See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/262904291

Organic Thin Film Transistors: Structures, Models, Materials,

Fabrication, and Applications: A Review

Article in Polymer Reviews · February 2014

DOI: 10.1080/15583724.2013.848455

CITATIONS READS

314 14,025

3 authors:

Brijesh Kumar Brajesh Kumar Kaushik

Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women Delhi India Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
161 PUBLICATIONS 1,808 CITATIONS 526 PUBLICATIONS 7,197 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Yuvraj Singh Negi

Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
199 PUBLICATIONS 7,457 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Brijesh Kumar on 23 June 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

This article was downloaded by: [Brijesh Kumar]
On: 20 February 2014, At: 23:32
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered
office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Polymer Reviews
Publication details, including instructions for authors and
subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/lmsc20

Organic Thin Film Transistors:

Structures, Models, Materials,
Fabrication, and Applications: A Review
a b a
Brijesh Kumar , Brajesh Kumar Kaushik & Yuvraj Singh Negi
a
Department of Polymer and Process Engineering , Indian Institute
of Technology Roorkee, Saharanpur Campus , Saharanpur , U. P. ,
India
b
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering , Indian
Institute of Technology , Roorkee , Uttarakhand , India
Published online: 18 Feb 2014.

To cite this article: Brijesh Kumar , Brajesh Kumar Kaushik & Yuvraj Singh Negi (2014) Organic Thin
Film Transistors: Structures, Models, Materials, Fabrication, and Applications: A Review, Polymer
Reviews, 54:1, 33-111, DOI: 10.1080/15583724.2013.848455

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15583724.2013.848455

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the
“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,
our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to
the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions
and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,
and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content
should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources
of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,
proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or
howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising
out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any
substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,
systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &
Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-
and-conditions
 Polymer Reviews, 54:33–111, 2014
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1558-3724 print / 1558-3716 online
DOI: 10.1080/15583724.2013.848455

Organic Thin Film Transistors: Structures, Models,

Materials, Fabrication, and Applications: A Review

BRIJESH KUMAR,1 BRAJESH KUMAR KAUSHIK,2

AND YUVRAJ SINGH NEGI1
1
Department of Polymer and Process Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
Roorkee, Saharanpur Campus, Saharanpur, U. P., India
2
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Indian Institute
of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Organic thin film transistor (OTFT) based device modeling and circuit application is
a rapidly emerging research area. Taking cognizance of this fact, our paper reviews
various basic to advanced OTFT structures, their performance parameters, materials
of individual OTFT layers, their molecular structures, OTFT charge transport phenom-
ena, and fabrication techniques. The performance of p- and n-type conducting polymer
and small molecule organic semiconductors are reviewed primarily in terms of field
effect mobility, current on/off ratio, and operating voltage for various OTFT structures.
Moreover, different organic/inorganic materials for realizing the dielectric layer, elec-
trodes, and the substrate in an OTFT are analyzed. Some of the compact models that
are essential for predicting and optimizing the device performance are described that
takes into account the mobility enhancement factor and channel length modulation. A
detailed study of the single gate, dual gate, vertical channel, and cylindrical gate OTFT
structures is carried out. Furthermore, the paper discusses some of the interesting and
upcoming applications of organic transistors such as inverters, light emitting diodes
(LEDs), RFID tags, and DNA sensors. Although organic transistors boast of a bright
future with a wide spectrum of applications, but they still face several challenges in
terms of mobility, voltage swings, noise margins, sub-threshold slope, stability, etc., that
needs to be resolved to make them a commercially sustainable and viable technology.

Keywords Dual gate, mobility, organic thin film transistor, OLED, organic inverter,
organic semiconductors, OTFT structure, RFID

1. Introduction
Organic electronics is a field of intense academic and commercial interest over the past
two decades. Commercial devices, incorporating organic materials are gradually entering
the market. Steady improvement in the electrical performance and the stability of organic
semiconductors (OSCs) has opened an era of low cost and large area electronic applications.
Prior to the existence of conjugated polymers in the late 1970s, these materials were mainly

Received March 14, 2013; accepted September 20, 2013.

Address correspondence to Brijesh Kumar, Department of Polymer and Process Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Saharanpur Campus, Saharanpur 247001, U. P., India. E-mail:
[email protected]
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at
www.tandfonline.com/lmsc.

33
 34 B. Kumar et al.

High Speed,
High Performance,
Silicon Ultra LowPower,
Ultra-Miniature,
High Temperature

Cost
Large Area,
Organic Low Cost,Flexible,
Easier Manufacturing

Performance

Figure 1. Cost versus performance of organic and inorganic semiconductors.

known as the insulators. Shirakawa et al.1 in 1976 first introduced the conducting organic
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

materials that opened up a new research domain, bridging the fields of condensed matter
physics and chemistry.
Tsumura et al.2 reported the first organic thin film transistor (OTFT) in 1986 that
consisted of organic semiconductor (OSC) material for facilitating the flow of electric
current. Since then, the OTFT characteristics have undergone spectacular improvements.
The key benefits of organic transistors are direct fabrication on flexible low-cost substrates
and low processing temperatures that enable cost efficient production.3 On the other hand,
organic materials are characterized by lower mobility (μ) in comparison to the conventional
semiconductors. After consistent development, the mobility of organic transistors has been
augmented by several orders, now in excess of 15 cm2/V.s4 for single crystal and 3.2 cm2/V.s5
for thin film. With optimization of fabrication methodology and synthesis of novel materials,
the mobility can be undoubtedly increased further.
A noteworthy progress in fabrication methodology of organic transistors led the re-
searchers to utilize various flexible substrates, such as paper,6 plastic,7 glass,8 and fiber.9 The
OTFTs fabricated on flexible substrate and glass, demonstrated comparable characteristics
to the amorphous silicon hydrogenated (a-Si:H) TFT.10 With increased fabrication facili-
ties the OTFTs are being integrated in vital and high-end applications, such as flat panel
display, light emitting diode (LED),11 radio frequency identification (RFID) tag,12 sensor,13
static random access memory (SRAM),14 e-paper,15 and flexible integrated circuits.16 For a
comparative study of organic and inorganic semiconductors applications, Fig. 1 compares
their performance and cost characteristics. Though, the performance of organic transistor
is not comparable to the silicon transistor, still it finds utilization in certain innovative
applications that are not possible with conventional semiconductors, or if feasible they are
too expensive to be realized commercially.
The organic semiconductors that are invariably used are pentacene, poly (3-
hexylthiophene) (P3HT), poly (3-alkylthiophene) (P3AT), and poly (3-octylthiophene)
(P3OT).17 Most of the reported organic TFTs are based on a thick insulator layer, usually in
the range of 100 to 300 nm, and even up to a few micrometers.18, 19 Therefore, reasonably
high supply voltage (>25 V) is required to accumulate the charge carriers at OSC/dielectric
interface. However, with the recent progress and latest developed insulators like tantalum
pentoxide (Ta2 O3 )20 and hafnium oxide (HfO2 ),21 OTFTs can also be driven at lower supply
voltage (≤5 V) and that too with a reduced thickness (≤50 nm). Although, these inorganic
insulators are characterized by high dielectric constant (k), they find limited application
because of their inability in achieving flexibility due to high fabrication temperature
(>800◦ C). Currently, researchers are focusing to replace them by the organic insulators
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 35

that can be fabricated at room temperature through simple printing techniques.22 With
the advent of soluble organic materials, realization of the printed flexible electronics have
become feasible now.23
This paper also reviews the recent advancements in the performance of organic TFTs
with a motive to present an overview of high performance organic materials, advanced
device structures, charge transport models, fabrication techniques, performance influencing
factors, and some vital applications. The paper is organized in twelve sections, including the
current introductory section numbered section 1. The operating principal and characteristic
parameters of organic transistors are discussed in section 2. Different OTFT structures
are explained in section 3, followed by specific DC compact models in section 4. The
charge transport models for organic semiconductors are presented in section 5. Different
materials used in individual OTFT layers are discussed in section 6 along with their chemical
structures and performance, mainly in terms of field effect mobility (μ) and on/off current
ratio (ION /IOFF ). Major processing steps involved in the fabrication are illustrated in section
7, whereas the performance influencing factors of organic transistors are discussed in
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

section 8. Later on, some important applications are dealt with in section 9, while section
10 presents some of the limitations of organic transistors. Recommendations for future
work are incorporated in section 11. Finally, section 12 draws necessary conclusions.

2. Organic Thin Film Transistors

The concept of forming a transistor by means of thin film was primarily suggested and
developed by Weimer24 in 1962 by producing a semiconductor film of cadmium sulfide
(inorganic semiconductor). Later in 1979, LeComber et al.25 reported a TFT based on
hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) that opened up the possibilities of forming
a thin film at a comparatively lower temperature. Subsequently, in the 1980s, several
researchers, including Tsumura et al.,2 Kudo et al.,26 and Ebisawa et al.27 demonstrated
organic transistors on glass and plastic foil. To date, enormous efforts have been made to
enhance the performance of OTFTs.

2.1 Operating Principle

An OTFT is realized with a layered structural design consisting of a thin film of organic
semiconductor, an insulator, and three electrodes named source (S), drain (D), and gate
(G) as shown in Fig. 2. The source and drain electrodes inject and extract the charge
carriers, respectively, and are in contact with the active layer. On the other hand, the gate
is separated from the semiconductor film through insulator that controls the conductivity
of the channel. The operating principal of organic transistors is very much similar to the
MOSFETS; however, the concept of channel formation is quite different. The channel in
OTFT is formed by accumulation of the charge as in the bulk semiconductors, whereas in
a MOSFET the inversion process takes place to form a layer of charge carriers.3 Similar
to MOSFET, an organic transistor operates as a voltage controlled-current source wherein,
on applying a bias between the gate and source (Vgs ), a sheet of mobile charge carriers
is accumulated near the semiconductor/insulator interface that allows the flow of current
through the active layer on applying a suitable drain to source potential (Vds ). A minimum
gate voltage required for accumulating charge carriers at the OSC/insulator interface is
known as the threshold voltage (Vt ).
A uniform density of carriers is established in the channel before applying the voltage
at the drain end. However, with the application of Vds , the channel behaves like a variable
 36 B. Kumar et al.

Insulator

Organic
Semiconductor W

Drain (D)
Source (S) Substrate Vds
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Gate (G)
Vgs

Figure 2. Schematic of the device configuration of OTFT.

resistor that exhibits an increase in potential from the source to drain.10 Despite the differ-
ence in charge transport physics of organic transistors, the current-voltage characteristics
from linear to the saturation regime can be expressed similar to that of a MOSFET. As
long as the drain voltage remains lower than the overdrive voltage (Vds <Vgs −Vt ), the drain
current builds up linearly due to the presence of carriers all along the channel. Furthermore,
a magnitude of the drain voltage close to Vgs −Vt , results in a non-linear increase in the
current. Finally, at Vds = Vgs −Vt , the current saturates due to pinching-off of the channel
and further increase in Vds does not contribute in enhancing the magnitude of the current.
Fundamentally, an OTFT operates like a capacitor that produces an electric field in
the dielectric at negative/positive Vgs for p/n type OSCs. It results in an accumulation of
holes/electrons by means of aligning the metal’s Fermi level near HOMO (highest occupied
molecular orbital) or LUMO (lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) levels of p- or n-type
semiconductors, respectively. Figure 3 shows a combined energy diagram for a typical
combination of gold (S/D) and pentacene (OSC). Since, the Fermi level has been distant
from the LUMO edge; therefore, the injection of an electron is insufficient on applying
a positive gate bias. Accordingly, no current flows in the pentacene layer at positive Vgs ,

Energy (eV)
0
1
LUMO
2
3
4 HOMO
4.9eV
5.1eV
5 EF
6
7
Gold (Au) Pentacene

Figure 3. Energy band diagram for a typical combination of gold (S/D) and pentacene (OSC).
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 37

rather a small amount of leakage current builds up through the insulating layer.28 On the
other hand, holes are injected through the source by reversing the gate voltage owing to the
closeness of the HOMO level to the Fermi level. Due to formation of positively charged
channel, pentacene is said to be a p-type organic material.

2.2 Characteristic Parameters

There are several significant parameters that determine the applicability of an organic tran-
sistor. Some of these important parameters include field dependent mobility (μ), threshold
voltage (Vt ), on/off current ratio (ION /IOFF ), and sub-threshold slope (SS). These parameters
are often influenced by several factors, such as device geometry, materials of different
layers, grain size of OSC thin film, structural dimensions, and morphology of the semicon-
ductor. Necessary prerequisites for a superior organic transistor are 1) high mobility, 2) low
threshold voltage, 3) large on/off current ratio, and 4) steeper sub-threshold slope.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

2.2.1 Mobility. The mobility of a device is described as the average charge carrier drift
velocity per unit electric field. It is a measure of how efficiently charge carriers can move
along the conducting path. It is an important parameter in determining the processing speed
of a device. In fact, high mobility is a key factor in obtaining a large on-current that is
essentially required for memory applications. The mobility of n-type OSCs is found lower
in comparison to p-type due to their large band gaps. For high performance p-type OSC
such as pentacene, it has already exceeded beyond 3.2 cm2/V.s5. Now, the researchers are
more focused on improving the mobility of n-type materials, so as to realize complementary
logic circuits successfully. The mobility of an organic transistor enhances with an increase
in the gate overdrive voltage and is, thereby, named as field dependent mobility.29–32
Horowitz et al.33 and Deen et al.34 demonstrated the variation in mobility by means of a
mobility enhancement factor, α. Based on the alpha power law function, gate bias mobility
is expressed as

μ = μ0 (Vgs − Vt ) α (1)

where μo is the band mobility of an OSC determined at very low Vgs (∼0.5V). The parameter
α that usually lies in the range of 0.2–0.535 is dependent on the conduction mechanism of
the device, doping density, and the dielectric permittivity of active material. An evidence
of enhancement in mobility with respect to gate bias was reported by Dimitrakopoulos
and Malenfant36 for pentacene transistor, where it ranged from 0.02–1.26 cm2/V.s for a
variation in Vgs from −14 to −146V. Another factor that strongly affects the mobility is
grain size that depends on how perfectly semiconductor layer is deposited. Horowitz and
Hajlaoui37 reported a grain size dependent mobility for octithiophene TFT. Similarly, Knipp
et al.38 demonstrated the impact of grain size on the mobility of a pentacene based TFT.
Significant improvements in the mobility of p and n type organic materials are obtained
with the passage of time by synthesizing novel high performance materials and optimizing
the fabrication techniques that would increase the possibility of realizing organic devices
for high speed applications such as graphics, animation, and the games.

2.2.2 Threshold Voltage. Threshold voltage is the minimum gate voltage required for
accumulating the charge carriers at the OSC/insulator interface forming a conducting
path between the source and the drain. It determines the switching behavior of a device;
thereby, it needs to be controlled to ensure proper operation of the devices and thereby the
 38 B. Kumar et al.

circuits.39–41 It shows a strong dependence on the doping concentration, dielectric constant

of the insulator, channel length, and the thicknesses of the active (tosc ) and the dielectric
(tox ) layers. Kano et al.41 reported that the devices by means of smaller length and the
larger OSC thickness are liable to have reduced threshold voltages. In addition to this, a
decrease in the thickness of the insulating layer results in a significant reduction in the
threshold voltage due to high gate capacitance. Lower Vt is useful in reducing the device
power consumption and is, thereby, beneficial in producing portable devices.
Organic material constitutes the trap states that are caused by non-crystalline structure
and defects. Horowitz et al.39 first investigated the presence of shallow traps in the active
layer. The filling of these traps is essentially required before accumulating the carriers at the
OSC/insulator interface. Later, Pernstich et al.40 verified an increase in the trap states due to
existence of the charge states or dipoles at the surface of SiO2 insulator. These dipoles can
be reduced substantially by employing a surface treatment to the insulator layer that helps
to build a good interface between the semiconductor and insulator. Besides this, the trap
states can be reduced by forming a smooth layer of organic semiconductor as it exhibits
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

less morphological disorders. This can be achieved by optimizing the deposition process
of the active layer that enables a greater number of charge carriers to be accumulated at the
lower gate voltage.

2.2.3 Current On/Off Ratio. The ratio of the current in accumulation mode to the depletion
mode is termed as the current on/off ratio. A high dielectric constant of the insulator, thin
layer of semiconductor, and low doping concentration are the key factors in creating a large
difference between the on and off current.42 The on/off current ratio depends on the mobility
and the thicknesses of the semiconductor and dielectric layers which can be expressed as

ION Ci μ(Vgs − Vt )2
= (2)
IOFF tosc Vds σ
W
IOFF = tosc Vds σ (3)
L
where σ is the conductivity of the channel, L is the channel length, W is the channel width,
and Ci represents the gate dielectric capacitance per unit area. Lowering the thickness of
dielectric and semiconducting layers results in an increase of ION and decrease of IOFF ,
respectively, that increases the ION /IOFF ratio. Resendiz et al.43 reported an increase in the
ION /IOFF from 10 to 5 × 1010 for P3HT based TFT, on scaling the active film thickness from
160 to 20 nm. The current ratio was found to be more dependent on tosc due to a dominant
impact of the off-current over the on-current. The off current can be reduced substantially by
using a smaller thickness of the semiconductor. Recently, Islam44 demonstrated a reduction
in off-current by six orders of magnitude when the film thickness was reduced from 45
to 10 nm. Instead of high mobility, a high current ratio exceeding 108 is an essential
requirement for display applications.42 Usually short channel devices are fabricated to
produce a high on/off current ratio.

2.2.4 Sub-Threshold Slope. A sub-threshold slope (SS) is a ratio of change in the gate
biasing to the change in the drain current in logarithmic scale that can be expressed as
∂Vgs
SS = (4)
∂ log10 (Ids )
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 39

Alternatively, it is a measure of impurity concentration, interface state, and trap density

that mainly affect the switching behavior of a transistor. With the change in drain and gate
biasing, large variations can be observed in this slope due to a change in the conductivity
of the channel. The sub-threshold operation of an OTFT is closely related to the mobility
enhancement for carrier hopping. Lower trap density results in a steeper slope that shows
better switching behavior.45
SS is an important parameter that determines an efficient usage of the transistor as a
switch. The quality of an active thin film achieved during the fabrication process affects
this slope substantially. Cosseddu and Bonfiglio46 demonstrated a discontinuity in the
semiconductor layer that led to the accumulation of defects and increase in the trap states
which resulted in a high sub-threshold slope. To circumvent this, Cui and Liang19 reported a
reduction of 35% in SS by placing an additional gate and dielectric to the single gate device.
Furthermore, Schon et al.47,48 reported a decrease in SS by improving interface between
the semiconductor and dielectric layer. In fact, a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of an
insulator is preferably one of the solutions to achieve better switching response. Klauk
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

et al.49 illustrated a low sub-threshold slope of about 100 mV/decade by producing a SAM
of Al2 O3 on the aluminum gate. Besides this, an increase in the carrier injection density
from the source contact can also help to attain a high switching response. It can be achieved
by improving the metal/semiconductor interface or selecting an appropriate combination
of the semiconductor and contact metal; wherein, the HOMO/LUMO level of OSC aligns
well to the Fermi level of metal.

3. Structures of Organic Thin Film Transistor

Organic TFTs are differentiated based on the ordering of the layers regardless of the
materials and dimensions. Even the structures are classified based on the relative position
of S, D, and G contacts with regard to the OSC layer. Single gate thin film transistors
were first proposed and made in the 1960s. Since then, enormous efforts have been made
towards the development of novel structures, such as dual gate,19 cylindrical gate,50 and
vertical channel51 that led to the improved electrostatic control of gate over the channel.
Certain merits and demerits are associated with each of them. This section presents the
performance of different OTFT structures.

3.1 Single Gate Structures

Primarily, the structure of a thin film transistor is distinguished on the basis of the gate
position that can be either on the top or at the bottom, accordingly named as top gate (TG)
and bottom gate (BG) structures, respectively. A TFT structure with the gate on the top
of a semiconductor is similar to the conventional MOSFET.2,52 However, the majority of
OTFTs are built as the bottom gate structure due to an ease in deposition of active material
on the insulator instead of at the bottom. In these structures, the methods pertaining to
thermal treatment can be safely employed to produce the insulating layer without creating
any impairment in the OSC layer.53 On the other hand, the performance of OTFT in the
top gate structure severely degrades, if the underlying OSC layer is contaminated during
the deposition of a metal gate at high temperature.54 Therefore, bottom gate structures are
preferred over the top gate.
The position of a source and drain contact with respect to the active layer further
classifies them into the top contact and bottom contact structures, while keeping gate
electrode at the same position. Figures 4(a) and 4(b) depicts the OTFT structures in top gate
 40 B. Kumar et al.

Gate Gate
Vgs
Insulator S Insulator D
Vgs
S OSC D OSC

Substrate Substrate
Vds Vds

(a) (b)

Figure 4. Top gate OTFTs: (a) TGTC and (b) TGBC structures.

top contact (TGTC) and top gate bottom contact (TGBC) configurations, whereas, their
output and transfer characteristics are shown in Figs. 5(a) and 5(b), respectively.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

The performance of the top and bottom gate structures are compared using pentacene
based TFT, with a channel length and channel width of 10 and 100 μm, respectively.
The thicknesses of the insulator and semiconductor are 5.7 and 30 nm, respectively. Gate
and S/D electrodes are of aluminum and gold, respectively, with a thickness of 20 nm
each. The structures and electrical characteristics of OTFTs for the bottom gate top contact
(BGTC) and bottom gate bottom contact (BGBC) configurations are shown in Figs. 6
and 7, respectively. Although, all the single gate structures are analyzed with the similar
dimensions, materials and operating voltage, but still a significant difference is observed
in the electrical characteristics. This difference is due to a dissimilar path traversed by the
charge carriers between the source and drain.54
The performance in terms of current, mobility, on/off current ratio, threshold voltage,
and sub-threshold slope for different single gate structures is summarized in the Table 1.
The top contact configuration demonstrates better performance in comparison to the bottom
contact due to less morphological disorders in the active layer. An average reduction of
62% in mobility is observed for the BGBC structure as compared to its counterpart due to
a high metal-OSC contact resistance caused by the contact barrier as well as a non-uniform
deposition of the semiconductor around the pre-patterned S/D contacts.57 On the other
hand, the BGTC structure exhibits a lower contact resistance due to large injection area for

-7 -6
TGBC
TGTC
Vgs=0.0V
-6 -5 TGBC
Vgs=-1.8V TGTC
-5 Vgs=-3.oV Vgs=0.0V
-4
Ids (µ A)

Vgs=-1.8V
-4
Ids μA

Vgs=-3.0V
-3
-3
-2 -2

-1 -1
0 0
0.0 -0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0 -2.5 -3.0 0.0 -0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0 -2.5 -3.0
Vds (V) Vgs (V)
(a) (b)

Figure 5. (a) Output and (b) transfer (at Vds = −1.5V) characteristics of OTFTs in the TGTC and
TGBC configurations.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 41

Vds
S D Vds
OSC S OSC D
Insulator Insulator
Vgs Vgs Gate
Gate
Substrate Substrate

(a) (b)

Figure 6. Bottom gate OTFTs: (a) BGTC and (b) BGBC structures.

the charge carriers that enables an elevated current at the identical structural parameters
and operating bias.58 Additionally, the bottom contact structure demonstrates a higher sub-
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

threshold slope in comparison to the top contact due to formation of a low mobility region
near the contacts that results in a subsequent rise in the trap density.
These structures are characterized by large performance variation due to the existence
of an energy barrier at the metal-OSC interface. Shim et al.59 reported a strong influence of
the Schottky barrier in the bottom contact structure, wherein, an increase of 0.4eV in the
barrier height resulted in a corresponding rise of 1K in the contact resistance. However,
the top contact structure showed a negligible dependence on the barrier height. The effect
of an energy barrier can be reduced substantially by improving the surfaces of the active
layer thin film and the S/D contacts. Furthermore, Gupta et al.18 reported almost 40 times
higher current in the top contact structure even at 70% reduced width as compared to the
bottom contact. The mobility of the BGBC structure was found to be lower by two orders
of magnitude due to a smaller injection area for the carriers.
Doping density is another important factor that affects the device behavior, significantly.
Ishikawa et al.60 demonstrated a large difference in the performance of top and bottom
contact devices based on the doping concentration in the active layer. As compared to the
bottom contact, the current in the top contact structure was achieved higher by seven orders
at a carrier concentration of 1014cm−3, whereas both devices exhibited almost an equal
current while concentration was increased to 1017cm−3. This is due to the availability of
sufficient charge carriers in the bottom contact structure even after filling the trap states

-6 -6
BGBC
Vgs=-0.0V BGTC
-5 -5 BGBC
Vgs=-1.8V
Vgs=-3.0V
-4 -4
Ids µ A

Ids µA

-3 BGTC -3
Vgs= 0.0V
Vgs=-1.8V
-2 -2
Vgs=-3.0V

-1 -1

0 0
0.0 -0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0 -2.5 -3.0 0.0 -0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0 -2.5 -3.0
Vds (V) V (V)
gs
(a) (b)

Figure 7. (a) Output and (b) transfer (at Vds = −1.5V) characteristics of OTFTs in the BGTC and
BGBC configurations.
 Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Table 1

42
Performance of single gate OTFTs in different configurations

Supply voltage (V)

Materials of Ids μ ION/ Vt SS
different layers Structure (μA) (cm2/Vs) IOFF (V) (V/dec.) Vds Vgs Ref.
OSC: Pentacene, S/D: TGTC −4.9 0.307 9×106 −1.0 0.096 −1.5 0 to −3 49, 53
Au, I: Al2 O3 , G: Al,
Sub: Glass
TGBC −2.5 0.246 2×103 −0.5 0.155
BGTC −4.5 0.395 5×107 −1.2 0.094
BGBC −3.4 0.301 4×107 −1.0 0.098
OSC: Pentacene, S/D: BGTC −12 0.085 NR −3.2 NR −25 0 to −20 18
Au, I: SiO2, G: n+ Si,
Sub: Si
BGBC −0.4 0.0014 NR −8.5 NR
OSC: Pentacene, S/D: BGTC −32 0.01 105 −32 7.2 −100 0 to −100 46
PEDOT/PSS, I: PET,
G: PEDOT/PSS, Sub:
Plastic
BGBC −8 0.004 105 −30 14.5
OSC: Pentacene, S/D: BGTC −1.2 0.45 1.6×103 −0.9 0.18 −5 0 to −2 55
Au, I: Al2 O3 , G: Al,
Sub: Glass
BGBC −0.1 0.15 8.5×104 −0.1 0.79
OSC: P3HT, S/D: Ti, I: TGBC −1.4 0.015 8.4×106 −1.3 NR −10 10 to −10 56
PMMA/TiO2 , G: Au,
Sub: Si
∗
NR: Not reported
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 43

completely. The device structure is not the sole factor that affects the OTFT performance;
rather the fabrication process and material properties also play dominant roles. In spite of
low performance, the bottom contact structures are promising for cost-effective flexible
electronic applications, since it can be fabricated through simple printing techniques61,62
that makes them highly suitable for large area display applications.

