Natural polyelectrolyte: Major ampullate spider silk for electrolyte organic field-effect transistors

The major ampullate (MA) silk collected from giant wood spiders Nephila pilipes consists of 12% glutamic acid (Glu) and 4% tyrosine (Tyr) acidic amino residues. The MA silk may act as a natural polyelectrolyte for organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Pentacene and F₁₆CuPc OFETs were fabricated with the MA silk thin film as the gate dielectric. The MA silk thin film with surface roughness of 4 nm and surface energy of 36.1 mJ/m² was formed on glass using a hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) organic process. The MA silk gate dielectric in pentacene OFETs may improve the field-effect mobility (μ_FE,sat) value in the saturation regime from 0.11 in vacuum to 4.3 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ in air ambient at ca. 70% RH. The corresponding threshold voltage (V_TH) value reduced from −6 V in vacuum to −0.5 V in air ambient. Similar to other polyelectrolytes, the changes of μ_FE,sat and V_TH may be explained by the generation of electric double layers (EDLs) in the MA silk thin film in air ambient due to water absorption.     

Operation voltage reduction and gain enhancement in organic CMOS inverters with the TTC/gelatin bilayer dielectric

An air ambient operated organic complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverter has been fabricated on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) using pentacene and N,N-dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-C₈) as active layers with a bilayer dielectric of tetratetracontane (TTC) and gelatin. The inverter performance is greatly improved by replacing the gelatin dielectric with the TTC/gelatin bilayer. With the TTC/gelatin bilayer, both types of organic field-effect transistor (OFET) show better pinch-off and current saturation in output characteristics and negligible hysteresis transfer characteristics. The organic CMOS inverter with the TTC/gelatin bilayer dielectric exhibits balanced motilities of 0.5 (pentacene) and 0.3 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ (PTCDI-C₈) with low threshold voltages of −1 (pentacene) and 3 V (PTCDI-C₈). A high static gain of 60 may be achieved with sharp inversion.     

High performance electric-double-layer amorphous IGZO thin-film transistors gated with hydrated bovine serum albumin protein

Device performance of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) has been improved greatly by using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the top gate dielectric. BSA is a natural protein with acidic and basic amino acid residues, which is easily hydrated in air ambient. A typical a-IGZO TFT with hydrated BSA as the top gate dielectric exhibits a field-effect mobility (μ_FE) value of 113.5 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ in saturation regime and a threshold voltage (V_TH) value of 0.25 V in air ambient. The excellent device performance can be well explained by the formation of electric double layers (EDLs) near the interfaces of a-IGZO/hydrated BSA and hydrated BSA/gate electrode. The reliability issue of a-IGZO TFTs gated with hydrated BSA has been also investigated by using the life time test without encapsulation. The V_TH value increases and μ_FE,sat value reduces slightly for the a-IGZO TFT and remain stabilized over 60 days.     

Pentacene organic thin-film transistors with solution-based gelatin dielectric

Gelatin is a natural protein in the field of food, pharmaceutical and tissue engineering, which works very well as the gate dielectric for pentacene organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). An aqueous solution process has been applied to form a gelatin thin film on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) or glass by spin-coating and subsequent casting. The device performance of pentacene OTFTs depend on the bloom number (molecular weight) of gelatin. The pentacene OTFT with 300 bloom gelatin as the gate dielectric in air ambient exhibits the best performance with an average field-effect mobility (μ_FE) value of ca. 16 cm² V^?1 s^?1 in the saturation regime and a low threshold voltage of ?1 V. The high performance of the pentacene OTFT in air ambient is attributed to the water resided in gelatin. The crystal quality of pentacene is not the key factor for the high performance.     

