| Literature DB >> 29904130 |
Deyang Ji1,2, Tao Li3, Ye Zou4, Ming Chu5, Ke Zhou4, Jinyu Liu4, Guofeng Tian6, Zhaoyang Zhang7, Xu Zhang7, Liqiang Li8, Dezhen Wu6, Huanli Dong4, Qian Miao5, Harald Fuchs9,10, Wenping Hu11.
Abstract
The ever-increasing demand for flexible electronics calls for the development of low-voltage and high-mobility organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) that can be integrated into emerging display and labeling technologies. Polymer dielectrics with comprehensive and balanced dielectric properties (i.e., a good balance between their insulating characteristics and compatibility with organic semiconductors) are considered particularly important for this end. Here, we introduce a simple but highly efficient strategy to realize this target by using a new type of copolymer as dielectrics. Benefiting from both high chain packing density guaranteeing dielectric properties and surface polarity optimizing molecular packing of organic semiconductors, this rationally designed copolymer dielectric endows flexible OTFTs with high mobility (5.6 cm2 V-1 s-1), low operating voltage (3 V) and outstanding stability. Further, their applicability in integrated circuits is verified. The excellent device performance shows exciting prospects of this molecular-scale engineered copolymer for the realization of plastic high-performance integrated electronics.Entities:
Year: 2018 PMID: 29904130 PMCID: PMC6002412 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04665-z
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Nat Commun ISSN: 2041-1723 Impact factor: 14.919
Fig. 1Synthetic route to poly (amic acid) (PAA), polyimide (PI) and copolymer. Preparation of polymer dielectrics
Fig. 2XPS and ATR characterizations of copolymer and PI. XPS C ls (a), N ls (b), and O ls (c) spectra of the copolymer and ATR infrared spectroscopy of copolymer and PI (d)
Fig. 3The characterizations of dielectric properties and the growth mode of pentacene on the surface of dielectrics. a Current density of the dielectric layers at the bias voltage of 5 V. Inset, an Au/dielectrics (160 nm)/ITO sandwiched device structure for tests. b Current density as a function of electric field. c XRD patterns of pentacene films (50 nm) grown on copolymer and PI surfaces. d 2D GIXRD patterns of pentacene films (50 nm) on the surface of copolymer and PI. AFM images of pentacene films grown on dielectric substrates with different thicknesses (4.5, 15, and 50 nm). e–g on copolymer surface; h–j on PI surface. Scale bar, 1 µm
Fig. 4Device structure and performance. a The preparation process for large-area flexible OTFT arrays. b Distribution of device mobility. c Typical transfer curve of the OTFT with 50 nm pentacene and a channel dimension of W = 240 μm, L = 30 μm. The gate current as a function of gate-source voltage is shown in purple. d A photograph of flexible devices for the test of bending effect. e Plots of mobility versus bending times on PET substrate based on copolymer insulating layers
Fig. 5Interface characterization. a UPS spectra of incremental pentacene films on copolymer. b The derived energy-level diagram at the interface
Fig. 6Comparison of device performances of this work and references. The distribution of mobility (a) and operating voltage (b) of OTFTs based on polyimide as dielectrics in the ref.[24–36] and this work
Fig. 7Performance of flexible circuits. a Flexible invertor arrays and the structure of a unipolar inverter. b Output voltage and signal gain as a function of input voltage with supply voltage of 6, 8, and 10 V. c Five-stage ring oscillators and their representative electrical characteristic based on pentacene. d The bending test (direction A and direction B) of the circuits. e Plots of gain and single delay per stage versus bending times