3.2 Dual Gate Structure

Organic transistors are realized in a dual gate (DG) configuration to achieve better charge
carrier modulation in the semiconductor layer. In 1981, the first DG-TFT based on the
Cadmium Selenide (CdSe) was demonstrated by Luo et al.63 Subsequently, Tuan et al.64
and Kaneko et al.65 reported a-Si:H based DG-TFTs in 1982 and 1992, respectively. Later
in 2005, Cui and Liang19 developed the first pentacene based dual gate OTFT.
Organic dual gate transistors demonstrate numerous advantages such as, higher on-
current, steeper sub-threshold slope (SS) and most importantly, a better control on threshold
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

voltage. Currently, researchers have focused in making use of this technique to realize novel
electronic circuits, such as ring-oscillator, differential amplifier, and A/D converter.16,49
This structure consists of a gate in the bottom (BG) along with its bottom insulator
(BI), S/D contacts, organic semiconductor, and a top gate (TG) with a top insulator (TI).
Schematics of single and dual gate transistors are shown in Figs. 8(a) and 8(b), respectively.
The bottom gate accumulates the carriers in the channel, while a bias on the top gate further
increases the conductivity of the channel electrostatically. Therefore, Vt can be controlled
by using an additional gate, but at an extra cost of gate material and increased fabrication
steps. External control on Vt can bring out a highly controlled operation of the device.66
A dual gate device performs better than the single gate mainly in terms of mobility,
on/off current ratio and sub-threshold slope.67,68 Based on the bias conditions it can be
operated in top, bottom, and the dual gate modes. In the top-gate mode, a voltage at the
top gate is applied, while the bottom gate is kept at ground potential; however, the case
is reversed in the bottom-gate mode. In the single-gate bias mode, the second gate has
no effect on the conduction, whereas, both the gates play a vital role in accumulating the
charge at the OSC/insulator interface in dual-gate mode. By applying bias at both the gates,
two separate channels are formed in the active layer.
In the dual-gate mode, the total charge (QTotal ) produced by both the gates is expressed
as69
QTotal = CB . VB + CT .VT (5)

where CB /CT and VB /VT are the capacitance and voltage, respectively, at the bottom/top
gate. Furthermore, by considering fixed bias at the top gate while sweeping the voltage of

Top Gate

Top Insulator

S OSC D
S OSC D
Insulator
Bottom Insulator
Bottom Gate
Bottom Gate
(a) (b)

Figure 8. Schematics of OTFT in (a) single and (b) dual-gate structures.

 44 B. Kumar et al.

-40 Top Gate

-40 Bottom Gate
Vgs=0V
Vgs=0V
Vgs=-10V
Vgs=-10V
-30 Vgs=-20V -30 Vgs=-20V
Vgs=-30V
Vgs=-30V
Ids(µA)

Vgs=-40V

Ids(µA)
-20 Vgs=-40V
-20

-10
-10

0
-10 -20 -30 -40 0
0 -10 -20 -30 -40
Vds (V) Vds(V)
(a) (b)

-80 -80 Top Gate

Dual Gate
Bottom Gate
Vgs=0V
Dual Gate
-60 Vgs=-10V
-60
Vgs=-20V
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Vgs=-30V

Ids( µA)
Ids(µA)

-40 Vgs=-40V -40

-20 -20

0
0 -10 -20 -30 -40 0 0 -10 -20 -30 -40
Vds (V) Vgs (V)
(c) (d)

Figure 9. OTFT characteristics, Ids −Vds in (a) top, (b) bottom, (c) dual-gate mode, and (d) combined
Ids −Vgs plot in all three modes at Vds = −40V.

the bottom gate, a change in Vt can be specified as

CT
Vt,B = VT (6)
CB

Based on the different modes of operation of dual gate, a performance comparison is

made as shown in Figs. 9(a) to 9(d). This DG-OTFT consists of a 40 nm thick active film
of unconventional conducting copolymer Diketopyrrolopyrrole-naphthalene (PDPP-TNT).
An advanced dielectric material D139 is considered for the top gate insulator in conjunction
with 52.5 nm thick gold/chromium (50/2.5 nm) source and drain contacts, whereas W and L
are of 1000 and 50 μm, respectively. The dual-gate mode results in a lower Vt and higher Ids
even more than the sum of currents in both the single-gate modes. As compared to single-
gate, an increase in on-current by 45% and decrease in off-current by 92% is observed due
to the better interface conditions in dual-gate mode. The performance of different OTFTs
in single and dual gate configurations is summarized in Table 2.
Koo et al.67 reported a change in Vt from 1.95 to −9.8V with variation in the top
gate bias of pentacene TFT from −10 to 10V. In addition to the significant deviation in
Vt , an improvement of 70% in threshold voltage was reported. The mobility and on/off
current ratio were also increased by a factor of two in the dual-gate mode as compared
to the bottom-gate. Similarly, Cui and Liang19 reported five times higher mobility and an
increase of 35% in the sub-threshold slope for the dual gate OTFT as compared to the single
 Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Table 2
Performance of different dual gate TFTs

Supply voltage
(V)
Materials of
different layers Mode of operation Ids (μA) μ (cm2/Vs) ION /IOFF Vt (V) SS (V/dec.) Vds Vgs Ref.
OSC: PDPP-TNT, S/D: Top gate −40 0.42 6.4×105 −2.3 0.83 −40 20 to −40 66
Au/Cr, TI: D139, BI:
SiO2 , TG: Al, BG: Si,
Sub: Si
Bottom gate −40 0.42 6.2×106 −2.5 0.75 −40 20 to −40
Dual gate −82 0.90 1.8×107 −0.3 0.42 −40 20 to −40
OSC: Pentacene, S/D: Bottom gate −0.7 0.02 3.2×103 −2.0 2.0 −3 5 to −15 19
Au, TI: SiO2 , BI:
SiO2 , TG: Al, BG:
n+ Si, Sub: Si
Dual gate −1.5 0.1 3.8×103 −2.2 1.3 −3 5 to −15
OSC: Pentacene, S/D: Top gate −0.1 0.005 2.3×104 −11.6 3.3 −20 20 to −20 67
Au, TI: Al2 O3 , BI:
Al2 O3 , TG: Ti, BG:
Ti, Sub: Glass
Bottom Gate −1 0.03 5×105 −2.8 0.48 −20 20 to −20
Dual gate −10 0.06 1×106 −0.8 0.47 −20 20 to −20
OSC: PTAA, S/D: Dual gate −10 0.0017 NR −2.6 NR −20 30 to −30 68
Au/Ti, TI: Poly-
isobutylmethacrylate,
BI: SiO2 , TG: Au,
BG: n+ Si, Sub: Si

45
 46 B. Kumar et al.

gate. DG-TFT shows a significant enhancement in ION /IOFF , especially with the control of
off-current that makes them more reliable and suitable for display applications.

3.3 Vertical Channel Structure

The performance of a conventional OTFT is limited by the morphological disorders of
thin film, low mobility of carriers, and the long channel length. In the top contact, it is
extremely challenging to achieve a short channel length by using a low-cost shadow masking
technique. However, it is imperative to reduce the driving voltage without compromising
the output driving capability that can be achieved by reducing the channel length. To fulfil
this gap, Nishizawa et al.70 investigated a vertical structure for the OTFT that has proven
its potential for fabricating smaller length devices. A vertical transistor consists of five
different layers that include metallic layers of the source, drain, and gate in conjunction
with two semiconductor layers as shown in Fig. 10.
Kudo et al.71 proposed a vertical static induction transistor (SIT) that showed a high
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

performance due to formation of a Schottky contact at the interface between the active layer
and gate. Furthermore, Chen and Shi72 reported a P3HT based vertical top and the bottom
contact transistors with a channel length of 5 μm, wherein the mobility was increased
by a factor of 3.3 and ION /IOFF by 11 for the vertical TC structure compared to planar
OTFT due to a significant reduction in the contact resistance. Interestingly, the mobility
and the on/off current ratio of vertical BC structure also increased by 1.5 and 3.6 times
in comparison to the planar BC structure due to less surface contamination in the vertical
structure.72 Furthermore, Naruse et al.73 demonstrated a self-aligned vertical multichannel
pentacene based organic transistor with a channel length of 100 nm. Due to multichannel,
it demonstrated a high saturation current of 22 μA at −20 V of gate and drain bias. The
performance of various reported vertical OTFTs are compared in Table 3, mainly in terms
of Ids , μ, ION /IOFF , and Vt .
The performance of vertical transistor can be further improved by the insertion of
a semiconductor layer at the contact/OSC interface. Watanabe and Kudo74 reported a
high performance vertical SIT by inserting an additional layer of copper phthalocyanine
(CuPc) OSC between the ITO source and the pentacene active layer to improve the carrier
injection from the source. By adding an ultrathin CuPc layer of 1 nm, the device exhibited
a larger current of 40 μA magnitude, even at low drain and gate voltages of −3 and −1 V,
respectively.
Tanaka et al.75 demonstrated a comparison between the pentacene based planar BGBC
and vertical transistor. A mobility of 0.2 cm2/V.s was achieved for the vertical transistor,

Drain
Acve channel Layer
Gate
Channel
Source
Substrate
Vgs Vds

Figure 10. Schematic of the vertical organic thin film transistor.

 Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Table 3
Performance of vertical TFTs with different combinations of materials

Supply voltage (V)

Materials of
different layers Structure Ids (μA) μ (cm2/Vs) ION /IOFF Vt (V) Vds Vgs Ref.
OSC: P3HT, S/D: TC −3.2 0.0083 164 −1 −40 20 to −20 72
Gold, I: SiO2, G:
n+ Si, Sub: Si
BC −1.8 0.0038 55 +1 −40 20 to −20 72
OSC: Pentacene, SIT −40 NR 103 −1 −3 0 to −1 74
S-ITO, D: Gold,
G: Al, Sub:
Glass
OSC: Pentacene, Multichannel −22 NR NR NR −20 0 to −20 73
S/D: IZO,
I:Tantalum
oxide,
G-Tantalum,
Sub: Glass

47
 48 B. Kumar et al.

whereas, for BGBC it was limited up to 0.0018 cm2/V.s. In the vertical channel devices,
it is difficult to determine the behavior of ultra-short channel devices due to the tunnelling
effect. The performance can be improved substantially by increasing controllability of the
channel.76 It can be achieved by employing a meshed structure for the source electrode. It
allows the gate electric field to penetrate into the channel from the array of small pinholes
on the source that can reduce the drive voltage substantially.

3.4 Cylindrical Gate Structure

Organic materials are receiving immense attention as they exhibit a unique combination of
electronic and mechanical properties that make them applicable for smart textiles. Recently,
cylindrical gate (CG) OTFTs have turned out to be promising enough to realize the circuits
for wearable electronics due to their hysteresis free operation and good bending stability.77
Moreover, cylindrical structures are intended for size reduction, thereby aiming for higher
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

packing density.78
Fabrication of CG-TFT begins with a metal core of yarn that works as the gate
electrode, thereafter casing it with a thin insulating layer. Later on, the OSC layer is
deposited and finally S/D contacts (metal or conductive polymer) are formed through
either thermal evaporation or soft lithography methods. The structure and cross-sectional
view of a cylindrical OTFT are shown in Figs. 11(a) and 11(b),50 respectively. Recently,
distributed cylindrical transistors have been demonstrated on a stretched fiber-like structure
for application in wearable electronics.79 These transistors can be arranged on a single fiber
substrate or at the intersection of two isolated fibers.
Recently, Jang et al.79 reported pentacene based cylindrical OTFTs with two different
polymer gate dielectrics; 1) poly(vinyl cinnamate) (PVCN) and 2) poly(4-vinyl phenol)
(PVP) with a high bending stability. They observed an increase in mobility by 2.5 times
for transistor with PVCN insulator as compared to PVP. Additionally, Maccioni et al.50 de-
veloped the pentacene based CG-OTFTs with gold and Poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:
styrene sulfonic acid (PEDOT: PSS) S/D electrodes. As compared to gold, the device
demonstrated an improvement in μ and Vt by 50% and 45%, respectively, with PEDOT:
PSS contacts. The performance parameters of different reported cylindrical OTFTs are
compared in Table 4. Cylindrical transistors can be realized for some innovative applica-
tions, such as a medical shirt for the patient’s imperative indications and defence sensors
for enemy identification.80 Regardless of their potential applications, they are limited by
their mechanical durability, especially in the daily wears.

Figure 11. CG-OTFT: (a) basic structure and (b) schematic cross-sectional view.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 49

Table 4
Performance of cylindrical OTFTs

Supply voltage
(V)
Materials of
different layers Ids (μA) μ (cm2/Vs) ION /IOFF Vt (V) Vds Vgs Ref.
OSC: Pentacene, S/D: −10 0.53 4.2×103 −7.05 −40 0 to −40 79
Au, I: PVCN, G: Al
wire, Sub: Al
OSC: Pentacene, S/D: −7 0.24 2.5×103 −4.78 −40 0 to −40 79
Au, I: PVP, G: Al
wire, Sub: Al wire
OSC: Pentacene, S/D: −0.7 0.04 7×103 −17.3 −50 0 to −100 50
Au, G: Polyimide, I:
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Polyimide, Sub:
metallic fiber
OSC: Pentacene, −0.34 0.06 3×103 −9.6 −50 0 to −100 50
S/D:PEDOT: PSS, G:
Polyimide, I:
Polyimide, Sub:
metallic fiber

4. OTFT Models
Analytical models are often incorporated in the simulators to predict and optimize the
performance of electronic devices and the circuits. These models should be precise enough
in the device simulation along with a high degree of convergence in the circuit implemen-
tation. Essentially, the model has to take into account the material specifications and the
physical bases of a device structure. Moreover, the models should be simple and easily
implementable, upgradable, reducible, and modifiable. A few proposed OTFT models are
discussed in the following subsections.

4.1 Compact DC Model

The MOS models are adapted and extended to analyze the characteristics of organic tran-
sistors due to their similar behavior. Numerous mathematical models were developed for
the OTFT primarily based on the classical transistor model by introducing the empirical
parameters.35,81 Based on the MOS model the drain current in the OTFT from linear to
saturation regime can be expressed as

W
Ids = μ Ci (Vgs − Vt ) Vds for linear regime, Vds < Vgs − Vt (7)
L
W
Ids = μ Ci (Vgs − Vt ) 2 for saturation regime, Vds ≥ Vgs − Vt (8)
2L
This model demonstrates the transistor operation above the threshold voltage. Figure 12
illustrates the electrical characteristics of an OTFT based on the compact DC model. For this
 50 B. Kumar et al.

-5
x 10
1.6
1.4 Vgs= 2.0V
1.2

Ids (A)
1 Vgs= 1.6V

Vgs= 1.2V
0.6
Vgs= 0.8V
0.4
Vgs= 0.4V
0.2

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Vds (V)

Figure 12. Output characteristics of an OTFT based on the compact DC model.

transistor the dimensions are W = 120 μm, L = 10 μm, and the typical model parameters
are Ci = 800 nF/cm2, μ = 1.64 cm2/V.s and Vt = 1.2 V. Numerous models have been
projected to imitate the carrier transport in an organic transistor.35,82–84 Marinov et al.30,85
demonstrated a compact DC OTFT model that claimed the transistor operation from the
ohmic to the saturation regimes, successfully.
The performance of an OTFT usually deviates from the conventional transistor due to
key parameters, such as the bulk leakage current, contact resistance, contact-OSC interface,
OSC-insulator interface, morphological disorders, device configuration, channel length
modulation, trap states, gate bias dependent mobility, and many more that raises difficulty
in proposing a unified OTFT model. In using typical MOSFET expressions for these
transistors, one needs to consider these parameters up to maximum extent. A significant
variation in the characteristics of the two similar devices and their dependence on time
make the DC modeling somewhat challenging.81

4.2 Charge Drift Model

A few parameters, such as field dependent mobility and the contact resistance are described
frequently to develop the analytical models for organic transistors. Among different OTFT
models, one important common factor is mobility enhancement at the high gate overdrive
voltage, thereby named as the field dependent mobility.30,31,34 It is an important factor for
evaluating the OTFT performance in a more realistic way that can be expressed in the form
of μ ∝ (Vgs – Vt )α. According to a typical charge drift model, the current per unit width is
specified as
Ids
= μx qx |Ex | (9)
W
where |Ex | = ∂Vx /∂x is the electric field and qx is the arial charge density that can be
expressed as

qx = Ci (Vgs − Vt − Vx ) (10)
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 51

Furthermore, the field dependent mobility, μx at a point x in the channel 0 ≤ x ≤ L can

be defined as86,87

μx = μ0 (Vgs − Vt − Vx )α (11)

where μ0 is the zero field mobility, Vx is the voltage at a point x, and α is the mobility
enhancement factor. Now, the expression for drain current can be simplified by incorporating
qx (Eq. 10) and μx (Eq. 11) as

Ids
= [μ0 (Vgs − Vt − Vx ) α ] × [C i (Vgs − Vt − Vx )] × [∂Vx /∂x]
W
= (μ0 C i (Vgs − Vt − Vx ) α+1 ) ∂Vx /∂x (12)

By integrating the above expression along the channel length, the current can be
expressed for the whole channel as88
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

 
W μ0 Ci (Vgs − Vt − Vs )(α+2) − (Vgs − Vt − Vd )(α+2)
Ids = (13)
L (α + 2)
Based on typical charge drift model, the drain characteristic of an OTFT at different
Vgs is shown in Fig. 13(a). Typical parameters include Ci = 800 nF/cm2, μ0 = 0.5 cm2/V.s,
Vt = 1.2 V and α = 0.2, whereas, the channel length and width are taken as 10 and
120 μm, respectively. In addition to this, a dependence of the drain current on the mo-
bility enhancement factor is depicted in Fig. 13(b). The factor alpha is related to the
density of localized states. The bigger it is, the larger is the TFT deviation from the ideal
behavior.
The characteristics of an OTFT strongly depends on its structure. The bottom contact
structure shows a high trap density, thereby a high alpha value in comparison to the top
contact. Cosseddu and Bonfiglio46 reported heterogeneities produced during the deposition
of semiconductor around the contacts in the bottom contact structure. It resulted in an
increase in the trap states that, in turn, reduced the mobility and drain current substantially.
Additionally, Gupta et al.18 demonstrated a large deviation from the ideal behavior of

5 x10 0.8
Vgs= 2.4V
4
0.6

3
IIds (A)

Ids (mA)

Vgs= 2.0V 0.4

2

1 Vgs= 1.2V 0.2

Vgs= 0.8V
Vgs= 0.4V
0 0.0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 2 3 4 5
VVds (V)
ds (V) α
(a) (b)

Figure 13. (a) Output characteristics of the OTFT based on the charge drift model and (b) charac-
teristic plot of Ids with respect to α.
 52 B. Kumar et al.

bottom contact OTFT. This was due to the smaller grain size of the semiconductor near the
contacts in comparison to the channel that resulted in a lower mobility. These morphological
disorders may possibly vary from device to device, despite the same material and similar
dimensions, since they strongly depend on the deposition accuracy of the active layer. It
raises complexity in the development of the models, especially for bottom contact structures
where these morphological disorders are prominent.

4.3 Charge Drift Model for Sub-Threshold Region

A model should be applicable in all the regimes under which a device can operate. To observe
the transistor operation in the sub-threshold region, the drain current can be expressed
as34,89

W μ0 Ci [f (Vgs − Vt − Vs )](α+2) − [f (Vgs − Vt − Vd )](α+2)

Ids = × (14)
L α+2
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

where f (Vgs ,V) is an asymptotical interpolation function.

At V = Vd or V = Vs , the function, f (Vgs ,V) is expressed in terms of an overdrive
voltage (V overdrive ) as
  
Vgs − Vt − Vs
Voverdrive (V ) = f (Vgs , V ) = Vsub ln 1 + exp (15)
Vsub

By incorporating the overdrive voltage function, the drain current can be simplified as
 α+2  α+2
Vgs −Vt −Vs Vgs −Vt −Vd
W ln 1 + exp Vsub
− ln 1 + exp Vsub
Ids = α+2
μ0 Ci Vsub
L α+2
(16)
where Vsub is the sub-threshold slope voltage that corresponds to the steepness of the
curve. Figure 14(a) shows the sub-threshold characteristics with model parameters; W =
120 μm, L = 10 μm, Ci = 800 nF/cm2, μ0 = 0.5 cm2/V, Vt = 1.2 V, α = 0.2 and Vsub =
0.3 V.
Another important parameter that must be included in the model is channel length
modulation. In the saturation regime, as the drain voltage attains its saturation value; Vds =
Vds(sat) = (Vgs − Vt ), the charge at the drain end (x = L) becomes nearly zero that is called
a “pinch-off” condition. The portion of the channel that is pinched-off (L) reduces the
length of an effective channel (L − L). Since the pinch-off segment depends upon the
drain voltage, an empirical relation can be expressed between the L and the drain voltage
as85
 
L L
L 1− = L [1 − β (Vds − Vsat )] ≈ (17)
L (1 + β |Vds − Vs |)

where β is the channel length modulation coefficient. The TFT charge drift model (Eq. 13)
can be modified by including β as

(W μ0 Ci (1 + β (Vds − Vs )))  (α+2)  (α+2)

Ids = Vgs − Vt − Vs − Vgs − Vt − Vd
(L (α + 2))
(18)
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 53

-5
x 10
Vgs= 2.4V
8

6
Vgs= 2.0V
Ids (A)

4
Vgs= 1.6V

2 Vgs= 1.2V
Vgs= 0.8V
0 Vgs=0.4V
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Vds (V) Vgs=0V

(a)
x 10 -5

6
Vgs= 2.0V

9 Vgs= 1.6V
Vgs= 1.2V
Ids (A)

Vgs= 0.8V
Vgs= 0.4V
12

15
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
Vds (V)
(b)

Figure 14. (a) Sub-threshold and (b) output (including channel length modulation) characteristics
of an OTFT.

