Poly(3-hexylthiophene) thin-film transistors with variable polymer dielectrics for transfer-printed flexible electronics

Hines, D. R.; Southard, Adrian; Fuhrer, Michael S.

doi:10.1063/1.2959821

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…1,2 Many organic semiconductors, 3,4 oxide semiconductors, 5,6 and amorphous and polysilicon 7,8 have been used as an active semiconductor layer for a flexible device application. But due to their intrinsic limitations, it is not possible to obtain high performance devices.…”

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confidence: 99%

Hydrogen Defect Passivation of Silicon Transistor on Plastic for High Performance Flexible Device Application

Hasan¹,

Yun²,

Koo³

et al. 2010

Electrochem. Solid-State Lett.

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The electrical characteristics of a transistor on a transferred silicon ribbon are demonstrated. The process temperature is limited to 200°C for potential use on plastic sheets. Additional hydrogen annealing reduces the threshold voltage and improves the transistor properties. A high mobility of around 160 cm 2 /V s, with a high on/off ratio and an off current of as low as Ͻ10 11 A, is achieved. The flexibility of the device is evaluated after applying stress in the bended condition. The device shows very little change in properties with a bending radius Ͻ4 mm. Overall, good electrical and mechanical properties are demonstrated for future use on flexible device applications.Electronic devices on a flexible plastic substrate soon have a market potential in the form of flexible displays, radio frequency identification tags, solar cells, and various biosystems. 1,2 Many organic semiconductors, 3,4 oxide semiconductors, 5,6 and amorphous and polysilicon 7,8 have been used as an active semiconductor layer for a flexible device application. But due to their intrinsic limitations, it is not possible to obtain high performance devices. Hence, there is no alternative but to use a single-crystal semiconductor as an active layer. Mietl et al., 9 Menard et al.,10 and Ahn et al. 11 developed a transfer technique where after the doping process, a single crystalline silicon active layer can be transferred onto the plastic sheet from the silicon-on-insulator ͑SOI͒ wafers, which is quite attractive for a high performance transistor.The dielectric grown at low temperatures on the plastic sheets contains many defect sites and interface dangling bonds. 12,13 To improve the device properties, successful defect passivation is absolutely necessary. Hydrogen ͑H 2 ͒ passivates the defect sites far more effectively, especially near the interface region. 14,15 Some studies also show effective passivation even at relatively lower temperatures. [16][17][18] In this study, transistor properties with an aluminum oxide ͑Al 2 O 3 ͒ gate dielectric and platinum ͑Pt͒ as a gate electrode are presented. Properties in the bended condition are also reported.After defining the doping region on the SOI wafer, the phosphorous spin-on-dopant ͑P509͒ was used for convenience. 19 The doping concentration was measured to be 2 ϫ 10 18 cm −3 after activation annealing at 950°C. After etching the underneath SiO 2 layer, 290 nm of the top Si layer can be transferred onto the polyimide ͑PI͒ sheet via the poly͑dimethylsiloxane͒ stamping process. A detailed transfer process has been described elsewhere. 11 After the transfer process, Al 2 O 3 was deposited as a gate dielectric in a plasmaenhanced atomic layer deposition chamber at 200°C. The thickness of the dielectric was ϳ77 nm and that of the dielectric constant was 7.8 nm. After the source-drain gate patterning, platinum of ϳ100 nm thickness was deposited as an electrode, and a lift-off process was adopted. Figure 1a shows the schematic cross-sectional view of the top-gate device structure on the PI sheet. The d...

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confidence: 99%

Hydrogen Defect Passivation of Silicon Transistor on Plastic for High Performance Flexible Device Application

Hasan¹,

Yun²,

Koo³

et al. 2010

Electrochem. Solid-State Lett.