Materials and interfaces issues in pentacene/PTCDI-C8 ambipolar organic field-effect transistors with solution-based gelatin dielectric

Gelatin is a natural protein, which works well as the gate dielectric for pentacene/N,N-dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-C₈) ambipolar organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) in air ambient and in vacuum. An aqueous solution process was used to form the gelatin gate dielectric film on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) by spin-coating and subsequent casting. Pentacene morphology and interface roughness are two major factors affecting the electron and hole field-effect mobility (μ_FE) values of pentacene/PTCDI-C₈ ambipolar OFETs in vacuum and in air ambient. In contrast, water absorption in gelatin has higher contribution to the electron and hole μ_FE values in air ambient. The ambipolar performance of pentacene/PTCDI-C₈ ambipolar OFETs depends on their layer sequence. For example, when PTCDI-C₈ is deposited onto pentacene, i.e. in the structure of PTCDI-C₈/pentacene, unbalanced ambipolar characteristics appear. In contrast, better ambipolar performance occurs in the structure of pentacene/PTCDI-C₈. The optimum ambipolar characteristics with electron μ_FE of 0.85 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and hole μ_FE of 0.95 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ occurs at the condition of pentacene (40 nm)/PTCDI-C₈ (40 nm). Surprisingly, water absorption plays a crucial role in ambipolar performance. The device performance changes tremendously in pentacene/PTCDI-C₈ ambipolar OFETs due to the removal of water out of gelatin in vacuum. The optimum ambipolar characteristics with electron μ_FE of 0.008 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and hole μ_FE of 0.007 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ occurs at the condition of pentacene (65 nm)/PTCDI-C₈ (40 nm). The roles of layer sequence, relative layer thickness, and water absorption are proposed to explain the ambipolar performance.     

Low-voltage,high speed inkjet-printed flexible complementary polymer electronic circuits

We report the development of high-performance inkjet-printed organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and complementary circuits using high-k polymer dielectric blends comprising poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) for high-speed and low-voltage operation. Inkjet-printed p-type polymer semiconductors containing alkyl-substituted thienylenevinylene (TV) and dodecylthiophene (PC12TV12T) and n-type P(NDI2OD-T2) OFETs showed high field-effect mobilities of 0.1–0.4 cm² V^?1 s^?1 and low threshold voltages down to 5 V. These OFET properties were modified by changing the blend ratio of P(VDF-TrFE) and PMMA. The optimum blend – a 7:3 wt% mixture of P(VDF-TrFE) and PMMA – was successfully used to realize high-performance complementary inverters and ring oscillators (ROs). The complementary ROs operated at a supplied bias (V_DD) of 5 V and showed an oscillation frequency (f_osc) as high as ～80 kHz at V_DD = 30 V. Furthermore, the f_osc of the complementary ROs was significantly affected by a variety of fundamental parameters such as the electron and hole mobilities, channel width and length, capacitance of the gate dielectrics, V_DD, and the overlap capacitance in the circuit configuration.     

High-performance diketopyrrolopyrrole-based organic field-effect transistors for flexible gas sensors

We demonstrate high-performance flexible polymer OFETs with P-29-DPP-SVS in various geometries. The mobilities of TG/BC OFETs are approximately 3.48 ± 0.93 cm²/V s on a glass substrate and 2.98 ± 0.19 cm²/V s on a PEN substrate. The flexible P-29-DPP-SVS OFETs exhibit excellent ambient and mechanical stabilities under a continuous bending stress of 1200 times at an R = 8.3 mm. In particular, the variation of μ_FET, V_Th and leakage current was very negligible (below 10%) after continuous bending stress. The BG/TC P-29-DPP-SVS OFETs on a PEN substrate applies to flexible NH₃ gas sensors. As the concentration of NH₃ increased, the channel resistance of P-29-DPP-SVS OFETs increased approximately 100 times from ∼10⁷ to ∼10⁹ Ω at V_SD = −5 V and V_GS = −5 V.     

Complementary-like inverters based on an ambipolar solution-processed molecular bis(naphthalene diimide)-dithienopyrrole derivative

We report on high-mobility top-gate organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and complementary-like inverters fabricated with a solution-processed molecular bis(naphthalene diimide)-dithienopyrrole derivative as the channel semiconductor and a CYTOP/Al₂O₃ bilayer as the gate dielectric. The OFETs showed ambipolar behavior with average electron and hole mobility values of 1.2 and 0.01 cm² V^?1 s^?1, respectively. Complementary-like inverters fabricated with two ambipolar OFETs showed hysteresis-free voltage transfer characteristics with negligible variations of switching threshold voltages and yielded very high DC gain values of more than 90 V/V (up to 122 V/V) at a supply voltage of 25 V.     