Figure 14(b) demonstrates the output characteristic with the channel length modulation
coefficient, β = 0.5%/V while other model parameters, such as Ci , μ0 , Vt , α, and the
device dimensions (W and L) are kept the same as discussed earlier in the sub-threshold
model.
In 1992, Xie et al.90 reported a model by incorporating bulk leakage and contact
resistance that was among the first few compact models for OTFTs. Furthermore, Necliudov
et al.82 included different structural designs to describe the response of different organic
transistors. Another model reported by Natali et al.91 was based on the contact resistance
due to a significant amount of the voltage drop across the contacts. Due to high contact
 54 B. Kumar et al.

resistance in the organic transistors, the internal voltage at the channel terminals appears
somewhat lesser than the external applied voltage, especially in the linear region.
Another important point is the assumption of a symmetric structure for the organic
TFT that implies interchangeability between the source and the drain contacts. This makes
the compact model simpler, since the model developed for the one contact can be extended
for another contact. Jung et al.92 analyzed the gate-contact overlap region by mapping
this to the resistance that included contact and bulk sheet resistances. The model was first
developed for the overlapping region between the source and the gate and then the contact
resistance was doubled by considering the same overlapping between the drain and gate
terminals. Contradictorily, Burgi et al.93 considered the low charge carrier injection at the
source as a major obstruction in lowering the performance than the extraction of carriers at
drain that resulted in an asymmetry between the two contact resistances. All the proposed
models reduced to the basic compact model, while incorporating different parameters for
analyzing the actual behavior of the OTFT.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

5. Charge Transport in Organic Semiconductors

The charge transport phenomenon in the amorphous and organic semiconductors is differ-
ent from the metals and conventional semiconductors. In the former, it is phonon assisted,
whereas, in the latter, phonon scattering limits the transport efficiency. Organic materials ex-
hibit sp2-hybridized linear carbon chains that hold a sp2−2pz configuration in double bond.
The carrier movement within the molecular chain is called intra-chain, whereas, between
the adjacent molecules it is known as the inter-chain. Overlapping of sp2 orbitals through
intra molecular interaction results in the formation of the σ bond94 as shown in Fig. 15(a).
On the other hand, two pz orbitals result in π and π ∗ (bonding and anti-bonding)
orbitals, where the later bond possesses a higher energy state as depicted in Fig. 15(b).
Molecules of different energy levels constitute the energy bands. The energy difference
between the HOMO and the LUMO is called an energy gap (Eg ) that usually lies between
1 < Eg < 4.9eV.95 Most of the OSCs exhibit a disordered molecular arrangement that raises
difficulty in conduction between different molecules.

Figure 15. (a) sp2 hybridization of two carbon atoms and (b) bonding of pz orbitals.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 55

In organic semiconductors, band formation is rare due to weak intermolecular forces.

Therefore, the charge carriers move through hopping between the localized states formed
by single or several molecules together.96 The charge carriers of OSCs exhibit a polaronic
nature and interact strongly with the defects. These carriers are of very small size that
enables the conducting channel to be formed within a few molecular layers (approx 5 nm)
in the vicinity of OSC/insulator interface. The charge transport in these materials is strongly
limited by the surface roughness, doping density, dipole formation, chemical impurity,
morphological disorders, and the presence of defects leading to the complexity of modeling
the charge transport phenomena.
In comparison to the organic TFT, a single-crystal organic transistor demonstrates
numerous advantages in terms of high mobility, good reproducibility, and a significant
reduction in the morphological disorder.97 Therefore, a single-crystal organic transistor has
turned out to be promising enough to achieve high performance while being simple to
understand the basic transport mechanism in organic materials. On the other hand, these
materials exhibit a strong dependence on the temperature. Due to weak intermolecular
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

overlapping of the electronic orbitals, the formation of electronic bands in the organic
crystal is limited to a narrow width (∼0.1eV), lower by two orders of magnitude than
silicon.97 Several researchers have demonstrated the conduction through band transport
(delocalization) in the organic single crystals but at the cryogenic temperature only. In
1985, Warta et al.98 reported a very high mobility of 400 cm2/V.s for the single crystal of
naphthalene at a temperature of 4.2 K. Later, in 2000, Schon et al.99 observed a similar
concept for the single crystals of pentacene and tetracene at 1.7K.
The transistors consisting of high purity organic single crystals demonstrate high
mobility that degrades rapidly with an increase in temperature due to the shrinkage of
polaronic bandwidth.100 Troisi and Orlandi101 reported a weak intermolecular coupling
due to the thermal excitation that could lead to the localization of charge carriers even
in highly ordered crystals. At room temperature, the lattice vibrations may turn out to be
strong enough to destroy the translational symmetry of the lattice due to high characteristic
energies of the phonons that, in turn, results in the crossover from a delocalized to the
localized charge transport. Therefore, conduction can occur through localization even in
perfect crystals due to weak intermolecular interaction.
The organic thin film can also conduct either by temperature dependent localization
or delocalization of the charge carriers. Karl102 demonstrated the possibility of delocalized
conduction in organic films that can enables high carrier mobility (up to 300 cm2/V.s)
at a very low temperature (<30 K). The conduction in OTFT degrades rapidly above
30 K temperature. Furthermore, the charge hopping (localized conduction) takes over after
100 K, resulting in an extremely lower mobility (1 cm2/Vs). The boundary between the
delocalized and localized conduction in organic semiconductors is based on the operating
temperature, intermolecular force, and mobility of carriers at room temperature.
The interaction between a semiconductor and an insulator is another important factor
for charge transport in an organic TFT. The influence of an insulator is indeed more
fundamental than just affecting the morphology of an active layer due to the polarization
effect. It strongly affects the charge carrier distribution, surface potential, and the motion
of carriers in the conducting channel. Several researchers, including Veres et al.103 and
Swensen et al.104 reported a direct dependence of the mobility on the dielectric constant (k)
of an insulator. In organic TFTs, conduction occurs due to hopping of charge between the
localized states.3,36 The polarization can increase the localization of charge by distorting
these localized states.103 The polarity of an OSC/insulator interface directly relates to the
band gap of an insulator, thereby, playing a vital role in determining the polarization effect.
 56 B. Kumar et al.

The polarization (P) stands for the electric dipole moment density in a material that can
affect the charge density (Dc ) as

Dc = Eε0 εr = P + Eε0 (19)

P = Eε0 (εr − 1) (20)

where E is the applied electric field, 0 is the permittivity of the vacuum, and r is the
relative permittivity/dielectric constant of the insulator. The above relation shows a linear
relationship between the polarization and the dielectric constant of an insulator. Molar
polarization of a medium (Pm ) depends on the polarizability, α p (ratio of induced dipole
moment of an atom to the applied electric field) of the material in addition to the permanent
dipole moment, Dp as
 
NA Dp2
Pm = αp + (21)
3ε0 3kB T
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

where NA is the Avogadro number, kB is the Boltzmann constant, and T is the temperature.
High-k insulating materials result in a large polarization effect due to a high polarizability
and an existence of the random dipoles at the interface. These materials demonstrate
polarization even in the absence of any electric field due to the change in the energies of
localized states in the presence of permanent dipoles. However, in the low-k insulators,
polarization mainly occurs with an effect of the external electric field due to less number
of random dipoles.96 The insulating materials undergo a shift in charge distribution due to
polarization induced by an external electric field that, in turn, increases the capacitance, Ci
by a factor of r (or k) as
ε0 εr
Ci = (22)
tox
where tox is the thickness of an insulator that relates the probability of crossing the in-
sulator barrier height by a charge carrier. A thin film of insulator (comparable or lesser
than the localization length) limits the effect of localized states on the charge transport.
Increasing capacitance of the insulator (either by high-k insulator or reduction in tox ) re-
sults in a high density of charge at the interface at low gate voltage. Therefore, high-k
insulating materials are beneficial in producing high on-current and low threshold voltage
due to their smaller band gaps (Eg ) as compared to the low-k materials. Yu et al.105 re-
ported a decrease in the dielectric constant with an increase in the band gap, through an
expression
 2    
Ep Eg Eg 2
k =1+ 1− + 0.33 (23)
Eg 4Ef 4Ef

where Ep and Ef are the plasma energy of the valance band and the energy of the Fermi
level, respectively. Mostly organic insulators are characterized by a low-k, wherein the
energy gap between the bonding and anti-bonding states increases due to a decrease in
the probability of overlap molecules. It raises difficulty in the screening of charge at the
OSC/insulator interface with the application of an external electric field. On the contrary,
Veres et al.103 suggested the use of a low-k dielectric as it produces less defects and
impurities that could act as the traps. However, high-k materials might alter the energy
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 57

Table 5
Field effect mobility of F8T2 based OTFTs with different insulators

Dielectric
constant
Insulator (k) Structure Surface Treatment μ (cm2/V.s) Ref.
SiO2 3.9 BG None 0.00001 106
SiO2 3.9 BG OTS 0.01 107
PVP 4.5 TG None 0.001 108
PVP 4.5 TG Rubbed polyamide 0.02 109
substrate
Si3 N4 7.4 BG None 0.00002 104
TiO2 41 BG None 0.00005 104
CYTOP 2.1 TG None 0.0015 103
Copolymer 2.5 TG None 0.015 110
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

blend

levels of localized states due to randomly originated dipoles leading to an increased en-
ergetic disorder or broadening of density of states. Therefore, the carriers at a particular
temperature and field would encounter a higher potential barrier for hopping. In addi-
tion to this, the charge localization is likely to increase due to higher number of trap
states.
Low-k insulating materials are advantageous in terms of achieving high mobility, low
sub-threshold slope and low hysteresis. Veres et al.96 reported a significant change in the
mobility of PTAA based OTFTs by means of different gate insulators with k ranging from
2.1 to 10.4. The device showed a mobility of 0.005, 0.0005, and 0.00008 cm2/V.s for
CYTOP (k = 2.1), PMMA (k = 3.5), and poly(vinyl alcohol) (k = 10.4) organic insulators,
respectively. To better understand the dependence of field effect mobility on the dielectric
constant, few results are summarized in Table 5 for F8T2 {Poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-
2,7-diyl)-co-bithiophene]} polyfluorene derivative based organic transistors with different
dielectrics.
A high degree of uniformity can be achieved for an insulator if nearly all monomer
units are non-polar. The low-k dielectric produces a smooth and defect-free layer, whereas,
a high-k (inorganic insulators in most of the cases) insulator results in the surface rough-
ness leading to the morphological disorders in OSCs that in turn, reduces the mobil-
ity of carriers. High mobility can be achieved with high-k materials, but after apply-
ing some surface treatment. Salleo and Street107 reported a mobility of 0.01 cm2/V.s
for F8T2 based OTFT when the surface of SiO2 dielectric was improved by octadecyl-
trichlorosilane (OTS) treatment. On the other hand, Kanicki et al.106 reported a mobility
of 1 × 10−5cm2/V.s for the same layers without any surface treatment. Device dimensions
might also be a factor but reduction in mobility is observed mainly due to the surface
roughness.
The reliability of a homogeneous and smooth layer of the low-k insulator is much
higher than the surface treatments applied to a high-k material due to the presence of
residual reactive groups even after the treatments. In fact, non-polar organic insulators can
 58 B. Kumar et al.

be employed suitably in top gate structures where surface treatements cannot be applied
safely without contaminating the active layer.96
The organic materials exhibit the characteristics similar to the amorphous materials.
Therefore, the conventional charge transport models can be adapted and extended for them.
Charge transport phenomenon in organic materials is generally modeled by the variable
range hopping (VRH), multiple trapping and release (MTR), and polaron models, which
are discussed in the following sub-sections.

5.1 Variable Range Hopping (VRH) Model

The hopping of charge between the localized states overcomes the energy difference by
either emitting or absorbing the phonons. To model the hopping in inorganic semiconduc-
tors; Miller and Abrahams111 described the rate of single phonon jumps. Furthermore, a
carrier transport dependence on the energy distribution was investigated by Vissenberg and
Matters86 for the amorphous transistors that further helped to determine the carrier mobility
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

of the organic semiconductors.

The hopping of charge carriers is mainly affected by the energy distribution among
the trap states. Moreover, it also depends on the hopping distance. At low bias, very few
charge carriers come up to a free state, otherwise, most of them remain entrapped in the
localized states. Therefore, the system can be modeled as a setup of resistors along with
a conductance Xpq = X0 exp(−Spq ) between the hopping sites say, p and q. The relation
includes a pre-factor, X0 for the conductivity, and the term Spq is expressed by means of the
energy difference as
|Ep − EF | + |Eq − EF | + |Ep − Eq |
Spq = 2xRpq + (24)
2kB T
The first right hand side term illustrates the tunneling process of the carriers between
p and q sites. It includes an effective overlapping parameter, x, that depends on the overlap
of the sites, whereas the parameter Rpq is the distance between the sites. The second term
corresponds to the activation energy required for hopping of the charge carrier from one
site to another.3 The hopping between the two sites strongly depends on the Fermi level
and the respective energies, Ep and Eq of the sites p and q. Due to thermal excitation of
the charge carriers the energy difference between the Fermi level and the HOMO level
becomes lesser than the kB T, that in turn increases the conductance in the vicinity of
semiconductor/insulator interface.

5.2 Multiple Trapping and Release (MTR) Model

This model was primarily proposed by Shur and Hack87 in 1984 for describing the mobility
of a-Si-H semiconductor. It was further extended by Horowitz3 to understand the mechanism
of a charge carrier’s trapping and releasing phenomena in organic semiconductors. Charge
transport in OSCs is completely dominated by a large number of structural and chemical
defects. If the energy levels of traps are aligned near the center of Eg , then the traps can
be deep, otherwise shallow, if located close to HOMO or the LUMO levels, as shown in
Fig. 16.87
The model assumes that the extended states are liable to the charge transport; however,
the majority of injected carriers entrap multiplicatively in the states that are localized in the
forbidden gap. Furthermore, releasing the carriers thermally through these states leads to a
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 59

DOS

Eg
2
Eg Energy

HOMO LUMO

Figure 16. Trap states distribution between HOMO and LUMO.

Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

drift mobility, μD specified as3

 
Etr
μD = μo a exp − (25)
kB T

where Etr is the energy level of a single trap and μ0 stands for the intrinsic mobility. A ratio
of the effective density of states to the traps concentration is expressed by the parameter, a.
Since the temperature affects the Fermi function, that results in a corresponding change in
the number of charge carriers. Therefore, lowering of the temperature reduces drift mobility
regardless of increase in the intrinsic mobility.

5.3 Polaron Model

The quasi-particle composition of an electron with its associated field of polarization is
called polaron. In organic materials, the charge transport can be modeled by means of these
polarons. In 1958, Yamashita and Kurosawa112 investigated the first model based on the
polaron’s conduction mechanism in the inorganic semiconductors. Later, in 1959, the same
mechanism was demonstrated by Holstein113 for the single and polycrystalline organic
materials. In organic conjugated polymers, the polaron is generated due to deformation of
the chain under the action of charge.3
Organic molecules interact with the polarizing neighbor molecules during condensation
and thereby reduce their energy. Furthermore, absorption of a phonon by organic molecule
generates an excitation that may dissociate into charge carriers. An attraction between
the excited electron and the hole forms a bound electron-hole pair rather than the free
charge carriers. This binding energy may be higher by one order than the energy at room
temperature.114 According to the model proposed by Holstein,113 this binding energy is
expressed as

A2
Eb = (26)
2Mω02

where ω0 is the frequency, A is the constant, and M is the reduced mass of each molecular
site. Horowitz3 demonstrated the formation of localized states in the gap between the
 60 B. Kumar et al.

HOMO and LUMO levels of polythiophene material. These trap states were generated due
to self-trapping of the charge by means of defects and the chain deformation. The organic
molecules are bounded together by means of weak Van der Waal forces that originate
from the instantaneous dipole-dipole interaction.3,36 A small polaron localized in the single
molecule hops from one molecule to another and thus the charge transport takes place in
the organic semiconductors.

6. Materials
Over the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in the efforts for devel-
opment and implementation of electronic components on flexible and stretchable sub-
strates. With the advent of high performance novel organic materials, the applicability
of the organic transistors have increased rapidly. These materials urge for a strong asser-
tion in terms of cost effectiveness, characteristics, properties, and processing. The per-
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

formance of an OTFT strongly depends on the material constituents for the active layer;
however, the selection of materials for other layers, including insulator and electrodes,
also play a vital role. Besides this, an appropriate selection of substrate material makes
the device suitable for realizing in flexible circuitry at low cost. This section provides a
deep insight into different materials, including semiconductors, insulators, electrodes, and
substrates.

6.1 Organic Semiconductors

Researchers throughout the world have devoted significant efforts to improve the charge
transport properties and characteristics of the OSCs for their commercial applications.
Organic semiconductors are classified as the conducting polymers and small molecules.
Mobility of polymers is found to be lower than their counterparts due to their higher
molecular weight. For obtaining high mobility, the grains of the semiconductor should
be larger in size. The possibilities of producing highly ordered thin films results in a
significant performance improvement of the OTFTs. The mobility of small molecules
(>3.2 cm2/V.s)5 is reported better than the polymers (>0.9 cm2/V.s),115 but now, this gap
is shrinking due to advancements in the fabrication methodologies. Numerous conducting
polymer and small molecule organic materials have been investigated for possible utiliza-
tion as the active layer in organic devices that are categorized to p- and n-type organic
semiconductors.

6.1.1 p-Type. Most of the organic semiconductors investigated so far exhibit the hole as
the charge carrier in their inadvertently doped form. Currently, polymers and π -conjugated
oligomers are the subject of immense research. Most extensively used p type conducting
polymers are Poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), Poly (3-octylthiophene) (P3OT), poly 3,
3 -dialkylquarterthiophene (PQT-12), Poly-9, 9 dioctyl-fluorene-co-bithiophene (F8T2),
and Poly (2-methoxy-5-(2 -ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4- phenylene vinylene) (MEH-PPV). How-
ever, pentacene, Copper phthalocyanine (CuPc), and tetracene are invariably used as small
molecule organic materials.
Pentacene has proven to be the most widely used p-type organic semiconductor due to
high hole mobility that is an effect of adequate orbital overlapping among the molecules
in the crystal lattice. In addition to high mobility, it shows good chemical stability even
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 61

C 6H 13

n
S
n
Pentacene Polyacetylene P3HT

(a) (b) (c)

Se
H
N
n

S n
n R S n
2,5-dimethylthiophene Polypyrrole Poly (alkylselenophene) Polythiophene
(d) (e) (f) (g)
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

S S
S
S
S S
Alpha- sexihiophene
(h)

R S
R
n
C6H15 n
C6H15 F8T2
PF

(i) ( j)

C 12H 25

O S S

S S
n
PQT-12 C 12H 25
O n
H3C MEH-PPV

(k) (l)

Figure 17. Chemical structures of commonly used p-type conducting polymers and small molecules
organic semiconductors: (a) pentacene, (b) polyacetylene (PA), (c) P3HT, (d) 2, 5–dimethylthiophene,
(e) polypyrrole, (f) poly (alkylselenophene), (g) polythiophene, (h) α-Sexithiophene, (i) phenol
formaldehyde (PF), (j) F8 T2 , (k) MEH-PPV, (l) Poly(3,3 -didodecylquaterthiophene) (PQT-12), (m)
DiF-TESADT, (n) poly [5,5 -bis(3-dodecyl-2-thienyl)-2,2 -bithiophene], and (o) benzodithiophene
dimer. (Continued on next page)
 62 B. Kumar et al.

Si

F F

Si

Dif-TESADT

(m)

S
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

5,5'- bis(4-hexylphenyl)-2,2'-bithiophene

(n)

S S

S S
Benzodithiophene dimer

(o)

Figure 17. (Continued)

in adverse environmental conditions, orderly formation in thin film structure, and good
interface with commonly used electrode metals such as gold and aluminum.52 Regardless
of better performance as compared to others, it is not a good choice for low-cost printing
methods due to its lower solubility.
In comparison to the pentacene, P3HT exhibits lower mobility but simultaneously
shows outstanding solubility in a range of organic solvents that makes it suitable for
fabricating through solution processing techniques.116 It was initially synthesized by Mc-
Cullough et al.117 in 1993 that was further utilized by Bao et al.118 to realize the first P3HT
based TFT in 1996. Chemical structures of different p-type organic materials are shown
in Fig. 17.119,120 The performance in terms of field effect mobility and on/off current ratio
(ION /IOFF ) of various p-type conducting polymers and the small molecule organic materials
along with their structures is summarized in Tables 6 and 7, respectively.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 63

Table 6
Field effect mobility and on/off current ratio of p-type conducting polymers

Supply voltage
(V)
(Hole-mobility) ION /
Material Structure μ (cm2/V.s) IOFF Vds Vgs Ref.
P3HT [Poly BGBC 0.11 1.9×106 −60 50 to −100 29
(3-hexylthiophene)]
BGBC 0.08 7×103 −40 40 to −40 121
BGBC 0.002 102 −30 30 to −30 122
BGBC 0.001 102 −30 0 to −4 123
BGBC 0.0025 1.5×101 −40 20 to −20 72
P3HT [Poly TGBC 0.00003 5.6×106 −40 0 to −40 124
(3-hexylthiophene)]
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

BGBC 0.001 1.0×106 −40 0 to −40 124

DG 0.0041 6.0×106 −40 0 to −40 124
C10 -DNTT {di-n- BGTC 2.4 107 −60 40 to −60 125
decyldinaphtho[2,3-
b:2 0, 3 0-f] thieno
[3,2-b]thiophene}
DHα6T BGTC 0.1 104 −50 20 to −100 126
PDBT-co-TT BGTC 0.94 106 −75 0 to −75 115
(DPP-Thieno [3,2-
b] thiophene)
P3OT [Poly BGBC 0.00016 104 −10 15 to −10 127
(3-octylthiophene)]
MEH-PPV BGBC 0.00016 104 −7 0 to −10 127
[poly(2-methoxy, 5
ethyl (2 hexyloxy)
paraphenyleneviny-
lene)]
Poly(4,8-dialkyl-2,6- BGTC 0.15–0.25 105–106 −60 20 to −60 128
bis(3-alkylthiophen-
2-yl)benzo[1,2-
b:4,5-
b ]dithiophene)
F8 T2 [Poly(9, TGBC 0.0001 105 −10 0 to −10 129
9 -dioctylfuorene-
co-bithio-phene)]
F8T2 {Poly[(9,9- BGTC 0.0001 106 −60 0 to −60 93
dioctylfluorenyl-
2,7-diyl)-co-
bithiophene]}
polyfluorene
derivative

(Continued on next page)

 64 B. Kumar et al.

Table 6
Field effect mobility and on/off current ratio of p-type conducting polymers (Continued)

Supply voltage
(V)
(Hole-mobility) ION /
Material Structure μ (cm2/V.s) IOFF Vds Vgs Ref.
PTAA BGBC 0.041 NR −60 0 to −40 31
Poly(triarylamine)
DH4T BGBC 0.04 105 −20 4 to −10 130
(Dihexylquaterthio-
phene)
TFB Pol [9,9-dioctyl- TGTC 0.02 NR −40 10 to −40 131
fluorene-co-N-(4-
butylphenyl)-
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

diphenylamine]
PBTTT Poly(2,5- BGTC 0.34 NR NR 0 to −70 132
bis(3-alkylthiophen-
2-yl)thieno[3,2-
b]thiophenes
PTV Poly (thienylene BGBC 0.00035 NR −1 0 to −20 133
vinylene)
PB16TTT BGBC 0.14 105 −100 20 to −100 134
Poly(2,5-bis(3-
hexadecylthiophene-
2-yl)thieno[3,2-
b]thio-phene)

To make the high performance pentacene material compatible to the solution processing
fabrication techniques, Herwig and Mullen149 synthesized a soluble pentacene precursor
in 1999. This was further explored by Afzali et al.150 and Anthony et al.151 to obtain
the thin film of pentacene material with an ease of processing at a low cost. Some of
the frequently used pentacene precursor includes 6,13-bis triisopropyl-silylethynyl (TIPS)
pentacene,151–153 Tetracene,17 and difluoro-trietetracenethylsilylethynyl anthradithiophene
(diF-TESADT).154,155
Organic semiconductors are also promising for carrier injection and transport layers in
a light emitting diode. These materials should exhibit some desirable characteristics, such
as good conductivity, adequate luminescence efficiency, sufficient radical anion stability,
and high color saturation with a narrow spectrum. Invariably used p-type materials for the
hole transport layer in organic LEDs are napthyl-substituted benzidine (NPB) and biphenyl-
diamine (TPD), whereas, CuPc is one of the preferred materials for the hole injection layer
at the top of the anode. The CuPc material exhibits good absorption characteristics in the
ultraviolet region and therefore, can be used as the photo conductor with an ease of light
absorption on either side of the blue/green region.

