Nanoscale flexible organic thin-film transistors

• Published in: Science advances Vol. 8; no. 13; p. eabm9845
• Main Authors: Zschieschang, Ute, Waizmann, Ulrike, Weis, Jürgen, Borchert, James W, Klauk, Hagen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 01.04.2022
• Subjects: Engineering; Materials Science; Physical and Materials Sciences; SciAdv r-articles
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm9845

Direct-write electron-beam lithography has been used to fabricate low-voltage p-channel and n-channel organic thin-film transistors with channel lengths as small as 200 nm and gate-to-contact overlaps as small as 100 nm on glass and on flexible transparent polymeric substrates. The p-channel transistors have on/off current ratios as large as 4 × 10 and subthreshold swings as small as 70 mV/decade, and the n-channel transistors have on/off ratios up to 10 and subthreshold swings as low as 80 mV/decade. These are the largest on/off current ratios reported to date for nanoscale organic transistors. Inverters based on two p-channel transistors with a channel length of 200 nm and gate-to-contact overlaps of 100 nm display characteristic switching-delay time constants between 80 and 40 ns at supply voltages between 1 and 2 V, corresponding to a supply voltage-normalized frequency of about 6 MHz/V. This is the highest voltage-normalized dynamic performance reported to date for organic transistors fabricated by maskless lithography.