Solution-processed single-crystal perylene diimide transistors with high electron mobility

We have successfully demonstrated a single-crystal field-effect transistors (FETs) based on an asymmetric perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (a-PDI) compound with polystyrene (PS)/SiO₂ bilayer as gate dielectric. The single crystals are in-situ grown on substrate from simple solution evaporation method, thus may be suitable for large area electronics applications. The PS modified gate dielectric could minimize charge trapping by the hydroxyl groups of the SiO₂ surface. The resulting solution processed single crystals transistors are characterized in ambient air, and exhibited maximum electron mobility of ca. 1.2 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and high I_on:I_off > 10⁵.     

Dielectric surface-polarity tuning and enhanced operation stability of solution-processed organic field-effect transistors

The electrical performance of triethylsilylethynyl anthradithiophene (TES-ADT) organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) was significantly affected by dielectric surface polarity controlled by grafting hexamethyldisilazane and dimethyl chlorosilane-terminated polystyrene (PS-Si(CH₃)₂Cl) to 300-nm-thick SiO₂ dielectrics. On the untreated and treated SiO₂ dielectrics, solvent–vapor annealed TES-ADT films contained millimeter-sized crystals with low grain boundaries (GBs). The operation and bias stability of OFETs containing similar crystalline structures of TES-ADT could be significantly increased with a decrease in dielectric surface polarity. Among dielectrics with similar capacitances (10.5–11 nF cm⁻²) and surface roughnesses (0.40–0.44 nm), the TES-ADT/PS-grafted dielectric interface contained the fewest trap sites and therefore the OFET produced using it had low-voltage operation and a charge-carrier mobility ∼1.32 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, on–off current ratio >10⁶, threshold voltage ∼0 V, and long-term operation stability under negative bias stress.     

Effect of electron-donating unit on crystallinity and charge transport in organic field-effect transistors with thienoisoindigo-based small molecules

We report the effect of an electron-donating unit on solid-state crystal orientation and charge transport in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with thienoisoindigo (TIIG)-based small molecules. End-capping of different electron-donor moieties [benzene (Bz), naphthalene (Np), and benzofuran (Bf)] onto TIIG (giving TIIG-Bz, TIIG-Np, and TIIG-Bf) is resulted in different electronic energy levels, solid-state morphologies and performance in OFETs. The 80 °C post-annealed TIIG-Np OFETs show the best device performance with a best hole mobility of 0.019 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and threshold voltage of −8.6 ± 0.9 V using top gate/bottom contact geometry and a CYTOP gate dielectric. We further investigated the morphological microstructure of the TIIG-based small molecules by using grazing incidence wide angle X-ray scattering, atomic force microscopy and a polarized optical microscope. The electronic transport levels of the TIIG-based small molecules in thin-film states were investigated using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy to examine the charge injection properties of the gold electrode.     

All ink-jet printed low-voltage organic field-effect transistors on flexible substrate

In this work, all ink-jet printed (IJP) low-voltage organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) on flexible substrate are reported. The OFETs use IJP silver (Ag) for source/drain/gate electrodes, poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVP) for gate dielectric, 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) blended with polystyrene (PS) as the semiconducting layer and CYTOP for encapsulation layer. All the printing processes were carried out in ambient air environment using a single laboratory ink-jet printer Dimatix DMP-2831. The all IJP device presents state-of-the-art performance with low operation voltage down to 3 V, small subthreshold swing (SS) of 0.155 V/decade, mobility of 0.26 cm² V⁻¹s⁻¹, threshold voltage (V_th) of −0.17 V and on/off ratio of 3.1 × 10⁵, along with a yield of 62.5%. Through interface engineering and proper process optimization, this work demonstrates a promising low-voltage all IJP device platform for low-cost flexible printed electronics.     

Low temperature fabrication of a ZnO nanoparticle thin-film transistor suitable for flexible electronics

A bottom-gate/top-drain/source contact ZnO nanoparticle thin-film transistor was fabricated using a low temperature annealing process (150 °C) suitable for flexible electronics. Additionally, a high-k resin filled with TiO₂ nanoparticles was used as gate dielectric. After fabrication, the transistors presented almost no hysteresis in the I–V curve, a threshold voltage (V_T) of 2.2 V, a field-effect mobility on the order of 0.1 cm²/V s and an I_ON/I_OFF ratio of about 10⁴. However, the transistor is sensitive to aging effects due to interactions with the ambient air, resulting in current level reduction caused by trapped oxygen at the nanoparticle surface, and an anti-clockwise hysteresis in the transfer curve. It was demonstrated, conjointly, the possible desorption of oxygen by voltage stress and UV light exposure.     