6.1.2 n-type. The majority of research work has focused on achieving high performance
p-type OSCs. However, only little effort has been made to synthesize the novel n-type
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 65

Table 7
Field effect mobility and on/off current ratio of p-type small molecule organic
semiconductors

(Hole- Supply Voltage (V)

mobility) ION /I
Material Structure μ (cm2/V.s) OFF Vds Vgs Ref
Pentacene DG 0.1 103 −2.5 0 to −15 19
Pentacene Vertical NR 103 −3 0 to −1 74
Pentacene BGBC 0.5 NR −10 10 to −10 135
BGBC 0.1 105 −100 0 to −100 136
Pentacene BGTC 1 106 −100 40 to 137
−100
BGTC 1.8 104 −6 6 to −6 138
CuPc (Copper BGBC 0.02 4 ×104 −100 0 to −100 116
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

phthalocyanine)
BGTC 0.021 103 −4 2 to −8 139
Pentacene BGTC 0.43 NR −30 40 to −60 52
BGBC 0.28 NR −30 40 to −60 52
PDPP-TNT TGBC 0.7 106 −40 20 to −40 66
(Diketopyrrolopyrrole-
naphthalene
copolymer)
BGBC 0.28 NR −40 0 to −60 140
TGBC 0.40 NR −40 0 to −60 140
TIPS Pentacene (Tris- BGBC 0.07 NR −40 20 to −40 141
isopropylsilylethynyl)-
pentacene
BGBC 0.02 104 −40 40 to −60 142
DiF-TESADT [2, BGBC 0.17 NR −40 20 to −40 143
8-difluoro-5, 11-
bis(triethylsilylethynyl)
anthra-dithiophene]
CuPc (Copper BGBC 0.018 NR −100 0 to −100 144
phthalocyanine)
2A (2,2-bianthyl) BGTC 1.0 NR −100 0 to −100 145
BGBC 1.0 NR −100 0 to −100 145
Sexithiophene (α BGTC 0.37 NR −2 0 to −50 146
-Sexithienyl)
αα BGTC 0.1 104 −20 20 to −30 147
–didecylquaterthiophene
BGBC 0.5 105 −20 20 to −30 147
diF- TEG ADT BGBC 5.4 106 −40 40 to −40 148
(Triethylgermylethynyl-
substituted
anthradithiophene)
 66 B. Kumar et al.

semiconductors. While aiming to design a complementary inverter, both types of semicon-

ductors are essentially required. Therefore, the development of n-type semiconductors is
equally important. To design an n-type OTFT, the semiconductor must be utilized that can
allow the injection of electrons into its LUMO. Nearly, all the n-type materials demonstrate
instability in the air that strongly depends on the free energy of activation associated with
the chemical process/reaction with either water or oxygen. In addition to this, most of the
commonly used contact metals exhibit the work functions better suited to inject the holes
into HOMO than the electrons into LUMO that creates another bottleneck in achieving
high performance n-type transistors. The chemical structures of some of the commonly
used n-type OSCs are shown in Fig. 18.156–165
The field effect mobility and the on/off current ratio of different n-type conducting poly-
mers and small molecule organic materials are outlined in Tables 8 and 9, respectively. The
performance of n-type OSCs is strongly affected by the operational conditions. As an illus-
tration, a very high mobility of 6.2 cm2/V.s was reported for naphthalene diimide in an inert
atmosphere; however, under ambient conditions it was found to be only 0.57 cm2/V.s.183,184
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

The high performance n-type organic semiconductors can be synthesized by adding –Cl,
–CN, and –F groups to the outer most orbital of molecules, since these groups are strongly
capable of withdrawing the electrons. With the same thought, Bao et al.158 demonstrated
an example of making n-type material, copper hexadecafluorophthalocyanine (F16 CuPc),
by adding –F group to the p-type material CuPc, that exhibited an electron mobility of
0.03 cm2/V.s. Furthermore, Malenfant et al.160 reported a highly stable n-type material; N,
N -dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-C8H) with a high electron
mobility of 0.6 cm2/V.s.
The mobility of the p- and n-type organic materials has improved remarkably with the
passage of time as shown in Fig. 19. A continuous growth is observed for both the types
of materials, attributed to the unremitting advancements in the synthesis and fabrication
process. Pentacene is the best performing p-type material that showed remarkable rise in
the mobility during the last decade. Similarly, fullerene (n-type) has also demonstrated a
noteworthy improvement.
A number of high performance soluble fullerene derivatives are investigated for n-type
OTFTs. Tiwari et al.175 reported an OTFT with 6, 6-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester
(PCBM) deposited through solution processing, which exhibited a mobility of 0.13 cm2/V.s.
Perfluoropentacene (C22 F14 ) and perfluoro-p-sexiphenyl (C36 F26 ) are the other novel n-type
materials employed in OTFTs, whereas, Tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3 ) is a
commonly used material for the electron transport layer in the organic LEDs.

6.1.3 Ambipolar Organic Semiconductors. A semiconductor that allows the injection of

hole as well as the electron under certain conditions is known as the ambipolar semicon-
ductor. It is fairly possible to operate an ambipolar transistor as the p-channel or n-channel,
simply by reversing the polarities of drain and the gate bias. For an ambipolar transistor, it
is necessary that the Fermi level of S/D contacts should be close to the HOMO as well as
the LUMO levels of the semiconductor to enable a balanced charge injection of both types
of carrier. It implies that the band gap of the semiconductor should be very small (up to
few hundred meV);53 however, most of the organic semiconductors support the injection
of only one type of charge carrier due to large band gap (>1.5 eV). The performance
mainly in terms of field effect mobility and on/off current ratio for different ambipolar
semiconductors is summarized in Table 10.
The organic complementary logic circuits are fabricated by combining discrete n-type
and p-type organic transistors, wherein two different types of OSCs are used, one for the
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 67

n-channel and other for the p-channel. Both device materials can be patterned and deposited
locally and sequentially.185 With such a method, it is difficult to match the p- and n-channel
transconductances while keeping the parameter spread within limits. To circumvent this
problem, complimentary circuits are fabricated using ambipolar transistors based on a
single OSC film and a single type of electrode.195,196

C10H21 C10H21 S
N N
C8H17
C8H17
N
O N
S O
S
n
S n
N O S

N O
C8H17

C8H17
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

C10H21 PDPP-TNT

C10H21 PDPP-TBT
(a) (b)

S S

n
S S

R
PBTTT
(c) (d) C60 Fullerene

C13H27

O N O
CH2C7F15

NC
O N O
N

N O N O
O N O
CN PTCDI-C13H27
Dimethyldicyanoquinone-diimine F15-NTCDI CH C H C13H27
2 7 15

(e) (f) (g)

Figure 18. Chemical structures of commonly used n-type conducting polymers and small
molecules organic semiconductors: (a) diketopyrrolopyrrole-naphthalene copolymer (PDPP-
TNT), (b) diketopyrrolopyrrole-benzothiadiazole copolymer (PDPP-TBT), (c) poly (2,5-bis
(3-alkylthiophene-2-yl) thieno [3,2] thiophene) (PBTTT), (d) fullerene (C60 ), (e) dimethyl-
dicyanoquinone-diimine, (f) N,N0-bis(1H,H1-per- fluorooctyl) naphthalene-1,4,5,8-tetracarboxylic
diimide (F15 -NTCDI), (g) N,N -ditridecylperylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-
C13 H27 ), (h) tetracyan-oquinodimethane (TCNQ), (i) perylene tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA),
and (j) N,N -dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-C8). (Continued on next page)
 68 B. Kumar et al.

O O O
CN NC R

O N O

NC CN O N O
O O O
TCNQ PTCDA PTCDI-C8 R

(h) (i) (j)

Figure 18. (Continued)

Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

A high gain inverter circuit was reported by Vladu et al.194 by using a natural pigment-
Indigo that demonstrated balanced electron and hole mobility. Furthermore, Dodabalapur
et al.197 suggested a heterostructure for ambipolar transistor by using two layers of dif-
ferent semiconductors (p and n both). Similarly, Wang et al.187 reported a C60 /pentacene
based bottom contact heterostructure with the hole and electron mobility of 0.14 and
0.23 cm2/V.s, respectively. Recently, Ha et al.191 reported an ambipolar transistor based on
diketopyrrolopyrrole-benzothiadiazole copolymer (PDPP-TBT) with a significantly high
hole and electron mobility of 0.53 and 0.58 cm2/V.s, respectively.

6.2 Electrode Materials

To achieve a high performance device, the selection of material for making electrodes is of
equal importance as the semiconductors. Contact metal for the source and drain electrodes
should be selected in such a way that it should not produce a high contact resistance.
It implies that the contact must possess a low interface barrier with the active layer for
enabling a large number of carrier injections. Gold metal is often used in p-type OTFTs due
to its high work function (5 eV). It is an appropriate metal for usage with p-type organic
semiconductors as most of them exhibit their HOMO level near 4.9 eV.198 Thus a low
interface barrier (∼0.1 eV) between the gold and p-type OSCs makes them suitable for
building up contacts with ohmic characteristics. Adding nickel, titanium, and chromium
with gold improves the adhesivity.66,68
The gate electrode material should have good adhesion and patterning capabilities with
substrate and gate dielectric, respectively. Moreover, the work function of the gate metal
should be comparable to the semiconductor in attaining low threshold voltage. Such elec-
trode materials include heavily doped silicon,18 aluminum,49 and indium tin oxide (ITO).74
The work functions of some of the often used inorganic contact materials are summarized
in Table 11. Indium tin oxide is commonly used to make the anode terminal in organic
display devices because of its high work function (∼5 eV) and adequate transparency in
the visible spectrum. On the other hand, magnesium, lithium, and calcium with low work
function metals are generally used to make the cathode terminal.
A novel series of conducting polymers are also required for fabricating the electrodes,
so as to achieve a completely flexible organic device. Poly-3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene:
styrene sulfonic acid (PEDOT: PSS), PSS (poly (styrene sulfonate)), and PANI-CSA
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 69

Table 8
Field effect mobility and on/off current ratio of different n-type conducting polymers

(Electron- Supply voltage (V)

mobility)
Material Structure μ (cm2/V.s) ION /IOFF Vds Vgs Ref.
PDI-8CN2 BGTC 0.063 8.7×103 100 −40 to 100 166
{N,N-bis(n-octyl)-
dicyanoperylene-3, 4 :
9, 10-bis
(dicarboximide)}
BGBC 0.33 105 20 −30 to 50 167
PTCDI-C13 H27 (N,N - BGTC 0.6 107 100 0 to 100 168
ditridecylperylene-
3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

diimide)
P(ND12OD-T2) Poly TGBC 0.62 105 8 0 to 80 162
{[n,n9-bis
(1-octydodecyl)-
naphthalene-1,4,5,8-
bis(dicarboximide)-2,6-
diyl]alt-5,59-(2,29-
bithiophene)}
Benzobis (thiadiazole) BGBC 0.1 108 20 −20 to 40 169
(BBT) derivative
P(NDI2OD-T2) TGBC 0.5 106 60 −20 to 60 170
NDI2-DTP TGBC 1.2 NR 25 0 to 25 171
[Dithienopyrrole (DTP),
2,2 0-(4-n-hexyl-4H-
dithie-no[3,2-b:2 0,3 0
-d]pyrrole-2,6-
diyl)bis(N,N 0
-bis(n-
hexyl)naphthalene-
1,4:5,8-
bis(dicarboximide)]
P(NDI2OD-T2) TGBC 0.1 NR 60 −20 to 60 172
(PDPP-TBT), TGBC 0.1 NR 40 −40 to 40 172
(diketopyrrolopyrrole-
benzothiadiazole
copolymer)
PDI-8CN2 N, N BGBC 0.01 105 20 −30 to 50 173
bis-(octyl-)-
dicyanoperylene-3,4:9,
10-bis(dicarboximide)
 70 B. Kumar et al.

Table 9
Field effect mobility and on/off current ratio of n-type small molecule organic
semiconductors

Supply voltage
(Electron- (V)
mobility)
Material Struture μ (cm2/V.s) ION /IOFF Vds Vgs Ref.
F16 CuPc (Copper BGTC 0.009 NR 100 0 to 100 144
hexadeca
fluorophthalocyanine)
F16 CuPc (Copper Vertical 0.03 28 10 0 to 20 174
hexadeca
fluorophthalocyanine)
PTCDI C-8 N,N -dioctyl- Vertical 0.6 89 10 0 to 20
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

3,4,9,10-perylene
tetracarboxylic diimide
NTCDA Vertical 0.003 17 10 0 to 20
PCBM BGBC 0.0348 1.4×106 40 −10 to 175
(phenyl-C61-butyric 40
acid methylester)
TEPP {6}-1-(3-(2- BGBC 0.0779 1.4×106 40 −10 to
thienylethoxycarbonyl)- 40
propyl)-{5}-1-phenyl-
[5,6]-C61
Perfluoropentacene BGTC 0.22 105 40 −50 to 176
100
F8 [Poly(9,9- BGTC 0.025 103 50 0 to 100 177
dioctylfluorene)]
polyfluorene derivative
Poly[(9,9- BGTC 0.001 103 50 0 to 100
dioctylfluorenyl-2,
7-diyl)-co-(1,4-benzo-
{2,1’,3}-thiadiazole)]
(F8BT) polyfluorene
derivative
PDIN1400, Polyera TGBC 0.037 NR 40 0 to 60 31
Activink N1400
C60 Fullerene BGTC 5.1 106 60 −20 to 178
60
[60] PCBM BGTC 0.21 104 80 0 to 80 179
Methanofullerenes
[6,6]-phenyl-C61-
butyric acid
ester

(Continued on next page)

 Organic Thin Film Transistors 71

Table 9
Field effect mobility and on/off current ratio of n-type small molecule organic semicon-
ductors (Continued)

Supply voltage
(Electron- (V)
mobility)
Material Struture μ (cm2/V.s) ION /IOFF Vds Vgs Ref.
[70] PCBM [6,6]-phenyl- BGTC 0.10 103 80 0 to 80
C71-butyric acid
methyl ester
Methanofullerene[6,6]- BGTC 0.2 103 80 −50 to 180
phenyl C61 -butyric acid 50
methyl ester
F16 CuPc (Copper BGBC 0.02 NR 100 0 to 100 181
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

hexadeca
fluorophthalocyanine)
F16 CuPc (Copper BGBC 0.002 103 8 −1 to 8 182
hexadeca
fluorophthalocyanine)

(polyaniline doped with camphor-sulphonic acid) are commonly used conducting poly-
mers for the electrodes.174,175 The chemical structures for some of the organic electrode
materials are shown in Fig. 20, while some of the commonly used organic electrode mate-
rials are outlined in Table 12. Cossedu et al.46 reported an OTFT, wherein the source, drain,
and gate electrodes were made of PEDOT material. This transistor exhibited a mobility of
0.01 cm2/V.s in BGTC and 0.004 cm2/V.s in BGBC configurations. Additionally, Maccioni

1
10
Pentacene
0 Polythiophene
10
PCBM
C60MC12
-1
10 C60
µ (cm /V.s)

-2
10
2

-3
10

-4
10

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Year

Figure 19. Comparative plot of mobility growth for p- and n-type OSCs.
 Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

72
Table 10
Field effect mobility and on/off current ratio of ambipolar OSCs

μ (cm2/V.s) Supply voltage (V)

Material Structure Hole (h) Electron (e) ION /IOFF Vds (h) Vds (e) Vgs Ref.
NiDT BGBC 2.5 × 10−4 2.0 × 10−5 NR −30 30 ±30 185
P(NDI2OD-T2) Vertical NR NR 103 −10 3 ±40 186
Pentacene and BGTC Hetrostructure 0.042 0.041 105 −40 40 ±60 176
perfluoropentacene
C60/Pentacene BGTC Hetrostructure 0.14 0.23 10 −100 100 ±100 187
PDPP3T [Poly BGBC 0.02 0.02 NR −60 60 ±80 188
(Diketopyrrolopyrrole-
terthiophene)]
PPV/PCBM Blend BGBC 0.01 10−6 NR −2 20 −20/100 189
PDPP-TBT DG 0.5–1.64 0.17–0.5 105 −40 40 ±40 190, 191
(Diketopyrrolopyrrole-
Benzothiadiazole
Copolymer)
PDPP-TBT BGTC 0.064 0.037 NR −70 70 ±75 192
(Diketopyrrolopyrrole-
Benzothiadiazole
Copolymer)
PTDPPSe-Si Hybrid BGTC 3.97 2.2 NR −100 100 ±100 193
siloxane-solubilizing
group (dithienyl-
diketopyrrolopyrrole
and selenophene)
Indigo TGBC 0.005–0.01 0.01 NR −10 10 −9 to 12 194
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 73

Table 11
Work functions of inorganic electrode materials

Material Work function (eV) Ref.

Heavily doped n-type (n+) silicon 3.9 18
Au (Gold) 5.1 198
Cu (Copper) 4.7 199
Cr (Chromium) 4.5 200
Al (Aluminum) 4.0 − 4.28 201,202
Ni (Nickel) 4.1 − 5.0 202,203
Ti (Titanium) 3.84 35
Pt (Platinum) 5.65 204
Ca (Calcium) 2.87 36
Co (Cobalt) 5.0 202
Fe (Iron) 5.0 202
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

ITO 5.3 74

et al.50 reported a cylindrical OTFT with S/D contacts of PEDOT: PSS that demonstrated a
mobility of 0.06 cm2/V.s and the on/off current ratio of 3 × 103.

6.3 Gate Insulating Materials

Insulating material is used to prevent the leakage current between the gate and active layer.
This also works as the passivation layer in top gate organic transistors. The accumulation of
charge carriers at the semiconductor/insulator interface strongly depends on the dielectric
constant and the thickness of the insulator. The material used for the insulating layer
should properly adhere to the substrate. Moreover, it must produce a good interface with
the semiconductor to avoid the generation of dipoles and trap states. Certain desirable
characteristics that an insulating material must exhibit are high dielectric constant (k) and
high resistance. High-k insulating materials are beneficial in attaining a steep sub-threshold

HO OH

HO OH

O O

NH2
NH n
COOH
n
3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine
PEDOT COOH Eumelanin L-DOPA
(a) (b) (c)

Figure 20. Chemical structures of commonly used organic electrode materials (a) Poly (3, 4-ethylene
dioxythiophene) (PEDOT), (b) Eumelanin, and (c) 3, 4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine (l-DOPA).
 74 B. Kumar et al.

Table 12
Organic electrode materials

Material Ref.
PEDOT/ PSS Poly(ethylene-dioxythiophene)/ Polystyrene sulfonated 28
PANI/CSA Polyaniline/Camphor-sulphonic acid 28
Poly(3,4-thylenedioxythiophene) 28
Polypyrrole 205
Polythiophene 205
Polyanilene 205
Poly(3,4-thylenedioxythiophene) 28
PEDOT/PSS Poly(ethylene-dioxythiophene)/ Polystyrene sulfonated 136
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

slope and low threshold voltage due to their smaller band gaps as compared to the low-k
materials. Dielectric constants of some of the frequently used inorganic dielectric materials
are summarized in Table 13.
Several high-k insulators, including La2 O3 ,206 HfSiOx ,207 HfLaO,208 Pr6 O11 ,209
HfO2 ,123 and Al2 O3 210 are investigated that resulted in a significant decrease in Vt and
SS. In addition to the material of high-k, the thickness of the dielectric layer should be
kept low, not only to operate at lower voltages, but also to reduce the short channel effects
in submicron devices. Moreover, it should possess high breakdown voltage and long-term
stability. These requirements are met by a number of dielectric materials, such as SiO2 ,
Al2 O3 , PVP, ZrO2 , P4VP, PMMA, BZT, PVDF, HfO2 , and propylene.
Organic insulating materials, such as PMMA, PS, PVP, PI, and PVA demonstrate
the ability of processing through low cost fabrication techniques, good adherence, and
fair dielectric properties.215–217 Chemical structures of some of the organic insulators are
shown in Fig. 21 and their dielectric constants are summarized in Table 14. In general, a
high operating voltage is required for the organic insulator based TFTs due to their low
dielectric constant. As a solution, a thin insulating layer can be formed but it results in a high

Table 13
Dielectric constants of inorganic insulating materials

Material Dielectric constant Ref.

SiO2 (Silicon di oxide) 3.5–4.5, 3.9 18,211
Al2 O3 (Aluminium oxide) 8.5–9 212
Si3 N4 (Silicon nitride) 6.2, 7.1 175, 213
HfO2 (Hafnium oxide) 22, 25 123, 212
MgO (Magnesium oxide) 9.8 212
LaAlO3 (Lnthanum aluminum oxide) 26 212
ZrO2 (Zirconium dioxide) 25, 17.5 212
TiO2 (Titanium dioxide) 80–100 212
La2 O3 (Lanthanum oxide) 30 212
CeO2 (Cerium oxide) 52 212
Ta2 O3 (Tantalum pentoxide) 26 212
Nd2 O3 (Neodymiumoxide) 11.7 214
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 75

Table 14
Dielectric constants of organic insulating materials

Material Dielectric constant Ref.

PI (Polyimide) 2.6 137
PVP (Poly vinyl phenol) 5.3, 3.8, 6.4 220
P4VP (Poly (4-vinyl phenol)) 5.3, 2.56 127
PS (Polystyrene) 2.6 162
P3DDT 3.24 127
PVA (Polyvinyl alcohol) 7.8 162
PMMA (Polymethyl methacrylate) 3.6, 3.3 162,205
P4VP-co-PMMA 4.1 162
BZT (Barium zirconate titanate) 3.8 221
Polyvinyl alcohol 8.3 138
PVP 5.3 177
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

D139 7.4 191

P (VDF-TrFE)/(PVDF)- blend 10.3 129

CH3

R1 R2 n

n
Si O Si
O O CH3
n
OH
Poly(methylmethacrylate) Silicon network polymer Poly(vinyl phenol)

(a) (b) (c)

CH2 H2C
n
n OH
Polystyrene Parylene Poly vinyl alcohol

(d) (e) (f)

Figure 21. Chemical structures of organic dielectric materials: (a) polymethyl methacrylate
(PMMA), (b) silicon network polymer, (c) poly vinyl phenol (PVP), (d) polystyrene (PS), (e) parylene,
and (f) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA).
 76 B. Kumar et al.

Table 15
Organic substrate materials

Material Ref.
PEN (Polyethylene naphthalate) 137
Polyimide 224
ITO-coated polyester 225
Polyester 226
PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) 227
Plastic 142
Plastic 143
Paper 6
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

leakage current due to the presence of defects in a thin organic layer. As an alternative, Klauk
et al.10 reported a high performance OTFT by means of forming bi-layers of insulating films
through spin coating of block copolymer on the thermally grown SiO2 surface. Similarly,
Angelis et al.218 and Chou et al.219 demonstrated the organic transistors with bi-dielectric
layers of SiO2 /PMMA and SiO2 /Polyimide that resulted in the mobility of 1.4 cm2/V.s at
−30 V and 2.05 cm2/V.s at −40 V, respectively.

6.4 Substrate Materials

The selection of a substrate material for any device primarily depends on the kind of applica-
tion the device is meant for. Silicon finds usage in electronics not only because of its intrinsic
properties but also for its ability to produce an oxide layer by the thermal oxidation process.
Glass substrate is necessary for fabricating organic light emitting diode displays.222 On the
other hand, organic substrates are essentially required for flexible electronics. In 1990, Peng
et al.223 reported the first TFT fabricated on the glass substrate. Thereafter, Garnier et al.224
fabricated a TFT on a flexible polyimide substrate that demonstrated a performance com-
parable to that of TFTs fabricated on silicon or glass. Later, in 1997 the first fully printed
P3HT based organic transistor was reported by Bao et al.225 wherein, ITO-coated polyester
was used as a substrate. Till then, numerous fully printed organic transistors28,205 and cir-
cuits16,122,136 were made on the flexible substrates like polyethylene-naphthalate (PEN),
poly ethylene-therephthalate (PET), polyimide, polyethylene, plastic, paper, and fiber6–9
that opened a new era of flexible low cost printed electronics. Some important organic and
inorganic substrate materials are listed in Tables 15 and 16, respectively.

