A novel application of ethylene‐norbornene cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) as gate dielectric layers in organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) that require thermal annealing as a strategy for improving the OFET performance and stability is reported. The thermally‐treated N,N′‐ditridecyl perylene diimide (PTCDI‐C13)‐based n‐type FETs using a COC/SiO2 gate dielectric show remarkably enhanced atmospheric performance and stability. The COC gate dielectric layer displays a hydrophobic surface (water contact angle = 95° ± 1°) and high thermal stability (glass transition temperature = 181 °C) without producing crosslinking. After thermal annealing, the crystallinity improves and the grain size of PTCDI‐C13 domains grown on the COC/SiO2 gate dielectric increases significantly. The resulting n‐type FETs exhibit high atmospheric field‐effect mobilities, up to 0.90 cm2 V−1 s−1 in the 20 V saturation regime and long‐term stability with respect to H2O/O2 degradation, hysteresis, or sweep‐stress over 110 days. By integrating the n‐type FETs with p‐type pentacene‐based FETs in a single device, high performance organic complementary inverters that exhibit high gain (exceeding 45 in ambient air) are realized.

Here, we report on the fabrication of low-voltage-operating pentacene-based organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) that utilize crosslinked cyanoethylated poly(vinyl alcohol) (CR-V) gate dielectrics. The crosslinked CR-V-based OFET could be operated successfully at low voltages (below 4 V), but abnormal behaviour during device operation, such as uncertainty in the field-effect mobility (μ) and hysteresis, was induced by the slow polarization of moieties embedded in the gate dielectric (e.g. polar functionalities, ionic impurities, water and solvent molecules). In an effort to improve the stability of OFET operation, we measured the dependence of μ and hysteresis on dielectric thickness, CR-V crosslinking conditions and sweep rate of the gate bias. The influence of the CR-V surface properties on μ, hysteresis, and the structural and morphological features of the pentacene layer grown on the gate dielectric was characterized and compared with the properties of pentacene grown on a polystyrene surface.

The influence of hydroxyl groups on the hysteresis of pentacene field-effect transistors (FETs) and metal-insulator-semiconductor diodes containing poly(4-vinyl phenol) and poly(4-vinyl phenol-co-methyl methacrylate) (PVP-PMMA) gate dielectrics was investigated. The electrical characteristics and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements show that hysteresis is intimately related to the presence of free OH groups in the polymer gate dielectrics. The methyl methacryl moieties in PVP-PMMA minimize residual water in the polymer and form hydrogen bonds with the hydroxyl groups, thus reducing the number of free OH species. Therefore, pentacene FETs and inverters using PVP-PMMA gate dielectrics exhibit high, hysteresis-free performances.

Silicon monoxide (SiO) thin films were introduced as an efficient interlayer for achieving plasma-based organic light-emitting diode (OLED) surface passivation. The SiO thin films could be consecutively formed via thermal evaporation, without breaking the vacuum, after deposition of the OLED cathode. The plasma resistivity and UV-blocking characteristics of the SiO interlayer protected the OLED devices against electrical and optical degradation during the plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) passivation processes. In addition, the nonconformal deposition and hydroxyl group-rich surface characteristics of the SiO thin films yielded enhanced surface pinhole coverage and a higher initial film density in the subsequently deposited PEALD-based Al2O3 barrier film. As a result, the OLEDs with a SiO/Al2O3 bilayer passivation layer displayed a remarkably increased device shelf life compared to devices prepared using Al2O3-only passivation. A MOCON test showed that the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of the SiO/Al2O3 bilayer film was 0.0033 g/(m(2) day), 2.3 times lower than the rate of a single Al2O3 barrier film. The results of our study demonstrated the multipurpose role of a SiO interlayer in plasma-based OLED passivation. The layer acted as a damage-free protective layer for the underlying OLED devices and an assistant layer to improve the upper barrier film performance.

We have fabricated organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and inverters using photocrosslinkable poly(vinyl cinnamate) (PVCN) as a gate dielectric. The photocrosslinked PVCN dielectric film has superior insulating properties and does not require thermal curing. The high water resistance of the dielectric, which arises because PVCN is hydroxyl group-free, means that the devices were found to be hysteresis-free in all operations. The OFETs with the PVCN dielectric were found to exhibit a carrier mobility of 0.51cm2∕Vs, an on/off ratio of 106, and a subthreshold swing of 0.913V/decade. An organic inverter consisting of two OFETs exhibited a high inverter gain of 17.9.