Fully-printed high-performance organic thin-film transistors and circuitry on one-micron-thick polymer films

Abstract

Thin, ultra-flexible devices that can be manufactured in a process that covers a large area will be essential to realizing low-cost, wearable electronic applications including foldable displays and medical sensors. The printing technology will be instrumental in fabricating these novel electronic devices and circuits; however, attaining fully printed devices on ultra-flexible films in large areas has typically been a challenge. Here we report on fully printed organic thin-film transistor devices and circuits fabricated on 1-mm-thick parylene-C films with high field-effect mobility (1.0 cm 2 V À 1 s À 1 ) and fast operating speeds (about 1 ms) at low operating voltages. The devices were extremely light (2 g m À 2 ) and exhibited excellent mechanical stability. The devices remained operational even under 50% compressive strain without significant changes in their performance. These results represent significant progress in the fabrication of fully printed organic thin-film transistor devices and circuits for use in unobtrusive electronic applications such as wearable sensors.

Thin-film organic semiconductor devices: from flexibility to ultraflexibility

“…Therefore, to reduce the bending strain at extreme bending states (corresponding to a very small R b ), ultra-thin substrate [60,96,97,123,124,139,[142][143][144][145][146][147][148] or even substrate-free configurations [149][150][151] which reduce the total thickness of the devices and achieve ultraflexibility or extreme conformability, are generally employed.…”

Smart Surgical Catheter for C‐Reactive Protein Sensing Based on an Imperceptible Organic Transistor

“…Mechanical peeling or chemical etching is the two commonly used delamination methods. In the mechanical method, the ultrathin devices are generally peeled off from the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamps or parylene release layer by mechanical forces 8, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. While in the chemical method, the devices are released by dissolving different sacrificial layers like polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)25, 26 or polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)27, 28, 29 with the corresponding solvents.…”

Ultraflexible organic electronics

“…For example, Tokito and co-workers fabricated p -channel organic transistors and inverter circuits using only printing processes on 1-μ m-thick polymeric fi lms. 50 The parylene fi lms were deposited on glass plates by chemical vapor deposition. The surface of the parylene was coated with a 130-nm cross-linked poly(vinylpyridine) (PVP) layer for reduced surface roughness (0.18 nm rms).…”

“…[44][45][46][47][48] In this article, we review recent progress on large-area, ultrafl exible, and stretchable organic electronics and related technologies. In particular, ultrafl exible organic thin-fi lm devices such as organic thin-fi lm transistors (OTFTs), [49][50][51][52][53] organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells, 54 and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) 55,56 are described. Next, emerging applications using fl exible organic devices are presented.…”