Table 16
Inorganic substrate materials

Material Ref.
Heavily doped silicon 128
Highly doped n-type silicon 18
Glass 8
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 77
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Figure 22. Basic fabrication steps for the bottom gate top contact OTFT.

7. Fabrication
The technique opted to deposit the materials during fabrication plays a crucial role while
determining the performance of different OTFTs, even though similar set of materials
are used to fabricate them. Commonly used fabrication techniques include electron-beam
/thermal vacuum evaporation,217,228 solution processing,123 Langmuir-Blodget,3 physical
vapor deposition (PVD),212 photolithography,18 and shadow masking.49 Organic materials
allow the fabrication of transistor and circuits up to 120◦ C that reduces the manufacturing
cost, spectacularly. A fabrication flow of bottom gate top contact structure is shown in
Fig. 22. The foremost step includes the selection of a substrate that may be silicon,18
aluminum,49 glass,8 paper,6 plastic,7 fiber,9 foil,13 etc. Heavily doped (n/p) silicon wafer
acts as the gate and substrate simultaneously.18,32
A dielectric layer of SiO2 can be grown by thermal oxidation of silicon that exposes
the wafer to an oxidizing environment at a high temperature. The other dielectric material
like Al2 O3 is deposited by atomic layer deposition using tri-methyl aluminum, whereas
the solution processing technique is used to deposit the gate and the insulating layer of
organic materials on the flexible substrates. Thereafter, an active layer is formed through
either vacuum evaporation or the solution processing method dependent on the type of
organic semiconductor. S/D contacts in top contact structure are deposited by the shadow
masking technique, whereas in the bottom contact structure they are formed and patterned
lithographically prior to the deposition of OSC layer. Small molecule semiconductors such
 78 B. Kumar et al.

as pentacene and oligothiophenes are usually deposited through the vacuum evaporation
method, since they exhibit low solubility in the organic solvents. Contradictorily, conduct-
ing polymers, such as P3HT and polythiophene are soluble in solvents like chloroform
and toluene;123 therefore, they can be deposited through spin coating or ink-jet printing
techniques. Details of these techniques are incorporated in the following sub-sections.

7.1 Vacuum Evaporation Techniques

The semiconductor film deposited by vacuum evaporation results in a superior charge
carrier transport properties. This technique is primarily employed for inorganic and small
molecule organic materials. Conducting polymers may decompose or even crack at the
high temperature, therefore, this technique is not suitable for them. Based on the trans-
portation of the molecules of the desired material onto the substrate, the vacuum evapo-
ration technique is categorized to thermal vacuum evaporation and electron beam vacuum
evaporation. In the thermal vacuum evaporation, the material that needs to be deposited
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

is heated by an electric filament. However, in the electron beam evaporation, this heating
is done through bombardment with a high energy electron beam (usually several KeV)
by an electron gun. A vacuum chamber is needed in both the techniques to process the
material. It must be evacuated to a minimum pressure of 10−5 Torr36 to suck the evaporated
particles directly on the substrate without colliding with the molecules of the background
gas.
Vacuum evaporation methods have been applied frequently to deposit the single crystals
as well as the thin film of organic semiconductors. Butko et al.229 reported a single crystal
based organic transistor that exhibited a hole mobility of 0.3 cm2/V.s and the current on/off
ratio of 105, wherein the crystals were grown by the thermal deposition method. Similarly,
Yun et al.230 reported a pentacene thin film transistor with a mobility of 0.32 cm2/V.s and
a high on/off current ratio of 2.2 × 106, deposited through thermal vacuum evaporation
technique. Additionally, Kumaki et al.145 reported a high mobility of 1 cm2/V.s for the
anthracene oligomer based transistor, wherein, an active layer of 30 nm was formed through
this deposition method.
Dimitrakopoulos et al.231 in 1996 demonstrated the deposition of a pentacene film
through electron beam evaporation method that yielded a mobility of 0.038 cm2/V.s. Later,
in 2008, Cai et al.232 reported a high performance pentacene based OTFT deposited through
this technique. The transistor exhibited the current, mobility, threshold voltage, on/off cur-
rent ratio, and sub-threshold slope of −80 μA, 1.1 cm2/V.s, −2.71 V, 105, and 0.44 V/decade,
respectively. The electron beam evaporation technique yields a higher density film com-
pared to thermal evaporation due to a strict control on the evaporation rate. Even, several
different materials can be deposited by using a multiple crucible electron beam gun without
breaking the vacuum pressure. Besides this, it helps to increase the adhesion of material
to the substrate and also improves the interfacing between the layers. The electron beam
evaporation technique only involves the heating of material rather than the entire crucible.
Therefore, the contaminations are less produced from the crucible as compared to the
thermal vacuum evaporation method, wherein the whole crucible gets heated up to high
temperature. On the other hand, the electron beam evaporation method requires a complex
and costly electron processing unit that is difficult to scale linearly as compared to the
thermal evaporation technique.
The performance of an OTFT primarily depends on the purity of organic material,
substrate cleaning and the rate of deposition. The mean free path of OSC particles and
occurrence of redundant molecules near the substrate play a crucial role in achieving a high
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 79

performance film. Vacuum deposition techniques are advantageous in terms of achieving

highly ordered films with a precise control on the thickness. However, a highly sophisti-
cated vacuum chamber is required for an adequate flow of the charge carriers. Moreover,
deposition of material at a very high temperature makes this technique inappropriate for
the flexible and low cost devices.

7.2 Solution Processing Techniques

Solution processable organic materials are beneficial in realizing large area electronic
circuits at considerably low temperature and therefore, at lower cost too. Spin coating,123
inkjet printing,227 polymer inking and stamping,233 transfer printing,234 and drop casting234
are regularly used cost-effective techniques. In transfer printing, a thin film pattern is
transferred from a non-adhesive mold to an adhesive substrate. Using this technique, the
devices obtained are of longer channel length such as 40 μm was reported by Cho et al.234
However, Sele et al.235 reported a significant reduction in the channel length (up to 100 nm)
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

by employing the ink-jet printing technique.

Spin coating is another solution processing technique, often employed for cost effective
and large area production of the organic devices and circuits. Assadi et al.236 reported the
first solution processed conducting polymer, P3HT, wherein the solubility was improved
by adding alkyl chains. Raval et al.123 reported a P3HT based organic transistor fabricated
through spin coating technique. A high-k insulator HfO2 was used to obtain a current of
0.4 μA at low Vds and Vgs of −4 V each. The device exhibited a mobility of 0.001 cm2/V.s
and Vt of −0.9 V. Moreover, all p-type organic inverters (with and without bootstrapping
technique) operated at low voltage (−4 V) were also realized by employing the same
fabrication technique. Additionally, Afzali et al.150 reported a mobility of 0.89 cm2/V.s for
spin coated pentacene transistor processed in 1–2% chloroform solution.
Ink-jet printing is an additive process, wherein the material deposition and patterning
are performed simultaneously.227 The basic fabrication flow of a TGBC organic transistor
with a typical combination of materials (substrate-PET, S/D-gold, OSC-polythiophene
(PT), insulator-PVP, and gate-gold) is shown in Fig. 23,227 wherein the OSC is deposited
through the ink-jet printing technique. Primarily, a layer of positive photoresist is developed
on the PET substrate by the lift-off process. A glass mask is used to pattern the S/D contacts
on the substrate that allows the exposure of S/D chrome area by light, whereas the portion
that remains unexposed is removed through cleaning. Furthermore, the contact material is
deposited on the patterned photo-resist through the vacuum evaporation technique followed
by the deposition of polythiophene OSC by ink-jet printing. Later, a layer of gate insulator
is formed through the spin coating of PVP dielectric on the contacts. The fabrication process
ends with the establishment of interconnections through holes along with the printing of
the gate. The printing process enables proper alignment of the gate electrode in comparison
to the evaporation method.
Chen et al.227 reported an OTFT based on polythiophene deposited through the ink-jet
printing technique. This transistor exhibited the mobility, threshold voltage, and on/off
current ratio of 0.01 cm2/V.s, −4 V and 80, respectively. Furthermore, by processing the
same materials, they reported an organic p-type bootstrap inverter with a gain of 1.8 at 30 V
supply. Furthermore, Cho et al.234 reported a BGBC organic transistor fabricated on poly
(ether sulfone) (PES) substrate by transfer-printing of gold S/D electrodes and solution
processing of the PVP insulator. The active layer was made by drop casting of the solution
of 0.5 wt% TIPS pentacene in toluene. This device demonstrated a saturation mobility of
0.012 cm2/V.s at Vds of −20V.
 80 B. Kumar et al.

Glass S OSC D
Substrate
(d)

Photoresist Insulator
Substrate S OSC D
(a)
Substrate
Photoresist Photoresist (e)
Substrate
(b) G
Insulator
Photoresist S D Photoresist S OSC D
Substrate Substrate
(c) (f)

Figure 23. Fabrication flow of TGBC organic transistor. (a) A photoresist layer is developed on
the PET substrate and exposed to light; (b) through cleaning unexposed photoresist is removed; (c)
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

contact material is deposited through vacuum evaporation; (d) cleaning is carried out for finishing the
contacts; (e) OSC is deposited through ink-jet printing followed by the insulator layer through spin
coating; (f) holes are made for the interconnections along with printing of gate.

Based on the deposition methods of different organic semiconductors, the performance

in terms of drain current, mobility, on/off current ratio, and threshold voltage of few p-type
OTFTs are compared in Table 17.

Table 17
Performance of different p-type OTFTs on the basis of deposition method of OSCs

Supply voltage
(V)
Method of Organic Ids μ ION Vt
OSC deposition semiconductor (μA) (cm2/V.s) /IOFF (V) Vds Vgs Ref.
Drop casting TIPS −0.9 0.012 6×103 −1.8 −20 10 to −10 234
pentacene
Polymer inking Pentacene −40 0.033 108 −1.2 −5 0 to −5 233
and stamping
Thermal Pentacene −22 0.32 2.2×106 −10 −30 20 to −40 230
evaporation
Thermal Pentacene −3 0.19 107 −3 −20 0 to −20 237
evaporation
Thermal Pentacene −0.8 0.038 NR −6 −20 20 to −40 238
evaporation
Inkjet printing polythiophene −0.1 0.01 80 −4 −40 20 to −40 227
(PHT)
Spin coating P3HT −1.4 0.015 8.4×106 −1.33 −10 10 to −10 56
Electron beam Pentacene −80 1.1 105 −2.71 −50 0 to −20 232
vacuum
deposition
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 81

1
10
VPSM (P)
0 SPCP (P)
10
SPSM (P)
-1
10
µ (cm2/V.s) -2
10
-3
10
-4
10 VPSM (n)
SPCP (n)
-5 SPSM (n)
10
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Year
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Figure 24. Comparative plot for growth in field effect mobility of p- and n-type transistors.

Over the last two decades, researchers have demonstrated noteworthy improvement
in the fabrication methodologies of organic devices.227–239 Figure 24 shows a comparative
study of growth in mobility for different p- and n-type organic materials such as vacuum
processed small molecule (VPSM), solution processed conducting polymer (SPCP), and
solution processed small molecule (SPSM). The highest mobility is reported for the p- and n-
type small molecule organic materials, deposited through the vacuum evaporation method.
However, the solution processed p- and n-type conducting polymers have also shown
noteworthy progress with the passage of time. In addition to this, the small molecule (p/n)
organic materials deposited through solution processing have demonstrated a continuous
growth during the last decade due to synthesis of several precursors like TIPS pentacene151
and diF-TESADT154 that showed compatibility with the solution processing techniques.
The polymer inking and stamping technique is promising for fabricating organic de-
vices with shorter channel length. Li et al.233 reported a fully printed pentacene organic
transistor (L = 1 μm) on poly ether sulfone (PES) substrate by using this technique. The
device exhibited a significantly high current of 40 μA at low bias voltage (−5 V). In fact,
by using polymer inking and stamping printing methods, they demonstrated roll to roll
printing that is attractive due to low-cost fabrication, high throughput, and processing at
room temperature.

8. Performance Influencing factors of OTFTs

The performance of an OTFT is evaluated by a range of parameters that include on-current,
mobility, threshold voltage, sub-threshold slope, contact resistance, and off-current. These
parameters are strongly dependent on the device dimensions, material, and fabrication
process. In addition to this, the interface also plays a vital role due to multiple layers. Semi-
conductor surface interfacing with S/D contacts and gate dielectric affects the performance
of the organic transistor to a large extent. This section presents the impact of dimensional
parameters and interfaces on the performance of organic transistors.
 82 B. Kumar et al.

8.1 Dimensional Parameters

Dimensional parameters like channel length, device width, and the thicknesses of the active
and insulating layers affect the performance of an organic transistor significantly. The
thickness of the insulator should be small enough to achieve a high capacitance that in
turn enables high drain current at low switching voltage. In addition to this, the mobility
also increases with decreasing thickness of the insulator. Singh et al.239 reported the rise in
mobility by almost twenty times with reduction in thickness of PMMA dielectric from 700
to 210 nm.
The thickness of the semiconductor primarily affects the on-current. However, off
current also rises with an increase in tosc due to an increasing fraction of the layer, where
the charge carriers can move.43 The increase in off current results in a higher leakage power
and reduced noise margins. A thinner film can significantly reduce the off-current that is
highly desirable for organic display and memory circuits.44 Resendiz et al.43 reported a high
on/off current ratio of 6 × 109 at tosc of 20 nm as compared to 10 with 160 nm thickness for
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

P3HT based OTFT. Besides this, an increase of 8.5% in mobility and a decrease of 50% in
threshold voltage were observed on reducing the thickness from 160 to 20 nm. Similarly,
Kano et al.41 demonstrated the effect of Dibutylquaterthiophene active layer thickness on
the device performance. On increasing the thickness from 20 to 80 nm, they observed a
reduction in mobility from 0.05 to 0.03 cm2/V.s and an increase in the sub-threshold slope
from 3.5 to 5 V/decade due to proportionate increase in the access resistance. Surprisingly,
a large variation from −10 to +18 V in the threshold voltage was observed with an increase
in tosc from 20 to 80 nm.
To improve the performance of OTFT, noteworthy efforts have been made for fab-
ricating the devices with shorter channel lengths. Rogers et al.240 in 1999 reported α-
sexithiophene (α-6T) based p-type and F16 CuPc based n-type OTFTs, each with 100 nm
channel length. These devices performed well at low voltage of ±3 V that resulted in mobil-
ity of 0.0001 and 0.0008 cm2/V.s and current of −1.5 and 2 μA for p- and n-type transistors,
respectively. Later in 2003, Zhang et al.241 observed a low voltage operation of sub-micron
pentacene TFT of 30 nm channel length that yielded a mobility of 0.02 cm2/V.s and on/off
current ratio of 102 at supply voltage of −2 V. Furthermore, Lee et al.242 in 2005 reported an
organic transistor of 10 nm length with a reasonably good drain and transfer characteristics
at low voltage of −0.3 V. Additionally, they analyzed the performance dependence on the
channel length variation. Scaling down the length from 125 to 10 nm resulted in an increase
in current by thirteen times and decrease in ION /IOFF by 71%.

8.2 Contact-Semiconductor Interface

The charge carrier injection and extraction to and from the channel is governed by the
interface between the metal and semiconductor. A large difference between the Fermi level
of metal and the HOMO/LUMO level of semiconductor results in a potential barrier, leading
to insufficient carrier injection. This leads to an additional resistance to contact resistance
that drops a significant amount of the applied bias, thereby reducing the internal voltage at
the channel ends. Burgi et al.93 reported a large barrier height of 1.2 eV for n-type organic
semiconductors with commonly used gold, aluminum, and copper metals. The effect of
metal/OSC interface is less pronounced in p-type materials due to their lower barrier height
(0.1–0.2 eV)243 in comparison to the n-type OSCs.
Wondmagegn et al.244 studied the impact of dipoles at the gold/pentacene interface
through numerical simulations. They observed a high contact resistance of 91 k in the
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 83

presence of dipoles. However, this resistance reduced to half in the absence of dipole at the
contact/OSC interface. They observed that the contact resistance extracted in the presence
of dipoles was almost equal to the experimental result. This analysis justified the existence
of dipoles in the organic devices. The presence of dipoles at the metal/OSC interface results
in a disordered molecular structure of an active layer. Gupta et al.18 reported the effect
of morphological disorders in pentacene based top and bottom contact organic transistors.
The top contact structure exhibited uniformity in the grains of the active layer, whereas
diversity in the grain size was observed in the bottom contact, especially at the contact/OSC
interface due to the deposition of semiconductor on the pre-patterned S/D electrodes. As
a result, the mobility reduced by two orders of magnitude in the bottom contact structure
compared to the top contact.
Several researchers have proposed few solutions to overcome this interface barrier.
Tiwari et al.245 reported considerable improvement in the performance of organic transistor
by depositing an additional thin organic active layer between the contacts and the semicon-
ductor. Furthermore, Ishikawa et al.60 demonstrated an improvement in the performance of
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

p-type bottom contact TFT by inserting an additional p+ region near the contacts. Moreover,
Watanabe et al.74 showed an improvement in ION /IOFF (540 times) by adding a layer of CuPc
organic material between the source (ITO) and the active layer (pentacene) to improve the
carrier injection.
Another factor that strongly affects the device behavior is the deposition parameters
that include substrate temperature and the deposition rate. Dimitrakopoulos et al.231 reported
the effect of substrate temperature on the quality of the semiconductor film. They observed
a disordered pentacene layer with a mobility of 0.00042 cm2/V.s at substrate temperature
of 45◦ C. However, a highly ordered film with a mobility of 0.038 cm2/V.s. was achieved at
room temperature. Agrawal246 reported the effect of the pentacene deposition rate on the
performance of OTFT. The device showed a reduction in on/off current ratio by 60% and
an increase in the sub-threshold slope by 25% with a higher pentacene deposition rate from
1 to 2.5A◦ /sec. This implies the possibility of achieving a high performance smooth layer
of active material through proper tuning of the deposition parameters.

8.3 Insulator-Semiconductor Interface

The interface between the gate insulator and semiconductor should be optimized to achieve
an improved ordering of the active film and better charge carrier accumulation at the
OSC/insulator interface. The performance of OTFT strongly depends on the resistivity
of an insulator. A high resistive insulator reduces the interface trap density that in turn,
increases the mobility and current. Veres et al.96 reported the performance of PTAA based
p-type OTFT with PMMA and poly (vinyl alcohol) insulators. The mobility of the transistor
with the PMMA insulator was observed to be six times higher in comparison to the transistor
with poly(vinyl alcohol). This is due to high resistivity of the PMMA insulator in compar-
ison to its counterpart. Similarly, Jang et al.247 compared the performance of a C60 based
n-type OTFT with SiO2 (with encapsulation) and CYTOP (without encapsulation) gate in-
sulators. The transistor with CYTOP insulator yielded the mobility and on/off current ratio
of 0.05 cm2/V.s and 6 × 103, respectively, comparable to the transistor with SiO2 insulator
(μ = 0.08 cm2/V.s and ION /IOFF = 104) provided with encapsulation. This transistor with
CYTOP insulator improved the stability of the transistor in the air even without encapsula-
tion due to significant decrease in the interface traps.
Surface treatment is considered to be a viable method to improve the performance of
organic transistors. By applying treatment to the surface of the insulator, the trap states
 84 B. Kumar et al.

can be reduced substantially. This results in an increase in the accumulation of charge at

the OSC/insulator interface that in turn improves the performance of device. Lin et al.248
reported a high performance pentacene transistor by applying surface treatment using
octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) material that yeilded drain current, mobility, on/off current
ratio, sub-threshold slope, and threshold voltage of 70 μA, 1.5 cm2/V.s, −8 V, 108, and
1.6 V/dec. at the supply voltage of -20 V. Furthermore, Tiwari et al.249 demonstrated a
pentacene organic TFT by modifying the surface of SiO2 dielectric with OTS-8 treatment
that resulted in reasonably high on/off current ratio of 109 and a mobility of 0.8 cm2/V.s.
Additionally, Kobayashi et al.250 observed a significant reduction in the threshold voltage by
applying NH2 groups for surface treatment. The shift in Vt can be attributed to the reduction
in dipoles or an extra charge generated by the treatment. Recently, Jiang et al.251 reported
a P3HT based transistor with surface modification of SiO2 by octadecyltrimethoxysilane
(OTMS). This transistor exhibited a mobility of 0.24 cm2/V.s and on/off current ratio of
2.8 × 105.
The performance of OTFTs is improved by several researchers by introducing a self-
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

assembled monolayer on the substrate. Klauk et al.49 reported a high performance pentacene
TFT consisting of very thin (5.7 nm) self-assembled monolayer of n-octadecylphosphonic
material with drain current and mobility of 5 μA and 0.4 cm2/V.s, respectively, at low
operating voltage of −3 V. In addition to this, a low leakage current and sub-threshold
slope of 0.5 pA and 100 mV/decade, respectively, was observed. Additionally, Ito et al.252
reported a self-assembled monolayer of OTMS on the SiO2 surface. By producing this
monolayer, a hole mobility of 3.0 cm2/V.s for pentacene, and an electron mobility of
5.3 cm2/V.s for C60 based transistors were reported. The excellent characteristics of the
interface between the layers not only reduced the defects, but also increased the number of
injected carriers to the channel.

9. Applications of Organic Thin Film Transistor

Organic transistors have found their usage in numerous applications, such as organic
inverters, ring oscillators, analog circuits, solar cell, and sensors.11–15 They are often used as
the backplane driver in the organic display circuits. Moreover, they are frequently employed
as the rectifier-modulator unit in organic radio frequency identification systems. Few of the
important applications of these transistors are described in the following sub-sections.

9.1 Organic Inverter Circuit

An inverter is considered to be the most basic circuit in digital circuitry. Most of the
OTFT-based inverters are designed using only p-type transistors69,123 due to higher field
effect mobility and better intrinsic stability of the p-type materials in comparison to the
n-type. However, a complementary organic inverter is beneficial in terms of low static
power consumption, high noise margin, high gain, and operational robustness. For such
complementary organic inverters both p- and n-type transistors should exhibit comparable
mobility and threshold voltage. However, difficulty in obtaining a high mobility n-type
organic transistor enforced researchers to propose an all p-type organic inverter circuit.
Table 18 summarizes the performance of a few organic/inorganic devices employed in the
inverter circuits.144,163,253–256
An all p-type inverter also faces challenges like low voltage swings, poor balance be-
tween pull-up and pull-down operation, higher power dissipation, and low noise margins.
Taking these limitations into account, hybrid complementary circuits have been proposed
 Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Table 18
Dimensional parameters, materials, and performance of different TFTs used in the inverter circuits

Dimensional parameters and materials

Device-1254 Device-2144 Device-3144 Device-4163 Device-5254 Device-6255

L (μm) 90 50 50 100 90 9
W (μm) 500 1000 1000 1000 500 10
tox (nm) 12.5 (SiO2 +Al2 O3 ) 300 (SiO2 ) 300 (SiO2 ) 144 (SiO2 +TiSiO2 ) 12.5 (SiO2 +Al2 O3 ) 100 (SiO2 )
tosc (nm) 50 (Pentacene) 10 (CuPc) 10 (F16 CuPc) 60 (C60 ) 60 (ZnO) 2000 (a-Si:H)
tS /tD (nm) 10 (Gold) 10 (Gold) 10(Gold) 101(LiF+Al) 10 (Al) 50 (Gold)
tg (nm) 10 (n+ Si) 10 (n+ Si) 10 (p-Si) 30 (p-Si) 10 (p-Si) 50 (p-Si)
Device performance parameters

μ (cm2/V s) 1.03 0.16 0.01 0.92 1.0 2.67

Vt (V) −0.57 −14 1.7 1.13 1.05 6.0
SS (V/dec) 0.17 NR NR 0.3 0.11 NR
ION /IOFF 2×104 NR 104 105 104 105

85
 86 B. Kumar et al.

