZnO active layer was determined, the calculated N_D is 1.81 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻³, which is the typical value of undoped ZnO film used as the channel layer for ZnO-TFT devices. The experiment results show that SiO₂ film is a promising insulator for the low voltage and high drive capability oxide TFTs.     

Effect of molecular structure on bias stress effect in organic thin-film transistors

Two thiophene-phenylene semiconductors, bis(2-phenylethynyl) end-substituted oligothiophenes (diPhAc-nTs, n = 2, 3), were studied as active layers in organic thin film transistors (OTFTs). Structural and electrical properties of such high vacuum evaporated thin films were compared to pentacene. All three oligomers behave as p-type semiconducting layers into OTFTs. In the same preparation and measurement conditions, diPhAc-3T possesses two of incontrovertible attributes of OTFTs for low cost applications, a high air-stable mobility at low substrate temperature (T_sub), i.e. typically 25 °C together with a reduced bias stress effect compared to the well-known pentacene semiconductor. This study brings to light on the role of the molecular structure involved in the active layer in thin-film devices and describes effects as thin film morphology as important parameters when optimizing the structure of OTFTs.