D–A copolymer with high ambipolar mobilities based on dithienothiophene and diketopyrrolopyrrole for polymer solar cells and organic field-effect transistors

Donor–acceptor (D–A) type conjugated polymers have been developed to absorb longer wavelength light in polymer solar cells (PSCs) and to achieve a high charge carrier mobility in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). PDTDP, containing dithienothiophene (DTT) as the electron donor and diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) as the electron acceptor, was synthesized by stille polycondensation in order to achieve the advantages of D–A type conjugated polymers. The polymer showed optical band gaps of 1.44 and 1.42 eV in solution and in film, respectively, and a HOMO level of 5.09 eV. PDTDP and PC₇₁BM blends with 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) exhibited improved performance in PSCs with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.45% under AM 1.5G irradiation. By investigating transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the light intensity dependence of J_SC and V_OC, we conclude that DIO acts as a processing additive that helps to form a nanoscale phase separation between donor and acceptor, resulting in an enhancement of μ_h and μ_e, which affects the J_SC, EQE, and PCE of PSCs. The charge carrier mobilities of PDTDP in OFETs were also investigated at various annealing temperatures and the polymer exhibited the highest hole and electron mobilities of 2.53 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at 250 °C and 0.36 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at 310 °C, respectively. XRD and AFM results demonstrated that the thermal annealing temperature had a critical effect on the changes in the crystallinity and morphology of the polymer. The low-voltage device was fabricated using high-k dielectric, P(VDF-TrFE) and P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE), and the carrier mobility of PDTDP was reached 0.1 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at V_d = −5 V. PDTDP complementary inverters were fabricated, and the high ambipolar characteristics of the polymer resulted in an output voltage gain of more than 25.     

High-performance pentacene field-effect transistors using Al2O3 gate dielectrics prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD)

High-performance pentacene field-effect transistors have been fabricated using Al₂O₃ as a gate dielectric material grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD). Hole mobility values of 1.5 ± 0.2 cm²/V s and 0.9 ± 0.1 cm²/V s were obtained when using heavily n-doped silicon (n⁺-Si) and ITO-coated glass as gate electrodes, respectively. These transistors were operated in enhancement mode with a zero turn-on voltage and exhibited a low threshold voltage (< −10 V) as well as a low sub-threshold slope (<1 V/decade) and an on/off current ratio larger than 10⁶. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images of pentacene films on Al₂O₃ treated with octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) revealed well-ordered island formation, and X-ray diffraction patterns showed characteristics of a “thin film” phase. Low surface trap density and high capacitance density of Al₂O₃ gate insulators also contributed to the high performance of pentacene field-effect transistors.     

Multi-level non-volatile organic transistor-based memory using lithium-ion-encapsulated fullerene as a charge trapping layer

We report on multi-level non-volatile organic transistor-based memory using pentacene semiconductor and a lithium-ion-encapsulated fullerene (Li⁺@C₆₀) as a charge trapping layer. Memory organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with a Si⁺⁺/SiO₂/Li⁺@C₆₀/Cytop/Pentacene/Cu structure exhibited a performance of p-type transistor with a threshold voltage (V_th) of −5.98 V and a mobility (μ) of 0.84 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹. The multi-level memory OFETs exhibited memory windows (ΔV_th) of approximate 10 V, 16 V, and 32 V, with a programming gate voltage of 150 V for 0.5 s, 5 s, and 50 s, and an erasing gate voltage of −150 V for 0.17 s, 1.7 s, and 17 s, respectively. Four logic states were clearly distinguishable in our multi-level memory, and its data could be programmed or erased many times. The multi-level memory effect in our OFETs is ascribed to the electron-trapping ability of the Li⁺@C₆₀ layer.     