Vdd=10V
10

8
S
P-Type

VOUT (V)
6
VIN D VOUT
N-Type 4

S
2 Vdd =10V

0 2 4 6 8 10
GND VIN (V)
(a) (b)

2.0 10

8
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

1.5

Voltage (V) 6
Input
Gain

1.0 Output
4

0.5 2

0
0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
VIN (V) Time(Sec.)
(c) (d)

Figure 25. Organic complementary inverter: (a) schematic, (b) VTC plot, (c) gain, and (d) transient
response.

recently. Dodabalapur et al.253 first suggested hybrid complementary technology by re-

placing n-type organic transistor with an inorganic a-Si:H TFT. The schematic, voltage
transfer characteristics, gain, and transient response of a CuPc-F16 CuPc based organic
complementary inverter are shown in Figs. 25 (a-d), respectively.
The static and dynamic responses of all-p, organic complementary, and hybrid inverters
are summarized in Table 19. A combination of pentacene-C60 achieved the noise margins
(NML and NMH ) close to an ideal value of Vdd /2. Its propagation delay (τ p ) reduced by
68% in comparison to the CuPc-F16 CuPc (organic complementary) combination. It is due
to comparable mobility of pentacene and C60 based transistors, whereas the mobility of
CuPc based transistor is 16 times higher in comparison to F16 CuPc based transistor. The
CuPc-F16 CuPc combination resulted in the highest propagation delay among all the other
combinations. This is due to the lower field-effect mobility of F16 CuPc device that slows
down the operational speed of the transistor and thus causes higher delay in switching of
output levels.
The hybrid inverter circuit pentacene-ZnO combination resulted in the lowest propaga-
tion delay of 0.28 sec. which is lesser by almost 50% as compared to the pentacene-a-Si: H
combination. On the other hand, all-p organic configuration demonstrated just an average
performance. The static performance parameters for all-p organic inverter include, VOH =
8.0, VIH = 6.8, VOL = 0.2, and VIL = 4.4 V. In this configuration, the upper voltage of 8 V
is attained that is lesser than the Vdd (10 V), whereas, the lower voltage of 0.2 V is observed
 Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Table 19
Performance parameters of organic complementary, all p-organic and hybrid complementary inverters

Inverter performance parameters

Min. high voltage Max. low voltage

(V) (V) Noise margin (V) Propagation delay (sec.)

Device combination O/P VOH I/P VIH O/P VOL I/P VIL High NMH Low NML High-low τ PHL Low-high τ PLH τp
CuPc; p-type F16 CuPc; 9.7 4.7 1.6 2.7 5.0 1.1 1.9 1.00 1.50
n-type
Pentacene; p-type C60 ; 10 5.0 0.8 4.4 5.0 3.6 0.6 0.35 0.48
n-type
All Pentacene 8.0 6.8 0.2 4.4 1.5 3.9 0.9 0.80 0.85
Pentacene; p-type 9.7 5.7 0.2 3.7 4.0 3.5 0.5 0.60 0.55
a-Si:H; n-type
Pentacene; p-type ZnO; 9.7 5.0 0.1 3.0 4.7 2.9 0.25 0.30 0.28
n-type

87
 88 B. Kumar et al.

that matches with the desired level, 0 V. However, it can be observed from Table 19, that
the noise margins of all p-organic inverters are not perfectly matched with the ideal silicon
based transistors.
Organic p-type only logic shows operational limitations of large circuits due to low
noise margin and large parameter variations.68 The performance of p-type inverters can
be enhanced by using dual gate TFTs wherein biasing the top gate controls the threshold
voltage. The top gate electrostatically modifies the charge carrier distribution in the channel,
accumulated by the bottom gate. The bottom gate strongly drives the transistor, whereas
the top gate weakly couples to the channel and linearly shifts the Vt .
Compared to the single gate, the dual gate OTFTs outperform in voltage swing, gain,
and propagation delay because of their low threshold voltage and high on-current. Spijkman
et al.68 reported noise margins of 0.6 and 5.9 V for PTAA organic semiconductor based
single and dual gate inverters, respectively. Similarly, Myny et al.257compared the pentacene
based single and dual gate organic TFTs, wherein the DG OTFT improved the voltage swing
and noise margin by 13% and 143%.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

The performance of these inverter circuits can be further increased by the bootstrapping
technique that helps in pulling down the output voltage to the minimum level, thereby in-
creasing the output voltage swing and noise margin.258 Raval et al.123 observed an increment
in gain and voltage swing by 13% and 40%, respectively, for the P3HT based inverter by
applying the bootstrapping technique. Similarly, Jeon et al.259 showed a significant increase
in the performance of pentacene based all p-inverter circuit by employing this technique.

9.2 Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED)

The organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) commercialized previously are now making
way for low cost, large area flexible displays. They have been successfully employed for
the small displays, such as mobile phone, programmable digital array, MP player, and
modern digital camera. The driving force behind this success are the advantages exhibited
by OLEDs such as low cost, lightweight, compact, flexible, ease of fabrication, large color
selection, and better efficiency. Besides this, it has also proven to be promising enough
for improved color quality, sharp image, intensive background, large sight angle, rapid
switching, and lower voltage operation. These properties can be utilized for fabricating
better flexible displays of electronic paper, since it requires high on/off current ratio, low
sub-threshold slope, low threshold voltage, etc.
An OLED consists of thin emissive layers prepared from organic compounds. It shows
high luminous efficiency, since it does not require any backlight function. These OLEDs
generate photons through the emissive layer by generation and recombination of electron-
hole pairs. When the current passes through multiple layers, it transforms into light and a
desired image is formed through several OLEDs lighting simultaneously on a screen.
An OLED structure and its OTFT based driving circuit are shown in Figs. 26(a) and
26(b), respectively. The OTFT1 is meant for charging and discharging of the capacitor (C),
whereas OTFT2 is the driver transistor. OTFT1 should have high on-current and low off-
current for enabling the capacitor to be efficiently charged and discharged. The capacitor
should hold the charge during the complete frame time. For maintaining charge during a
long frame, the off current of OTFT1 should be low. Otherwise, to compensate the charge
leakage, the capacitor size should be large enough that it retains the minimum desired
data voltage. Charging of this large capacitor requires a high on-current. Generally, a large
on/off current ratio is required for operating a large display. Jackson et al.260 reported a
high performance pentacene based stacked TFT with a mobility of 1.5 cm2/V.s and a high
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 89

Silver Cathode VGate

Vin
Alq3 ETL Electron transport layer
Recombination region C
CuPc HTL
Hole transport layer OTFT2
OTFT1
ITO Anode

Glass Transparent Substrate

OLED
GND
VData
Light output VCathode

Figure 26. OLED (a) schematic and (b) circuit driven by an OTFT.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

ION /IOFF of 108 comparable to that of a-Si:H transistor. Such a high mobility enables the
display to address at least a thousand lines and the high on/off current ratio allows long
frame times with minimum charge leakage. In 2006, Zhou et al.261 reported the first fully-
organic active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display that contained 48 ×
48 bottom-emission OLED pixels with two pentacene transistors per pixel.
Li et al.231 reported a fully printed multilayer organic LED fabricated through polymer
inking and stamping technique by transferring a layer of PEDOT material on PES substrate
using a stamp of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material. The device emitted yellow light
from the bottom of the transparent ITO substrate by applying a voltage of about 7 V. OTFT
devices fabricated at low temperature often exhibit low mobility (<0.5 cm2/V.s) that limits
the designing of a pixel circuitry.222 Therefore, a compensatory unit is needed for low
mobility OTFT circuits to maintain a constant driving current that can achieve adequate
electrical operation of AMOLED display. Liu et al.262 investigated a novel voltage driving
pixel circuit for AMOLED displays, consisting of four switches, one driving transistor, and
a capacitor. To narrow down the charging time, they developed a complementary voltage
induced coupling driving mechanism by reducing the voltage drop between the source and
the drain terminals of the organic transistor, especially suitable for OTFTs based display
circuitry with low field effect mobility.

9.3 Organic Radio Frequency Identification Tags

Presently, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are being aggressively used for ap-
plications such as supply chain management, toll bridge, medical science, and the defense
sector. During the last few years, organic RFID tags have received immense interest due
to their low cost and flexibility. The cost of organic RFID tags per unit area is almost
three orders lower than their silicon counterparts. Researchers have found them competent
enough to replace the bar code technology intended for product and inventory identifica-
tion.263–265 It needs to be operated in the radio frequency range to identify the item/person
and information that can be transmitted without adhering to line of sight.
The schematic of a capacitive coupled organic rectifier-modulator circuit is shown in
Fig. 27(a) that consists of a transmitter/receiver, rectifier-modulator unit, and the RFID
tag.12 In the RFID system, the signal flows in two directions; 1) from reader to tag, when
the transmitter sends the command to read a code from the tag and 2) from tag to reader,
 90 B. Kumar et al.

RECTIFIER-MODULATOR TAG
A GND
CCOUPLE 1

OTFT2
OTFT1 CODE
VREAD
CDECOUPLE GENERATOR
VREC DEMODULATOR

CCOUPLE 2 -Vdd
B
READER ANTENNA
(a)
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Clock Generator
Output
(Ring Oscillator) Output Shift Register

Binary Counter Multiplexer

(3-bit) (8×1)

Memory Unit (ROM)

D7D6D5D4D3D2D1D0 Row0
----- Row1
Line Selector (8-bit)
----- --
(3×8 Decoder)
----- --
----- --
----- --
----- Row7

(b)

Figure 27. Schematics of (a) capacitive coupled organic rectifier-modulator and (b) transponder
circuit of an organic RFID.

while the tag sends the code back to the receiver. For reading data from the tag, the
antenna receives the voltage signal of RF frequency from the reader through coupling
capacitors, CCOUPLE1 and CCOUPLE2 . This high frequency AC signal is rectified (full wave)
by two half wave rectifying diodes realized through p-type organic transistors, OTFT1
and OTFT2. These transistors are configured in diode load logic wherein the drain and
gate terminals are shorted. The capacitor, CDECOUPLE filters out the redundant AC ripples,
thereby producing a smooth DC signal feed to the tag.
To send back the code from an RFID tag to the reader, OTFT2 performs the modulation
of an electric signal generated by the tag. OTFT1 works as the feedback unit providing
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 91

a return path to the modulated signal. Using an antenna, this signal is transmitted to the
reader section, where it is demodulated to regenerate the signal.
The schematic of a typical 64 bit RFID transponder chip (code generator) is shown
in Fig. 27(b).257 It consists of a 19-stage ring oscillator that generates the clock signal for
binary counter, line selector, and the output register. A binary 3-bit counter drives a 8:1
multiplexer that selects a particular 8-bit row from the memory and delivers it to the output
shift resister. This 3-bit counter also operates to the 8-bit line coder simultaneously that
makes the selection of a new row after completing the transmission of earlier 8-bits.
Baude et al.266 in 2003 reported a pentacene based RFID circuit, patterned with poly-
meric shadow mask on a 2 × 2 inch glass plate. This low cost circuit was directly powered
by a radio frequency signal without applying a rectifier stage. This organic RFID circuit
responded adequately at 125 KHz and even upto a high frequency of 6.5 MHz. Later, in
2007, Cantatore et al.12 reported an organic transponder based RFID system operating at
13.56 MHz frequency. Myny et al.267 in 2009, demonstrated an improved organic RFID cir-
cuit fabricated on the plastic substrate for RF communication at the same carrier frequency
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

of 13.56 MHz. Furthermore, they reported inductively coupled 64-bit268 and 128-bit269
pentacene based RFID tag that supported a data rate of 787 and 1529 bits/sec.
Myny et al.257 recently reported a 64-bit organic RFID transponder chip based on dual
gate OTFT that operated at a supply voltage of 10 V. This chip yielded a high data rate
of 4300 bits/sec, realized on a small area of 45.38 mm2. Currently, the researchers are
focusing towards performance improvement of organic RFID tags for item-level tracking
of individual goods at low cost to establish control over check-in/out of an inventory.

9.4 Organic DNA Sensors

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) hybridization sensors using organic transistors have started
new tradition in the field of medical electronics. These organic sensors are often used
to detect and quantify the nucleic acids. DNA detection systems are of huge importance
due to their potential applications in pharmacogenomic research, drug discovery, forensic
analysis, and molecular diagnosis.270,271 Pentacene based label free DNA sensors are the
most advanced nucleic acid detection systems. Moreover, it is applied for identification
of viral, forensic, and genetic symptoms.272 Conventional techniques used for detection of
DNA molecules are mainly based on the optical methods that are marred by costly and
complex optical instruments and long processing time. Contradictorily, the electronic DNA
hybridization sensing demonstrates better selectivity and sensitivity that too at lower cost.
Organic material based DNA sensor has turned out to be promising enough for transforming
a chemical binding event into the electrical signal that can be easily measured, analyzed,
and amplified.273
Zhang and Subramaniam274 reported the immobilization of DNA molecules on the
pentacene surface that increased the conduction current due to an unambiguous doping
effect. Figure 28 shows the immobilization of DNA molecules at the surface of semicon-
ductor. These molecules dope the semiconductor that causes a shift in threshold voltage.
Yan et al.275 observed a substantial difference in Vt due to diverse doping and efficiency of
immobilized DNA molecules. Recently, Kim et al.238 reported a disposable DNA sensor on
the flexible PES substrate that yielded immobilization of 100 DNA molecules directly on
the pentacene surface. This hybridization dramatically affected the performance of OTFT
with a decrease in mobility and current by 50% and 58%, respectively. Such a big change
in the performance occurred due to the presence of negative charge on the DNA molecules
that attracted the holes from the channel region, thereby reducing the conductivity.
 92 B. Kumar et al.

Casting of drop DNA Organic channel

Source Drain

Gate Insulator

Substrate

Figure 28. Immobilization of DNA molecules in the grain boundaries due to hydrophobic interaction
in BGBC organic transistor.

Liu et al.272 reported a high performance pentacene based top-contact structure, wherein
a constant bias of +50 V applied between the gate and the source terminals for about 30
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

minutes increased the current about four times in comparison to the current without any
DNA hybridization. Organic TFTs have found extensive use in low cost DNA detection
systems. Moreover, the complete analysis time is less than 40 minutes for the organic
transistor based DNA sensor; however, for conventional techniques the time requirement
is about 24 hrs.274

10. Limitations
Compared to the organic transistor, the silicon based transistors demonstrate higher oper-
ating speed, smaller size, environment stability, and everlasting performance that enables
them for a dominant role in the electronic market. Nevertheless, in the last decade, a grad-
ual and significant progress on the organic semiconductor front has provided an alternative
design platform for the designers especially in application areas of flexible electronics,
sensors, medical diagnostics, etc. However, a number of challenges are yet to be resolved
in order to make organic devices practically and commercially viable.
The organic device faces various constraints at abstraction levels of fabrication, material
and device physics level. At the outset, they hold the complex structure that raises difficulty
in understanding the electronic transport phenomenon. Moreover, the characteristics of
organic materials changes with a different ecological environment and over a long period
of time. Therefore, the researchers need to exercise more on the stability models of these
devices to better comprehend the degradation. It is understood that primarily the instability
originates from its chemical structure. Therefore, alternative methods are being researched
to synthesize a steady organic compound that would enhance mobility and switching
behavior. To add further, the I-V characteristic of an organic transistor degrades severely at
higher temperatures and also the noise level increases considerably at low frequencies.
The mobility of organic materials has been gradually enhanced over the years, espe-
cially of p-types. This success can be credited to the synthesis of novel high performance
materials and innovative fabrication process such as surface healing of dielectric by means
of the self-assembled monolayer, the thermally evaporated conducting layer, the surface
treatment of dielectric, adding a conductive layer between the contacts and semiconductor,
etc.112
Major challenges are being also faced in the development of fully organic comple-
mentary circuits due to lower mobility of n-type devices. Some of the primary obstacles
in improving the performance of n-type OTFT are the susceptibility of OSCs to water and
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 93

oxygen under ambient conditions. Several n-channel transistors can be operated when pro-
cessed and tested under inert condition; only that makes them technologically unattractive.
Numerous issues are still open ended, specifically those associated with the stability and
performance variation from roll to roll and device to device. Currently, OTFTs are not
suitable for very high speed applications due to low mobility, high operating voltage, and
reverse recovery time.

11. Future Outlook

Organic electronics has been a subject of intense commercial and academic interest over
the last two decades. The present work brings out just a small portion of the great potential
of organic electronic based materials, devices, and circuits. To go further, this section points
out some directions for future research. OTFTs would find widespread usage in flexible
displays with applications to e-newspaper, e-magazine, and e-book. Aggressive efforts are
being made to increase the applicability of organic devices in widely used circuits and
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

applications such as differential amplifier,257 A/D and D/A converter,258 shift register,276
energy saving organic LED,11 organic memory,14 ring-oscillator,49 and organic solar cell.277
The future scope of organic transistor in compact, portable, and lightweight circuits include
smart phone, flexible display, bio-sensor, etc. This section further discusses the scope for
enhancing the performance of devices and circuits in future.

11.1 Novel Materials and Structures

The performance of an organic semiconductor is governed by how molecules or polymer
chains are arranged in the solid state. Regardless of the latest developments in p- and n-type
materials, there is an ample scope for synthesizing novel materials with stable and high
mobility under ambient conditions, ease of synthesis, reliability under processing as well as
operational conditions and the ability to effectively inject and collect charge carriers at the
interface. Solubility and mobility are other important concerns for semiconducting organic
materials. Although P3HT exhibits outstanding solubility, but is limited by lower mobility.
In contrast, pentacene exhibits higher hole mobility but demonstrates instability in the air
and lower solubility in solvents that makes it inappropriate for fabricating through low cost
printing methods.8 Some novel solutions can be helpful to fill this technological gap.
Some novel dielectric materials need to be synthesized that would have a high dielectric
constant as well as low leakage current. Besides this, the role of border traps needs to be
addressed together with oxide and interfacing traps. Furthermore, realization of novel
contact materials is extremely required that can easily inject the charge carriers, especially
in the LUMO of n-type materials. For flexible devices, novel conducting polymers, such as
PSS, PEDOT: PSS, and PANI-CSA can find their use to make the S, D, and G contacts. In
addition to this, aggressive research is required to understand the transport phenomenon in
organic materials for their successful implementation in spin based devices. Moreover, the
application of organic materials in spintronics can be as organic ferromagnetic materials
for generating and detecting spin polarized current.
Modified structures for OTFTs, such as dual gate,69 floating gate,278 multigate,279
nanowire FETs,280 vertical,72 cylindrical,50 and organic Fin-FET281 are becoming essential
for achieving higher speed, drivability, and mobility. On the other hand, the power consump-
tion is on the rise in these devices that can be resolved by proper selection of materials to
make them suitable for portable systems. Furthermore, most of the complementary circuits
are realized using p- and n-type TFTs, connected horizontally. However, the performance
 94 B. Kumar et al.

can be improved through a vertically stacked structure as it is beneficial in reducing the

interconnect distance among TFTs that in turn, reduces the parasitics. Moreover, vertical
stacking may lead to an increase in density of circuits. Realizing novel structures with novel
materials and their circuits may open up new dimensions in the organic electronics with an
aim to make them suitable for photovoltaics, wearable medical monitoring smart shirt, and
highly sophisticated integrated circuits.

11.2 Optimization of Device Performance

Performance optimization of a device/transistor is a key challenge that includes factors
such as series resistance, gate induced drain leakage, process-induced variation, mobility,
and charge injection at the contacts/semiconductor interface. Mobility can be improved
by obtaining large grains of active material by optimizing the deposition process. Often,
increased order in the molecular packing results in a high mobility. A surface treatment and
self-assembled monolayer of the dielectric can be helpful in modifying the microstructure
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

of organic thin-films chemically. Moreover, the morphology of the active layer can be
organized especially, to the monolayer closest to the insulator interface by tuning the rate
of deposition and temperature of the substrate.282
The performance improvement of bottom contact structures is an additional challenge.
Insertion of an additional high doping region near the contacts can increase the performance
of these structures.60 In fact, adding an extra semiconductor layer between the contact and
semiconductor can surprisingly enhance the performance. Furthermore, the threshold volt-
age can be reduced substantially by using high-k dielectric without compromising the high
on-off current ratio. In organic single gate TFTs, asymmetric S/D contacts can be employed
with low and high work-function metals for lowering the off-current significantly.283
The performance can be further enhanced in terms of stability, operating bias, cost
economy, longevity, temperature dependency, and power dissipation. However, from a
theoretical point of view, the accurate prediction of the properties of organic devices
including true I-V curves with as few adjustable parameters as possible still represents a
formidable challenge.

11.3 Analytical Models

The understanding of charge transport in organic devices is critical and important for con-
tinuing the miniaturization of electronic devices. Researchers have shown a large difference
between the top and the bottom contact structures in terms of drain current and mobility.18
In the bottom contact structure, a shadow of metal can create hindrance for accurate deposi-
tion of the active layer near the contacts that results in heterogeneous/assorted morphology
of the semiconductor. This results in low effective mobility and high contact resistance
for the bottom contact structure. Moreover, this structure exhibits a discontinuity in the
active layer between the channel and contacts.46 Understanding the mechanism behind the
microstructure arrangement and its effect on carrier mobility is still one of the formidable
challenges.
To model these morphological disorders, some calibrated standards need to be devel-
oped on the basis of low mobility regions near the contacts and high contact resistance.
Efforts can be devoted in realizing the model that would represent accurate static and dy-
namic electrical characteristics in all the operating regimes. Mapping of the overlapping
region (gate-source/gate-drain) to the resistance would be helpful in developing analytical
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 95

models based on the thickness of the active layer. Regardless of few available models, it is
essentially required to develop the analytical models for dual gate structures based on the
mapping of charge accumulation phenomena through second gate bias. Suitable models
are also required to understand the charge transport mechanism in the vertical channel, the
floating gate, and the organic Fin-FET structures.
At present, very few models are available that address the charge transport issues in
nanowire, multigate, and cylindrical gate organic TFTs. Therefore, the circuit simulation
is only limited to the TCAD mixed mode that is extremely time consuming. Therefore, the
compact models for these novel structures need to be developed that can be included in the
circuit level simulators.

11.4 Environmental Device Stability

The characteristics of organic devices should not vary during prolonged operation and
environmental conditions. Due care must be taken against exposure of devices to moisture
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

and oxygen, which can be achieved by depositing a film of inorganic oxides. It is imperative
to explore the physical mechanism that obstructs the device stability. Through encapsulation
of the devices, a longer functioning lifetime can be achieved.282 Attaching a metal or glass
lid to the substrate with a low-permeation adhesive is one of the encapsulation methods that
can be used to protect the organic materials (especially for OLED displays). Additionally,
a thin barrier coating at the top and bottom side of the device can offer a noteworthy
improvement in the device performance.
Hysteresis behavior is an important challenge associated with the operational stability
of organic transistors that is often observed during sweeps of the gate source voltage.
This is due to numerous defects associated with the OTFTs, such as charge trapping in
the OSC, polarization of the dielectric, charge leakage from OSC to dielectric, and the
presence of the dipoles in the OSC/insulator interface. A high hysteresis effect results in
a significant variation in the threshold voltage, thereby affecting the overall performance
of the transistor. Researchers have shown low hysteresis behavior of an OTFT by applying
surface treatment to the dielectric layer that reduces localization of the charge in the
trapping states.283 Nevertheless, aggressive efforts are needed to substantially increase the
operational stability of OTFTs.

12. Conclusion
This paper reviewed advancements in the organic transistors in terms of their structures,
charge transport models, fabrication methodology, and molecular structures of different
materials. The performance of different p- and n-type OSCs (conducting polymers and
small molecule) and the ambipolar semiconductors are analyzed and discussed. Moreover,
a detailed study is presented for the organic/inorganic materials used as the dielectric, con-
tacts, and substrate. Analytical models imitating the actual behavior of organic transistors
are reviewed. In addition to this, different OTFT structures including single gate, dual gate,
vertical channel, and cylindrical gate are discussed and compared.
The effect of device dimensions and interface between the layers is thoroughly re-
viewed. Furthermore, few important applications of organic transistors such as inverter,
OLED, RFID tag, and DNA sensors are discussed. A comparison is made among organic
p-type, organic complementary, and hybrid inverter circuits with an aim to explore the
basic issues related to the organic device based future circuits. It is observed that the or-
ganic materials based low cost flexible and disposable electronic product can be realized.
 96 B. Kumar et al.

Regardless of low speed, organic ICs are bound to be found in the future to enable new
applications, especially in flexible large area electronic and price sensitive applications.
Organic electronics is not a technology competing with silicon, but intends for innovative
applications that are not possible or are too expensive with conventional transistors.

