Printable Organic‐Inorganic Nanoscale Multilayer Gate Dielectrics for Thin‐Film Transistors Enabled by a Polymeric Organic Interlayer

Abstract

Here, a new approach to the layer-by-layer solution-processed fabrication of organic/inorganic hybrid self-assembled nanodielectrics (SANDs) is reported and it is demonstrated that these ultrathin gate dielectric films can be printed. The organic SAND component, named P-PAE, consists of polarizable π-electron phosphonic acid-based units bound to a polymeric backbone. Thus, the new polymeric SAND (PSAND) can be fabricated either by spin-coating or blade-coating in air, by alternating P-PAE, a capping reagent layer, and an ultrathin ZrOx layer. The new PSANDs thickness vary from 6 to 15 nm depending on the number of organic-ZrOx bilayers, exhibit tunable film thickness, well-defined nanostructures, large electrical capacitance (up to 558 nF cm −2), and good insulating properties (leakage current densities as low as 10 −6 A cm −2). Organic thin-film transistors that are fabricated with representative p-/n-type organic molecular/polymeric semiconducting materials, function well at low voltages (<3.0 V). Furthermore, flexible TFTs fabricated with PSAND exhibit excellent mechanical flexibility and good stress stability, offering a promising route to low operating voltage flexible electronics. Finally, printable PSANDs are also demonstrated and afford TFTs with electrical properties comparable to those achieved with the spin-coated PSAND-based devices.

Self-Assembled Nanodielectrics for Solution-Processed Top-Gate Amorphous IGZO Thin-Film Transistors

“…1−4 In addition to the results presented here, the potential use of solution-processed SANDs in manufacturing is further strengthened by the recent development of printed SANDs. 16 The well-known sensitivity of a-IGZO to atmospheric effects is known to contribute to device instability and is a major attraction of top-gate devices. 37,48,66 Numerous studies have reported improved environmental stability of top-gate a-IGZO TFTs using a variety of dielectric materials.…”

“…Furthermore, the advantages are limited not only to the broad array of compatible unconventional semiconductors but also in the tailorability of the SAND structure itself in regard to both the inorganic 6−8 and organic components. 15,16 Note that IGZO is currently the most important manufactured metal oxide semiconductor material, and sputtered IGZO TFTs have been implemented in many commercial devices. 3 In previous studies, we demonstrated combustion synthesis as a route to high-quality amorphous IGZO (a-IGZO) films from precursor solutions.…”

Self-healing materials enable free-standing seamless large-scale 3D printing

“…Three-dimensional (3D) printing can readily fabricate complex 3D structures, which is hard to achieve by traditional processing methods [1,2]. Therefore, 3D printing has wide applications in various fields, such as electronics, biomedical engineering, energy industry, and aerospace [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. There are many types of 3D printing technologies such as digital light processing (DLP), selective laser sintering (SLS), stereolithography (SLA), fused deposition modeling (FDM), and direct ink writing (DIW) [15,16].…”

Thermally Robust Zirconia Nanorod/Polyimide Hybrid Films as a Highly Flexible Dielectric Material

“…Ceramic materials that have a high dielectric constant are widely used as high- k ceramic fillers. These ceramic materials include barium titanate (BT; BaTiO 3 ), − titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), hafnium dioxide (HfO 2 ), zirconium dioxide (ZrO 2 ), − copper calcium titanate (CCTO), and BaSrTiO 3 nanofibers . Among these ceramic materials, ZrO 2 is the most extensively studied dielectric and is widely considered to be an excellent candidate because of its relatively high dielectric constant, low leakage current, good thermal stability, large band gap (5–7 eV), and high k (25) .…”