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“…The TP process is described in detail else-where. [21,22,24,25] Briefly, TP involves the transfer of a printable layer from one substrate (transfer substrate) to another (device substrate). The process relies on differential adhesion, where the adhesion of the printable layer to the device substrate is larger than that of the printable layer to the transfer substrate.…”

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confidence: 99%

Low‐Temperature Plasma‐Assisted Nanotransfer Printing between Thermoplastic Polymers

et al. 2009

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Plasma activation of thermoplastic polymer surfaces enables nanotransfer printing (NTP) at dramatically lower processing temperatures. Polar functional groups introduced by plasma surface activation render the polymer surfaces hydrophilic and cause a dramatic increase in interfacial adhesion, thus lowering the temperature at which NTP can be successfully performed to below the glass‐transition temperature of each polymer.

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“…A wide variety of materials have been utilized in the fabrication of thin-film transistors (TFT) and mechanical resonators. Thin-film transistors with active layers of Pentacene (Pn), poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), carbon nanotube mats (CNTM), graphene and silicon (Si) nano-ribbons have all been fabricated with a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) dielectric layer on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate [1,2,3,4]. Figure 1 shows optical micrographs of (a) CNTM, (b) graphene and (c) Si nano-ribbon devices.…”

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confidence: 99%

Electronic and mechanical systems printed onto flexible substrates

Hines

Huang

Williams

et al. 2009

2009 International Semiconductor Device Research Symposium

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Printing methodologies that combine capabilities from both nanoimprint lithography (NIL) and transfer printing (TP) have been utilized to fabricate electronic and mechanical device components onto plastic substrates. A wide variety of materials have been utilized in the fabrication of thin-film transistors (TFT) and mechanical resonators. Thin-film transistors with active layers of Pentacene (Pn), poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), carbon nanotube mats (CNTM), graphene and silicon (Si) nano-ribbons have all been fabricated with a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) dielectric layer on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate [1,2,3,4]. Figure 1 shows optical micrographs of (a) CNTM, (b) graphene and (c) Si nano-ribbon devices. The performance of each of these devices on plastic is as good as that for non-printed devices fabricated using a SiO 2 dielectric layer on a Si substrate. The most recently fabricate Si nanoribbon TFT devices have been doped n-type and exhibit an electron mobility of 144 cm 2 /Vs. Mechanical resonators constructed from both Si features and thin Au-coated polymer films are shown in figure 2. These structures were aligned and printed over a previously printed cavity on a polycarbonate (PC) substrate. The mechanical response of these structures was measured optically in air using an AC voltage applied to a probe tip to actuate the resonator. For a Si resonator of thickness 70 nm and area 10,000 μm 2 a resonance frequency of approximately 480 KHz was measured (Fig. 2a). For a 200 nm thick PC film coated with 35 nm of Au and area 10,000μm 2 , a resonance frequency of approximately 520 KHz was measured for the highly strained (note wrinkle pattern in Au layer) device shown in Fig. 2b and of approximately 35 KHz for the relatively unstrained device shown in Fig. 2c. Preliminary calculations suggest a fundamental resonant frequency of 42 KHz for the Si resonator (Fig. 2a) and 80 KHz for the (unstrained) Au coated PC film (Fig. 2c). Differences between measured and calculated frequencies are most likely related to strain in the printed structures. Similar printing methods have been used to fabricated transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors and mechanical resonators onto plastic substrates in an additive process that does not require the use of chemical processing on the device substrate. The transfer printing process can thus be used to build circuits based on dissimilar materials in ways not possible with standard lithographic methods. For example, an array containing both inorganic, metallic and polymeric resonators could be printed onto a common substrate. Details of the printing methods and characteristics of the resulting devices will be presented as a function of membrane material, thickness, printing conditions and cavity dimensions.

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Poly(3-hexylthiophene) thin-film transistors with variable polymer dielectrics for transfer-printed flexible electronics

Cited by 27 publications

References 34 publications

Hydrogen Defect Passivation of Silicon Transistor on Plastic for High Performance Flexible Device Application

Hydrogen Defect Passivation of Silicon Transistor on Plastic for High Performance Flexible Device Application

Low‐Temperature Plasma‐Assisted Nanotransfer Printing between Thermoplastic Polymers

Electronic and mechanical systems printed onto flexible substrates

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