Nomenclature
a-Si:H Amorphous silicon hydrogenated
BST Barium strontium titanate
BZT Barium zirconate titanate
BGBC Bottom gate bottom contact
BGTC Bottom gate top contact
CLM Channel length modulation
CMOS Complementary metal oxide semiconductor
DG Dual gate
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

OLED Organic light emitting diode

OTFT Organic thin film transistor
OSC Organic semiconductor
P3AT Poly (3-alkylthiophene)
P3HT Poly (3-hexylthiophene)
P3OT Poly (3-octylthiophene)
PMMA Poly methyl methacrylate
OTFT Organic thin film transistor
RFID Radio frequency identification
Si Silicon
SG Single gate
SS Sub-threshold slope
TFT Thin film transistor
TGBC Top gate bottom contact
TGTC Top gate top contact
tOSC Thickness of organic semiconductor
tOX Thickness of insulator
VTC Voltage transfer characteristics
IZO Indium zinc oxide
PVCN Poly (vinyl cinnamate)
PVP Poly (4-vinyl phenol)
PEDOT: PSS Poly-3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene: styrene sulfonic acid
PET poly ethylene-therephthalate
SiO2 Silicon-dioxide
Au Gold
Al Aluminum
ITO Indium tin oxide
Al2 O3 Aluminum-dioxide
PTAA Poly (triarylamine)
Ti Titanium
TiO2 Titanium dioxide
Si3 N4 Silicon Nitride
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 97

References
1. Shirakawa, H.; Louis, E. J.; MacDiarmid, A. G.; Chiang, C. K.; Heeger, A. J. “Synthesis of
electrically conducting organic polymers: Halogen derivatives of polyacetylene, (CH)x ”, J.
Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun. 1977, 16, 578–580.
2. Tsumura, A.; Koezuka, H.; Ando, T. “Macromolecular electronic device: Field effect transistor
with a polythiophene thin film”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 1986, 49(18), 1210–1212.
3. Horowitz, G. “Organic field-effect transistors”, Adv. Mater. 1998, 10(5), 365–377.
4. Lee, K. S.; Smith, T. J.; Dickey, K. C.; Yoo, J. E.; Stevenson, K. J.; Loo, Y. L. “High-
resolution characterization of pentacene/polyaniline interfaces in thin-film transistors”, Adv.
Funct. Mater. 2006, 16(18), 2409–2414.
5. Schon, J. H.; Batlogg, B. “Trapping in organic field-effect transistors”, J. Appl. Phys. 2001,
89(1), 336–341.
6. Kim, Y. H.; Moon, D. G.; Han, J. I. “Organic TFT array on a paper substrate”, IEEE Electron
Device Lett. 2004, 25(10), 702–704.
7. Moore, S. K. “Just one word: Plastics”, IEEE Spectrum 2002, 39(9), 55–57.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

8. Klauk, H.; Halik, M.; Zschieschang, U.; Eder, F.; Schmid, G.; Dehm, C. “Pentacene organic
transistors and ring oscillators on glass and on flexible polymeric substrates”, Appl. Phys. Lett.
2003, 82(23), 4175–4177.
9. Lee, J. B.; Subramanian, V. “Organic transistors on fiber: A first step toward electronic textiles”,
in IEDM Tech. Dig. 2003; pp 8.3.1–8.3.4.
10. Klauk, H.; Halik, M.; Zschieschang, U.; Schmid, G.; Radik, W. “High-mobility polymer gate
dielectric pentacene thin film transistors”, J. Appl. Phys. 2002, 92(9), 5259–5263.
11. Mizukami, M.; Hirohata, N.; Iseki, T.; Ohtawara, K.; Tada, T.; Yagyu, S.; Abe, T.; Suzuki, T.;
Fujisaki, Y.; Inoue, Y.; Tokito, S.; Kurita, T. “Flexible AM OLED panel driven by bottom-
contact OTFTs”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2006, 27(4), 249–251.
12. Cantatore, E.; Geuns, T. C. T.; Gelinck, G. H.; Veenendaal, E. V.; Gruijthuijsen, A. F. A.;
Schrijnemakers, L.; Drews, S.; De Leeuw, D. M. “A 13.56-MHz RFID System based on
organic transponders”, IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits. 2007, 42(4), 84–92.
13. Brianda, D.; Opreab, A.; Courbata, J.; Barsanb, N. “Making environmental sensors on plastic
foils”, Materials Today. 2011, 14(9), 416–423.
14. Takamiya, M.; Sekitani, T.; Kato, Y.; Kawaguchi, H. “An organic FET SRAM with back gate
to increase static noise margin and its application to braille sheet display”, IEEE J. Solid-State
Circuits. 2007, 42(1), 93–100.
15. Tobjork, D.; Osterbacka, R. “Paper electronics”, Adv. Mater. 2011, 23(17), 1935–1961.
16. Guerin, M.; Daami, A.; Jacob, S.; Bergeret, E.; Benevent, E.; Pannier, P.; Coppard., R. “High
gain fully printed organic complementary circuits on flexible plastic foils”, IEEE Trans.
Electron Devices. 2011, 58(10), 3587–3593.
17. Shekar, B. C.; Lee, J.; Rhee, S. “Organic thin film transistors: Materials, processes, and
devices”, Korean J. Chem. Engg. 2004, 21(1), 267–285.
18. Gupta, D.; Katiyar, M.; Gupta, D. “An analysis of the difference in behavior of top and bottom
contact organic thin film transistors using device simulation”, Org. Electron. 2009, 10(5),
775–784.
19. Cui, T.; Liang, G. “Dual gate pentacene organic field-effect transistors based on a nanoassem-
bled SiO2 nanoparticle thin film as the gate dielectric layer”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2005, 86(6),
064102-1–064102-3.
20. Tate, J.; Rogers, J. A.; Jones, C. D. W.; Vyas, B.; Murphy, D. W.; Li, W.; Bao, Z.; Slusher, R.
E.; Dodabalapur, A.; Katz, H. E. “Anodization and microcontact printing on electroless silver:
Solution-based fabrication procedures for low-voltage electronic systems with organic active
components”, Langmuir. 2000, 16(14), 6054–6060.
21. Liu, R.; L.; Deng, F.; Yao, R. H.; Lai, P. T. “Low-operating-voltage polymer thin-film transistors
based on poly (3-hexylthiophene) with hafnium oxide as the gate dielectric”, IEEE Trans.
Device Mater. Reliab. 2010, 10(2), 233–237.
 98 B. Kumar et al.

22. Ortiz, R. P.; Facchetti, A.; Marks, T. J. “High-k organic, inorganic, and hybrid dielectrics for
low-voltage organic field-effect transistors”, Chem. Rev. 2010, 110(1), 205–239.
23. Krumm, J. “Printed electronics-from vision to first product”, 4th European Workshop on RFID
Systems and Technologies, Freiburg, Germany June 10–11, 2008.
24. Weimer, P. K. “The TFT- a new thin-film transistor”, Proc. IRE, 1962, 50, 1462–1469.
25. LeComber, P. G.; Spear, W. E.; Ghaith, A. “Amorphous-silicon field-effect device and possible
application” Electron. Lett. 1979, 15(6), 179–181.
26. Kudo, K.; Yamashina, M.; Moriizumi, T. “Field effect measurement of organic dye films”,
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 1984, 23, 130–130.
27. Ebisawa, F.; Kurokawa, T.; Nara, S. “Electrical properties of polyacetylene/polysiloxane in-
terface”, J. Appl. Phys. 1983, 54(6), 3255-1–3255-6.
28. Halik, M.; Klauk, H.; Zschieschang, U.; Schmid, G.; Radlik, W.; Weber, W. “Polymer gate
dielectrics and conducting polymer contacts for high performance organic thin film transistors”,
Adv. Mater. 2002, 14(23), 1717–1722.
29. Fu, Y.; Lin, C.; Tsai, F. Y. “High high field-effect mobility from poly (3-hexylthiophene)
thin-film transistors by solvent–vapor-induced reflow”, Org. Electron. 2009, 10(5),
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

883–888.
30. Marinov, O.; Deen, M. J.; Zschieschang, U.; Klauk, H. “Organic thin film transistors: Part I.
Compact DC modeling”, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices. 2009, 56(12), 2952–2961.
31. Carranza, A. C.; Nolasco, J.; Estrada, M.; Gwoziecki, R.; Benwadih, M.; Xu, Y.; Cerdeira, A.;
Marsal, L.F.; Ghibaudo, G.; Iniguez, B.; Pallares, J. “Effect of density of states on mobility
in small molecule n-type organic thin- film transistors based on a Perylene Diimide”, IEEE
Electron Device Lett. 2012, 33(8), 1201–1203.
32. Deen, M. J.; Marinov, O.; Yu, J.; Holdcroft, S.; Woods, W. “Low-frequency noise in polymer
transistors”, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 2001, 48(8), 1688–1694.
33. Horowitz, G.; Lang, P.; Mottaghi, M.; Aubin, H. “Extracting parameters from the current-
voltage characteristics of organic field-effect transistors”, Adv. Funct. Mater. 2004, 14(11),
1069–1074.
34. Deen, M. J.; Marinov, O.; Zschieschang, U.; Klauk, H. “Organic thin-film transistors: Part II-
Parameter extraction”, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices. 2009, 56(12), 2962–2968.
35. Estrada, M.; Cerdeira, A.; Puigdollers, J.; Resendiz, L.; Pallares, J.; Marsal, L. F.; Voz, C.;
Iniguez, B. “Accurate modeling and parameter extraction method for organic TFTs”, Solid-
State Electron. 2005, 49(6), 1009–1016.
36. Dimitrakopoulos, C. D.; Malenfant, P. R. L. “Organic thin film transistors for large area
electronics”, Adv. Mater. 2002, 14(2), 99–117.
37. Horowitz, G.; Hajlaoui, M. E. “Grain size dependent mobility in polycrystalline organic field-
effect transistors”, Synth. Metal. 2001, 122(1), 185–189.
38. Knipp, D.; Street, R. A.; Vo¨lkel, A.; Ho, J. “Pentacene thin film transistors on inorganic
dielectrics: Morphology, structural properties, and electronic transport”, J. Appl. Phys. 2003,
93(1), 347–355.
39. Horowitz, G.; Hajlaoui, R.; Bouchriha, H.; Bourguiga, R.; Hajlaoui, M. “The Concept of
threshold voltage in organic field-effect transistors”, Adv. Mater. 1998, 10(12), 923–927.
40. Pernstich, K. P.; Haas, S.; Oberhoff, D.; Goldmann, C.; Gundlach, D. J.; Batlogg, B.; Rashid, A.
N.; Schitter, G. “Threshold voltage shift in organic field effect transistors by dipole monolayers
on the gate insulator”, J. Appl. Phys. 2004, 96(11), 6431-1–6431-8.
41. Kano, M.; Minari, T.; Tsukagoshi, K.; Maeda, H. “Control of device parameters by active layer
thickness in organic thin film transistors”,, App. Phy. Lett. 2011, 98(7), 073307-1–073307-3.
42. Sirringhaus, H.; Friend, R. H.; Li, X. C.; Moratti, S. C.; Holmes, A. B.; Feeder, N.
“Bis(dithienothiophene) organic field-effect tran-sistors with a high ON/OFF ratio”, Appl.
Phys. Lett. 1997, 71(26), 3871–3873.
43. Resendiz, L.; Estrada, M.; Cerdeira, A.; Iniguez, B.; Deen, M. J. “Effect of active layer
thickness on the electrical characteristics of polymer thin film transistors”, Org. Electron.
2010, 11(9), 1920–1927.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 99

44. Islam, M. N. “Impact of film thickness of organic thickness on off-state current of organic thin
film transistors”, J. Appl. Phys. 2011, 110(11), 114906-1–114906-10.
45. Ha, T. J.; Sparrowe, D.; Dodabalapur, A. “Device architectures for improved amorphous
polymer semiconductor thin film transistors”, Org. Electron. 2011, 12(11), 1846–1851.
46. Cosseddu, P.; Bonfiglio, A. “A comparison between bottom contact and top contact all or-
ganic field effect transistors assembled by soft lithography”, Thin Solid Films. 2007, 515(19),
7551–7555.
47. Schon, J. H.; Kloc, Ch.; Batlogg, B. “On the intrinsic limits of pen-tacene field-effect transis-
tors”, Organic Electron. 2000, 1(1), 57–64.
48. Schon, J. H.; Kloc, Ch.; Batlogg, B. “Universal crossover from band to hopping conduction in
molecular organic semiconductors”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2001, 86(17), 3843–3846.
49. Klauk, H.; Zschieschang, U.; Halik, M. “Low voltage organic thin film transistors with large
transconductance”, J. Appl. Phys. 2007, 102(7), 074514-1–074514-7.
50. Maccioni, M.; Orgiu, E.; Cosseddu, P.; Locci, S.; Bonfiglio, A. “Towards the textile transistor:
Assembly and characterization of an organic field effect transistor with a cylindrical geometry”,
Appl. Phys. Lett. 2006, 89(14), 143515-1–143515-3.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

51. Zan, H. W.; Yen, K. H. “Vertical channel organic thin-film transistors with meshed electrode
and low leakage current”, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 2007, 46(6A), 3315–3318.
52. Gundlach, D. J.; Zhou, L.; Nichols, J. A.; Jackson, T. N.; Necliudov, P. V.; Shur, M. S. “An
experimental study of contact effects in organic thin film transistors”, J. Appl. Phy. 2006,
100(2), 024509-1–024509-13.
53. Klauk, H. “Organic thin-film transistors”, Chem.Soc.Rev. 2010, 399(7), 2643–2666.
54. Zhang, X. A.; Zhang, J. W.; Zhang, W. F.; Hou, X. “Fabrication and comparative study of top-
gate and bottom-gate ZnO–TFTs with various insulator layers”, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Electron.
2010, 21(7), 671–675.
55. Kim, K. D.; Song, C. K. “Low voltage organic thin film transistors using a hybrid gate
dielectric consisting of aluminum oxide and poly (Vinyl phenol)”, Jnp. J. Appl. Phys. 2010,
49, 111603-1–111603-3.
56. Yang, F. Y.; Hsu, M. Y.; Hwang, G. W.; Chang, K. J. “High-performance poly(3-
hexylthiophene) top-gate transistors incorporating TiO2 nanocomposite dielectrics”, Org.
Electron. 2010, 11(10), 81–88.
57. Mittal, P.; Kumar, B.; Negi, Y. S.; Kaushik, B. K.; Singh, R. K. “Channel length variation
effect on performance parameters of organic field effect transistors”, Microelectron. J. 2012,
43(12) 985–994.
58. Street, R. A.; Salleo, A. “Contact effects in polymer transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2002,
81(15), 2887-1–2887-1.
59. Shim, C. H.; Maruoka, F.; Hattori, R. “Structural analysis on organic thin-film transistor with
device simulation”, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 2010, 57(1), 195–200.
60. Ishikawa, Y.; Wada, Y.; Toyabe, T. “Origin of characteristics differences between top and
bottom contact organic thin film transistors”, J. Appl. Phys. 2010, 107(5), 053709–053715.
61. Estrada, M.; Mejia, I.; Cerdeira, A.; Pallares, J.; Marsal, L. F.; Iniguez, B. “Mobility model
for compact device modeling of OTFTs made from different materials”, Solid State Electron.
2008, 52(5) 787–794.
62. Blanchet, G. B.; Fincher, C. R.; Lefenfeld, M.; Rogers, J. A. “Contact resistance in organic
thin film transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2004, 84(2) 296–298.
63. Luo, M. F. C.; Chen, I.; Genovese, F. C. “A thin film transistor for flat planel displays”, IEEE
Trans. Electron Devices. 1981, 28(6), 740–743.
64. Tuan, H. C.; Thompson, M. J.; Johnson, N. M.; Lujan, R. A. “Dual gate a-Si: H thin film
transistors”, IEEE Electronic Device Lett. 1982, 3(12), 357–359.
65. Kaneko, Y.; Tsutsui, K.; Tsukada, T. “Back bias effect on the current voltage character-
istics of amorphous silicon thin film transistors”, J. Non-Crystalline Solids 1992, 149(3),
264–268.
 100 B. Kumar et al.

66. Ha, T. J.; Sonar, P.; Dodabalapur, A. “High mobility top gate and dual-gate polymer thinfilm
transistors based on diketopyrrolopyrrole-naphthalene copolymer”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2011,
98(25), 253305-1-253305-3.
67. Koo, J. B.; Ku, C. H.; Lim, J. W.; Kim, S. H. “Novel organic inverters with dual gate pentacene
thin film transistors”, Org. Electron. 2007, 8(4), 552–558.
68. Spijkman, M.; Smits, E. C.; Blom, P. W.; De Leeuw, D. M.; Come, Y. B. S.; Setayash, S.;
Cantatore, E. J. “Increasing the noise margin in organic circuits using dual gate field-effect
transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2008, 92(14), 143304-1–143304-3.
69. Spijkman, M. J.; Myny, K.; Smits, E. C. P.; Heremans, P.; Blom, P. W. M.; De Leeuw, D.
M. “Dual gate thin film transistors, integrated circuits and sensors”, Adv. Mater. 2011, 23(29),
3231–3242.
70. Nishizawa, J.; Terasaki, T.; Shibata, J. “Field effect transistor versus analog transistor (static
induction transistor)”, IEEE trans. Electron Devices. 1975, 22(4), 185–197.
71. Kudo, K.; Wang, D. X.; lizuka, M.; Kuniyoshi, S.; Tanaka, K. “Organic static induction
transistor for display devices”, Thin Solid Film, 2000, 111–112,11–14.
72. Chen, Y.; Shih, I. “Fabrication of vertical channel top contact organic thin film transistors”,
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

Org. Electron. 2007, 8(5), 655–661.

73. Naruse, H.; Naka, S.; Okada, H. “Dual self-aligned vertical multichannel organic transistors”,
Appl. Phys. Express, 2008, 1(1), 011801-1-011801-1.
74. Watanabe Y.; Kudo, K. “Vertical type organic transistor for flexible sheet display”, Proc. SPIE
2009, 7415, 741515-1-741515-10.
75. Tanaka, S.; Yanagisawa, H.; Iizuka, M.; Nakamura, M.; Kudo, K. “Vertical- and lateral-type
organic fet using pentacene evaporated films”, Electr. Eng. Jap. 2004, 149(2), 43–48.
76. Zan, H. W.; Yen, K. H. “Vertical-channel organic thin-film transistors with meshed electrode
and low leakage current”, Jpn J. Appl. Phys. 2007, 46(6A), 3315–3318.
77. Auth, C. P.; Plummer, J. D. “Scaling theory for cylindrical, fully depleted, surrounding gate
MOSFETs”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 1997, 18(2), 74–76.
78. Kranti, A.; Haldar, S.; Gupta, R. “Analytical model for threshold voltage and I–V character-
istics of fully depleted short channel cylindrical surrounding gate MOSFET”, Microelectron.
Eng. 2001, 56(3), 241–259.
79. Jang, J.; Nam, S.; Park, J. J.; Im, J.; Park, C. E.; Kim, J. M. “Photocurable polymer gate
dielectrics for cylindrical organic field-effect transistors with high bending stability”, J. Mat.
Chem. 2012, 22, 1054–1060.
80. Bonfiglio, A.; Rossi, D. D.; Kirstein, T.; Locher, I.; Mameli, F.; Paradiso, R.; Vozzi, G. “Organic
field effect transistors for textile applications”, IEEE Trans. Inf. Technol. Biomed. 2005, 9(3),
319–324.
81. Deen, M. J.; Kazemeini, M. H.; Holdcroft, S. “Contact effects and extraction of intrinsic
parameters in poly (3-alkylthiophene) P3AT thin-film field-effect transistors”, J. Appl. Phys.
2008, 103(12), 124509–124516.
82. Necliudov, P.; Shur, M.; Gundlach, D.; Jackson, T. “Modeling of organic thin film transistors
of different designs”, J. Appl. Phys. 2000, 88(11), 6594–6597.
83. Marinov, O.; Deen, M. J.; Datars, R. “Compact modeling of charge mobility in organic thin
film transistors”, J. Appl. Phys. 2009, 106(6), 064501-1-064501-13.
84. Mijalkovi, S.; Green, D.; Nejim, A.; Whiting, G.; Rankov, A.; Smith, E.; Halls, J.; Murphy,
C. “Modelling of organic thin film transistors for technology and circuit design”, Proc. 26th
International Conference on Microelectronics (MIEL 2008), NIS, Serbia 2008; pp 469–476.
85. Marinov, O.; Deen, M. J.; Iniguez, B. “Charge transport in organic and polymer thin-film
transistors: Recent issues”, IEE Proc. Circ. Dev. Syst. 2005, 152(3), 189–209.
86. Vissenberg, M. C. J. M.; Matters, M. “Theory of the field effect mobility in amorphous organic
transistors”, Physical Review B. 1998, 57(20), 964–967.
87. Shur, M.; Hack, M. “Physics of amorphous silicon based alloy field effect transistors”, J. Appl.
Phys. 1984, 55(10), 3831–3842.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 101

88. Hamadani, B.; Natelson, D. “Nonlinear charge injection in organic field effect transistors”, J.
Appl. Phys. 2005, 97(6), 064508-1–064508-7.
89. Jacunski, M.; Shur, M.; Owsu, A.; Ytterdal, T.; Hack, M.; Iniguez, B. “A short channel DC
SPICE model for polysilicon thin film transistors including temperature effects”, IEEE Trans.
Electron Devices. 1999, 46(6), 1146–1158.
90. Xie, Z.; Abdou, M.; Lu, A.; Deen, M. J.; Holdcroft, S. “Electrical characteristics of Poly
(3-Hexylthiophene) thin film MISFETs”, Can. J. Phys. 1992, 70(10), 1171–1177.
91. Natali, D.; Fumagalli, L.; Sampietro, M. “Modeling of organic thin film transistors: Effect of
contact resistances”, J. Appl. Phys. 2007, 101(1), 014501-1–014501-12.
92. Jung, K. D.; Kim, Y. C.; Park, B. G.; Shin, H.; Lee, J. D. “Modeling and parameter extraction
for the series resistance in thin-film transistors”, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices. 2009, 56(3),
431–440.
93. Burgi, L.; Richards, T. J.; Friend, R. H.; Sirringhaus, H. “Close look at charge carrier injection
in polymer field effect transistors”, J. Appl. Phys. 2003, 94(9), 6129–6137.
94. Zhang, Z.; Sharma, P.; Borca, C. N.; Dowben, P. A.; Gruverman, A. “Polarization-specific
adsorption of organic molecules on ferroelectric, LiNbO3 surfaces”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2010,
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

97(24), 243702-1-243702-3.
95. Locci, S.; Morana, M.; Orgiu, E.; Bonfiglio, A.; Lugli, P. “Modeling of short channel effects
in organic thin-film transistors”, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices. 2008, 55(10), 2561–2567.
96. Veres, J.; Ogier, S.; Lloyd, G. “Gate insulators in organic field-effect transistors”, Chem. Mater.
2004, 16(23), 4543–4555.
97. Podzorov, V. “Charge carrier transport in single-crystal organic field-effect transistors”, in
Organic Field Effect Transistor; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2007; pp 27–72.
98. Warta, W.; Stehle, R.; Karl, N. “Ultrapure, high mobility organic photoconductors”, Appl.
Phys. A. 1985, 36(3), 163–170.
99. Schon, J. H.; Kloc, C.; Batlogg, B. “Fractional quantum hall effect in organic molecular
semiconductors”, Science. 2000, 288(5475), 2338–2340.
100. Zaumseil, J.; Sirringhaus. H. “Electron and ambipolar transport in organic field effect transis-
tors”, Chem. Rev. 2007, 107(4), 1296–1323.
101. Troisi, A.; Orlandi, G. “Dynamics of the intermolecular transfer integral in crystalline organic
semiconductors”, J. Phys. Chem. A. 2006, 110(11), 4065–4070.
102. Karl, N. “Charge carrier transport in organic semiconductors”, Synth. Met. 2003, 133–134,
649–657.
103. Veres, J.; Ogier, S. D.; Leeming, S. W.; Cupertino, D. C.; Khaffaf, S. M. “Low-k insulators
as the choice of dielectrics in organic field effect transistors”, Adv. Funct. Mater. 2003, 13(3),
199–204.
104. Swensen, J.; Kanicki, J.; Wang, G.; Heeger, A. J. “Influence of gate dielectrics on electrical
properties of F8T2 polyfluorene thin film transistors”, Proc. SPIE 2003, 5217, 159–166.
105. Yu, Y. H.; Lee, S. C.; Yang, C. S.; Choi, C. K. “Mobility, energy gap and dielectric constant in
SiOC films”, J. Korean Physi. Soc. 2003, 42(5), 682–685.
106. Kanicki, J.; Kinder, L.; Heeger, A. J.; Petroff, P.; Swensen, J. “Structural ordering in F8T2
polyfluorene thin film transistors”, Proc. SPIE. 2003, 5217, 35–42.
107. Salleo, A.; Street, R. A. J. “Light-induced bias stress reversal in polyfluorene thin-film tran-
sistors”, Appl. Phys. 2003, 94(1), 471–479.
108. Rawcliffe, R.; Bradley, D. D. C.; Campbell, A. “Comparison between bulk and field effect
mobility in polyfluorene copolymer field effect transistors”, Proc. SPIE. 2003, 5217, 25–34.
109. Sirringhaus, H.; Kawase, T.; Friend, R. D.; Shimoda, T.; Inbase-bakan, M.; Wu, W.; Woo, E. P.
“High-resolution inkjet printing of all-polymer transistor circuits”, Science. 2000, 290(5499),
2123–2126.
110. Fix, W.; Ullmann, A.; Ficker, F.; Rost, H.; Clemens, W.; Brennan, D.; Welsh, D.; O’Brien, “Fast
polymer integrated circuits based on a polyfluorene derivative”, IEEE Proc. 32nd European
Solid State Device Research Conference, Germany, 2002; pp 527–530.
 102 B. Kumar et al.