Impact of high-k gate dielectric on analog and RF performance of nanoscale DG-MOSFET

Now a days, high-k dielectrics have been investigated as an alternative to Silicon dioxide (SiO₂) based gate dielectric for nanoscale semiconductor devices. This paper is an attempt to characterize the analog and RF performance of the high-k metal gate (HKMG) double gate (DG) metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) in nanoscale through 2-D device simulation. The results demonstrates the impact of high-k oxide layer as single and gate stack (GS). The key idea behind this investigation is to provide a physical explanation for the improved analog and RF performance exhibited by the device. The major figures of merit (FOMs) studied in this paper are transconductance (g_m), output conductance (g_d), transconductance generation factor (g_m/I_D), early voltage (V_EA), intrinsic gain (A_V), cut off frequency (f_T), transconductance frequency product (TFP), gain frequency product (GFP) and gain transconductance frequency product (GTFP). The effects of downscaling of channel length (L) on analog performance of the proposed devices have also been presented. It has been observed that the performance enhancement of GS configurations (k=7.5 i.e device D5 in the study) is encouraging as far as the nanoscale DG-MOSFET is concerned. Also it significantly reduces the short channel effects (SCEs). Parameters like DC gain of (91.257 dB, 43.436 dB), nearly ideal values (39.765 V⁻¹, 39.589 V⁻¹) of TGF, an early voltage of (2.73 V, 16.897 V), cutoff frequency (294 GHz, 515.5 GHz) and GTFP of (5.14×10⁵ GHz/V, 1.72×10⁵ GHz/V) for two different values of V_DS=0.1 V and 0.5 V respectively are found to be close to ideal values. Analysis shows an opportunity for realizing high performance analog and RF circuits with the device proposed in this paper i.e. device D5.     

Very facile fabrication of aligned organic nanowires based high-performance top-gate transistors on flexible,transparent substrate

Aligned single-crystalline organic nanowires (NWs) show promising applications in flexible and stretchable electronics, while the use of pre-existing aligned techniques and well-developed photolithography techniques are impeded by the large incompatibility with organic materials and flexible substrates. In this work, aligned copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) organic NWs were grown on flexible and transparent poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) substrate via a grating-assisted growth approach. Furthermore, a simple yet efficient etching-assisted transfer printing (ETP) method was used to achieve CuPc NW array-based flexible top-gate organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with a high mobility up to 2.0 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, a small operating voltage within ±10 V, a high on/off ratio >10⁴, and excellent bend stability with bending radius down to 3 mm. It is expected that the high-performance organic NW array-based top-gate OFETs with exceeding bend stability will have important applications in future flexible electronics.     

Organic field-effect transistors based on low-temperature processable transparent polymer dielectrics with low leakage current

A solution-based transparent polymer was investigated as the gate dielectric for organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Organic thin films (400 nm) are readily fabricated by spin-coating a polyhydrazide solution under ambient conditions on the ITO substrates, followed by annealing at a low temperature (120 °C). The smooth transparent dielectrics exhibited excellent insulating properties with very low leakage current densities of ～10^?8 A/cm². High performance OFETs with evaporated pentacene as organic semiconductor function at a low operate voltage (?15 V). The mobility could reach as high as 0.7 cm²/Vs and on/off current ratio up to 10⁴. Solution-processed TIPS-pentacene OFETs also work well with this polymer dielectric.     

1 Volt organic transistors with mixed self-assembled monolayer/Al2O3 gate dielectrics

Control of the threshold voltage and the subthreshold swing is critical for low voltage transistor operation. In this contribution, organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) operating at 1 V using ultra-thin (∼4 nm), self-assembled monolayer (SAM) modified aluminium oxide layers as the gate dielectric are demonstrated. A solution-processed donor–acceptor semiconducting polymer poly(3,6-di(2-thien-5-yl)-2,5-di(2-octyldodecyl)-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene) (PDPP2TTT) is used as the active layer. It is shown that the threshold voltage of the fabricated transistors can be simply tuned by carefully controlling the composition of the applied SAM. The optimised OFETs display threshold voltages around 0 V, low subthreshold slopes (150 ± 5 mV/dec), operate with negligible hysteresis and show average saturated field-effect mobilities in excess of 0.1 cm²/V s at 1 V.