111. Miller, A.; Abrahams, E. “Impurity conduction at low concentrations”, Physical Review. 1960,
120(3), 745–755.
112. Yamashita, J.; Kurosawa, T. “On electronic current in NiO”, J. Phys. Chem. Solids. 1958,
5(1–2) 34–43.
113. Holstein, T. “Studies of polaron motion: Part I. the molecular crystal model”, Annals of Physics.
1959, 8(3) 325–342.
114. Zhu, X. Y.; Yang, Q.; Muntwiler, M. “Charge-transfer excitons at organic semiconductor
surfaces and interfaces”, Acc. Chem. Res. 2009, 42(11), 1779–1787.
115. Li, Y.; Singh, S. P.; Sonar, P. “A high mobility p-type DPP-Thieno[3,2- b]thiophene Copolymer
for organic thin-film transistors”, Adv. Mater. 2010, 22(43), 4862–4866.
116. Bao, Z.; Lovinger, A. J.; Dodabalapur, A. “Organic field-effect transistors with high mobility
based on copper phthalocyanine”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 1996, 69(20), 3066–3068.
117. McCullough, R. D.; Lowe, R. D.; Jayaraman, M.; Anderson, D. L. “Design, synthesis, and con-
trol of conducting polymer architectures: structurally homogeneous poly(3-alkylthiophenes)”,
J. Org. Chem. 1993, 58(4), 904–912.
118. Bao, Z.; Dodabalapur, A.; Lovinger, A. J. “Soluble and processable regioregular poly (3-
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

hexylethiophene) for thin film field effect transistor applications with high mobility”, Appl.
Phys. Lett. 1996, 69(26), 4108-1-4108-3.
119. Yamaguchi, K.; Takamiya, S.; Minami, M.; Doge, Y.; Nishide, Y.; Osuga, H.; Uno, K.;
Tanaka, I. “Crystallinity improvement of benzodithiophene-dimer films for organic field-effect
transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2008, 93(4), 043302-1-043302-3.
120. Kurokawa, A.; Matsumoto, Y.; Shibamoto, K.; Kajimoto, K.; Osuga, H.; Yamakado, H.; Uno,
K.; Tanaka, I. “Contact and channel resistances of organic field-effect transistors based on
benzodithiophene-dimer films deposited on pentacene crystallinity control layers”, Appl. Phy.
Lett. 2009, 95(26), 263307-1-263307-3.
121. Jia, H.; Gowrisanker, S.; Pant, G. K.; Wallace, R. M.; Gnade, B. E. “Effect of poly (3-
hexylthiophene) film thickness on organic thin film transistor properties”, J. Vac. Sci. Technol.
A. 2006, 24(4), 1228–1232.
122. Halik, M.; Klauk, H.; Zschieschang, U.; Kriem, T.; Schmid, G.; Radlik, W.; Wussow, K.
“Fully patterned all-organic thin film transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2002, 81(2), 1491604-
1–1491604-3.
123. Raval, H. N.; Tiwari, S. P.; Navan, R. R.; Mhaisalkar, S. G.; Rao, V. R. “Solution processed
bootstrapped organic inverters based on P3HT with a high-k gate dielectric material”, IEEE
Electron Device Lett. 2009, 30(5), 484–486.
124. Lo, P. Y.; Li, P. W.; Pei, Z. W.; Hou, J.; Chan, Y. J. “Enhanced P3HT OTFT transport
performance using double gate modulation scheme”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2009, 30(6),
629–631.
125. Doi, I.; Kang, M. J.; Takimiya, K. “High mobility organic thin-film transistors on plastic
substrate”, Curr. Appl. Phys. 2012, 12(1), e2–e5.
126. Torsi, L.; Marinelli, F.; Angione, M. D.; Aquila, A. D.; Cioffi, N.; De Giglio, E.; Sabbatini, L.
“Contact effects in organic thin-film transistor sensors”, Org. Electron. 2009, 10(11), 233–239.
127. Scheinert, S.; Paasch, G. “Fabrication and analysis of polymer field effect transistors”, Phys.
Stat. Sol. (a). 2004, 201(6), 1263–1301.
128. Pan, H.; Li, Y.; Wu, Y.; Liu, P.; Ong, B. S.; Zhu, S.; Xu, G. “Low-temperature, solution-
processed, high-mobility polymer semiconductors for thin-film transistors”, J. Am. Chem.
Soc. 2007, 129(14), 4112–4113.
129. Jung, S. W.; Yoon, S. M.; Kang, S. Y.; You, I. K.; Koo, J. B.; Baeg, K. J.; Noh, Y. Y.
“Low-voltage-operated top-gate polymer thin-film transistors with high-capacitance P(VDF-
TrFE)/PVDF-blended dielectrics”, Curr. Appl. Phys. 2011, 11(3) S213–S218.
130. Leufgen, M.; Bass, U.; Muck, T.; Borzenko, T.; Schmidt, G.; Geurts, J.; Wagner, V.;
Molenkamp, L.W. “Optimized sub-micron organic thin-film transistors: The influence of con-
tacts and oxide thickness”, Synthetic Metals. 2004, 146(3), 341–345.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 103

131. Verilhac, J. M.; Benwadih, M.; Altazin, S.; Jacob, S.; Gwoziecki, R.; Coppard, R.; Serbutoviez,
C., “Effects of amorphous semiconductor thickness on top gate staggered organic field-effect
transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2009, 94(14), 143301-1-143301-3.
132. Wang, C.; Jimison, L. H.; Goris, L.; McCulloch, I.; Heeney, M.; Ziegler, A.; Salleo, A.
“Microstructural origin of high mobility in high-performance poly(thieno-thiophene) thin-
film transistors”, Adv. Mater. 2010, 22(6), 697–701.
133. Brown, A. R.; Jarrett, C. P.; de Leeuw, D. M.; Matters, M. “Field effect transistors made from
solution-processed organic semiconductors”, Sythetic Metals. 1997, 88(1), 37–55.
134. Fukuda, K.; Takeda, Y.; Kobayashi, Y.; Shimizu, M.; Sekine, T.; Kumaki, D.; Kurihara, M.;
Sakamoto, M.; Tokito, S. “Patterning method for silver nanoparticle electrodes in fully solution-
processed organic thin-film transistors using selectively treated hydrophilic and hydrophobic
surfaces”, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 2013, 52(5), 05DB05-1-05DB05-4.
135. Muller, R.; Smout, S.; Rolin, C.; Genoe, J.; Heremans, P. “High mobility short-channel p-type
organic transistors with reduced gold content and completely gold-free source/drain bottom
contacts”, Org. Electron. 2011, 12(3), 1227–1235.
136. Cosseddu, P.; Orgiu, E.; Bonfiglio, A. “Soft lithography fabrication of fully flexible and
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

transparent all organic fets for large area applications”, Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 2006,
965 (45–52).
137. Kato, Y.; Iba, S.; Teramoto, R.; Sekitani, T.; Someya, T.; Kawaguchi, H.; Sakurai, T. “High
mobility of pentacene field-effect transistors with polyimide gate dielectric layers”, Appl. Phys.
Lett. 2004, 84(19), 3789–3791.
138. Wang, W.; Ma, D.; Pan, S.; Yang, Y. “Hysteresis mechanism in low-voltage and high mobility
pentacene thin-film transistors with polyvinyl alcohol dielectric”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2012,
101(3), 033303-1–033303-5.
139. Tang, W. M.; Ng, T. W.; Greiner, M. T.; Qiu, J.; Helander, M. G.; Lu, Z. H. “Comparison of
CuPc-based organic thin-film transistors made by different dielectric structures”, J. Vac. Sci.
Technol. B. 2013, 31(1), 012201-1–012201-6.
140. Ha, T. J.; Sonar, P.; Dodabalapur, A. “Charge-carrier velocity distributions in high-mobility
polymer dual-gate thin-film transistors”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2012, 33(6), 899–901.
141. Kim, J.; Jeong, J.; Cho, H. D.; Lee, C.; Kim, S. O.; Kwon, S. K.; Hong, Y. “All-solution-
processed bottom-gate organic thin-film transistor with improved subthreshold behaviour
using functionalized pentacene active layer”, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 2009, 42(11), 115107-
1–115107-6.
142. Chung, S.; Kim, S. O.; Kwon, S. K.; Lee, C.; Hong, Y. “All-inkjet-printed organic thin-
film transistor inverter on flexible plastic substrate”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2011, 32(8),
1134–1136.
143. Park, S. K.; Mourey, D. A.; Subramanian, S.; Anthony, J. E.; Jackson, T. N. “Polymeric
substrate spin-cast diF-TESADT OTFT circuits”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2008, 29(9),
1004–1006.
144. Neon, S.; Kanehira, D.; Yoshomoto, N.; Fages, F.; Ackermann, C. V. “Shelf-life time test of p
and n- channel organic thin film transistors using copper phthalocyanines”, Thin Solid Films.
2010, 518(19), 5593–5598.
145. Kumaki, D.; Umeda, T.; Suzuki, T.; Tokito, S. “High mobilty bottom contact thin film transis-
tors based on anthracene oligomer”, Org. Electron. 2008, 9(5), 921–924.
146. Stallinga, P.; Gomes, H. L.; Biscarini, F.; Murgia, M.; De Leeuw, D. M. “Electronic transport
in field-effect transistors of sexithiophene”, J. Appl. Phys. 2004, 96(9), 5277–5283.
147. Halik, M.; Klauk, H.; Zschieschang, U.; Schmid, G.; Radlik, W.; Ponomarenko, S.;
Kirchmeyer, S.; Weber, W. “High-mobility organic thin-film transistors based on α, α’-
didecyloligothiophenes”, J. Appl. Phys. 2003, 93(5), 2977–2981.
148. Mei, Y.; Loth, M. A; Payne, M.; Zhang, W.; Smith, J.; Day, C. S.; Parkin, S. R.; Heeney, M.;
McCulloch, I.; Anthopoulos, T. D.; Anthony, J. E.; Jurchescu, O. D. “High mobility field-
effect transistors with versatile processing from a small-molecule organic semiconductor”,
Adv. Mater. 2013, 25(31), 4352–4357.
 104 B. Kumar et al.

149. Herwig, P. T.; Mullen, K. “A soluble pentacene precursor: Synthesis, solid state conver-
sion into pentacene and application in a field-effect transistor“, Adv. Mater. 1999, 11(6),
480–483.
150. Afzali, A.; Dimitrakopoulos, C. D.; Breen, T. L. “High performance, solution processed
organic thin film transistors from a novel pentacene precursor”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002,
124(30), 8812–8813.
151. Anthony, J. E.; Brooks, J. S.; Eaton, D. L.; Parkin, S. R. “Functionalized pentacene: im-
proved electronic properties from control of solid-state order”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123,
9482–9483.
152. Valletta, A.; Daami, A.; Benwadih, M.; Coppard, R.; Fortunato, G.; Rapisarda, M.; Torricelli,
F.; Mariucci, L. Contact effects in high performance fully printed p-channel organic thin film
transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2011, 99(23), 233309-1-233309-4.
153. Sheraw, C. D.; Jackson, T. N.; Eaton, D. L.; Anthony, J. E. “Functionalized pentacene active
layer organic thin-film transistors”, Adv. Mater. 2003, 15(23), 2009–2011.
154. Subramanian, S.; Park, S. K.; Parkin, S. R.; Podzorov, V.; Jackson, T. N.; Anthony, J. E.
“Chromophore fluorination enhances crystallization and stability of soluble anthradithiophene
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

semiconductors”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130(9), 2706–2707.

155. Nguyen, T. P. “Defect analysis in organic semiconductors”, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process.
2006, 9(1–3), 198–203.
156. Chesterfield, R. J.; Newman, C. R.; Pappenfus, T. M.; Ewbank, P. C.; Haukaas, K. R.; Mann,
M. H.; Miller, L. L.; Frisbie, C. D. “High electron mobility and ambipolar transport in organic
thin film transistors based on a π -stacking quinoidal terthiophene”, Adv. Mater. 2003, 15(15),
1278–1282.
157. Facchetti, A.; Mushrush, M.; Katz, H. E.; Marks, T. J. “N-type building blocks for organic
electronics: A homologous family offluorocarbon substituted thiophene oligomers with high
carrier mobility”, Adv. Mater. 2003, 15(1), 33–38.
158. Bao, Z.; Lovinger, A. J.; Brown, J. “New air stable n-channel organic thin film transistors”, J.
Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120(1), 207–208.
159. Babel, A.; Jenekhe, S. A. “High electron mobility in ladder polymer field effect transistors”,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125(45), 13656–13657.
160. Malenfant, P. R. L.; Dimitrakopoulos, C. D.; Gelorme, J. D.; Kosbar, L. L.; Graham, T. O.;
Curioni, A.; Andreoni, W. “N-type organic thin film transistor with high field effect mobility
based on a N,N -dialkyl-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic diimide derivative”, Appl. Phys.
Lett. 2002, 80(14), 2517–2519.
161. Facchetti, A.; Deng, Y.; Wang, A.; Koide, Y.; Sirringhaus, H.; Marks, T. J.; Friend,
R. H. “Tuning the semiconducting properties of sexithiophene by α,ω-substitution-α,ω-
diperfluorohexylsexithiophene: The first n-type sexithiophene for thin-film transistors”, Angew.
Chem. Int. Ed. 2000, 39(20), 4547–4551.
162. Li, J.; Du, J.; Xu, J.; Chan, H. L. W.; Yan, F. “The influence of gate dielectrics on a high
mobility n-type conjugated polymer in organic thin-film transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2012,
100(3), 033301-1-033301-4.
163. Na, J. H.; Kitamura, M.; Arakawa, Y. “High performance n-channel thin film transistors with
an amorphous phase C60 film on plastic substrate”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2007, 91(19), 076104-1-
076104-3
164. Kim, J. B.; Hernandez, C. F.; Hwang, D. K.; Tiwari, S. P.; Potscavage, Jr., W. J.; Kippelen, B.
“Vertically stacked complementary inverters with solution processed organic semiconductors”,
Org. Electron. 2011, 12(7), 1132–1136.
165. Dodabalapur, A.; Laquindanum, J.; Katz, H. E.; Bao, Z. “Complementary circuits with organic
transistors”, J. Appl. Phys. 2001, 69(27), 4227–4229.
166. Yoo, B.; Madgavkar, A.; Jones, B. A.; Nadkarni, S.; Facchetti, A.; Dimmler, K.; Wasielewski,
M. R.; Marks, T. J.; Dodabalapur, A. “Organic complementary D flip-flops enabled by perylene
diimides and pentacene”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2006, 27(9), 737–739.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 105

167. Kim, S. H.; Lee, S. H.; Jang, J. High-performance n-channel organic thin-film transistor for
CMOS circuits using electron-donating self-assembled layer”, IEEE Electron Device Lett.
2010, 31(9), 1044–1046.
168. Gundlach, D. J.; Pernstich, K. P.; Wilckens, G.; Gruter, M.; Haas, S.; Batlogg, B. “n-channel
organic thin film transistors and complementary inverters”, Proc. of SPIE. 2005, 5940, 59400O-
1–59400O-9.
169. Fujisaki, Y.; Nakajima, Y.; Kumaki, D.; Yamamoto, T.; Tokito, S.; Kono, T.; Nishida, J.; Ya-
mashita, Y. “Air-stable n-type organic thin-film transistor array and high gain complementary
inverter on flexible substrate”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2010, 97, 133303-1-133303-1.
170. Yan, H.; Chen, Z.; Zheng, Y.; Newman, C.; Quinn, J. R.; Dotz, F.; Kastler, M.; Facchetti,
A. “A high-mobility electron-transporting polymer for printed transistors, Nature. 2009, 457,
679–686.
171. Tiwari, S. P.; Kim, J.; Knauer, K. A.; Hwang, D. K.; Polander, L. E.; Barlow, S.; Marder,
S. R.; Kippelen, B. “Complementary-like inverters based on an ambipolar solution-processed
molecular bis(naphthalene diimide)-dithienopyrrole derivative”, Org. Electron. 2012, 13(7)
1166–1170.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

172. Caironi, M.; Newman, C.; Moore, J. R.; Natali, D.; Yan, H.; Facchetti, A.; Sirringhaus, H.
“Efficient charge injection from a high work function metal in high mobility n-type polymer
field-effect transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2010, 96(18), 183303-1–183303-3.
173. Kim, S. H.; Lee, S. H.; Jang, J. “High-performance n-channel organic thin-film transistor for
cmos circuits using electron-donating self-assembled layer”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2010,
31(9), 1044–1046.
174. Oh, S. Y.; Lee, J. Y. “Characteristics of vertical type organic transistor using n-type material
and its application for OLED”, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 2006, 444(1), 211–218.
175. Tiwari, S. P.; Namdas, B.; Rao, V. R.; Fichou, D.; Mhaisalkar, S. G. “Solution processed
n-type organic field effect transistors with high ON/OFF current ratios based on fullerene
derivatives”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2007, 28(10), 880–883.
176. Inoue, Y.; Sakamoto, Y.; Suzuki, T.; Kobayashi, M.; Gao, Y.; Tokito, S. “Organic thin-film
transistors with high electron mobility based on perfluoropentacene”, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 2005,
44(6A), 3663–3668.
177. Kajii, H.; Ie, Y., Nitani, M.; Hirose, Y.; Aso, Y.; Ohmori, Y. “n-channel organic field-effect
transistors containing carbonyl-bridged bithiazole derivative fabricated using polyfluorene
derivatives as solution-processed buffer layers”, Org. Electron. 2010, 11(9), 1886–1890.
178. Schwabegger, G.; Ullaha, M.; Irimia-Vladu, M.; Baumgartner, M.; Kanbur, Y.; Ahmed, R.;
Stadler, P.; Bauer, S.; Sariciftci, N. S.; Sitter, H. “High mobility, low voltage operating C60
based n-type organic field effect transistors”, Synthetic Metals. 2011, 161, 2058–2062.
179. Wobkenberg, P. H.; Bradley, D. D. C.; Kronholm, D.; Hummelen, D. J. C.; de Leeuwd,
D. M.; Colle, M.; Anthopoulos, T. D. “High mobility n-channel organic field-effect transis-
tors based on soluble C60 and C70 fullerene derivatives”, Synthetic Metals. 2008, 158(11),
468–472.
180. Singh, T. B.; Marjanovic, N.; Stadler, P.; Auinger, M.; Matt, G. J.; Gunes, S.; Sariciftci, N.
S. “Fabrication and characterization of solution-processed methanofullerene-based organic
field-effect transistors”, J. Appl. Phys. 2005, 97(8), 083714-1–083714-1.
181. Crone, B. K.; Dodabalapur, A.; Sarpeshkar, R.; Filas, R. W.; Lin, Y. Y.; Bao, Z.; O’Neill, J.
H.; Li, W.; Katz, H. E. “Design and fabrication of organic complementary circuits”, J. Appl.
Phys. 2001, 89(9), 5125–5132.
182. Klauk, H.; Halik, M.; Zschieschang, U.; Eder, F.; Rohde, D.; Schmid, G.; Dehm, C.
“Flexible organic complementry circuits”, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 2005, 52(4),
618–622.
183. Shukla, D.; Nelson, S. F.; Freeman, D. C.; Rajeswaran, M.; Ahearn, W. G.; Meyer, D. M.;
Carey, J. T. Thin-film morphology control in naphthalene-diimide-based semiconductors: high
mobility n-type semiconductor for organic thin-film transistors”, Chem. Mater. 2008, 20(24),
7486–7491.
 106 B. Kumar et al.

184. See, K. C.; Landis, C.; Sarjeant, A.; Katz, H. E.; “Easily synthesized naphthalene tetracar-
boxylic diimide semiconductors with high electron mobility in air”, Chem. Mater. 2008, 20(11),
3609–3616.
185. Smits, E. C. P.; Anthopoulos, T. D.; Setayesh, S.; van Veenendaal, E.; Coehoorn, R.; Blom,
P. W. M.; de Boer, B.; de Leeuw, D. M. “Ambipolar charge transport in organic field-effect
transistors”, Physical Review B 2006, 73(20), 205316-1–205316-9.
186. Ben-Sasson, A. J.; Chen, Z.; Facchetti, A.; Tessler, N. “Solution-processed ambipolar vertical
organic field effect transistor”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2012, 100(26), 263306-1–263306-3.
187. Wang, S. D.; Kanai, K.; Ouchi, Y.; Seki, K. “Bottom contact ambipolar organic thin film
transistor and organic inverter based on C60 /pentacene heterostructure”, Org. Electron. 2006,
7(6), 457–464.
188. Roelofs, W. S. C.; Mathijssen, S. G. J.; Bijleveld, J. C.; Raiteri, D.; Geuns, T. C. T.; Kemerink,
M.; Cantatore, E.; Janssen, R. A. J.; De-Leeuw, D. M. “Fast ambipolar integrated circuits with
poly(diketopyrrolopyrroleterthiophene)”, Appl. Phy. Lett. 2011, 98(20), 203301–203303.
189. Meijer, E. J.; de Leeuw, D. M.; Setayesh, S.; Veenendaal, E. V.; Huisman, B. H.; Blom, P. W.
M.; Hummelen, J. C.; Scherf, U.; Klapwijk, T. M. “Solution processed ambipolar organic field
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

effect transistors and inverters”, Nat. Mater. 2003, 2, 678–682.

190. Ha, T. J.; Sonar, P.; Dodabalapur, A. “Charge carrier velocity distributions in high mobility
polymer field effect transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2012, 100(15), 153302–153302–3.
191. Ha, T. J.; Sonar, P.; Singh, S. P.; Dodabalapur, A. “Characteristics of high performance
ambipolar organic field effect transistors based on a diketopyrrolopyrrole benzothiadiazole
copolymer”, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices. 2012, 59(5), 1494–1500.
192. Ha, T. J.; Sonar, P.; Cobb, B.; Dodabalapur, A. “Charge transport and density of trap states in
balanced high mobility ambipolar organic thin-film transistors”, Org. Electron. 2012, 13(10),
136–141.
193. Sonar, P.; Singh, S. P.; Li, Y.; Soh, M. S.; Dodabalapur, A. “A low-bandgap
diketopyrrolopyrrole-benzothiadiazole-based copolymer for high-mobility ambipolar organic
thin-film transistors”, Adv. Mater. 2010, 22, 5409–5413.
194. Vladu, M. I.; Głowacki, E. D.; Troshin, P. A.; Schwabegger, G; Leonat, L.; Susarova, D.
K.; Krystal, O.; Ullah, M.; Kanbur, Y.; Bodea, M. A.; Razumov, V. F.; Sitter, H.; Bauer, S.;
Sariciftci, N. S. “Indigo: A natural pigment for high performance ambipolar organic field effect
transistors and circuits”, Adv. Mat. 2012, 24(3), 375–380.
195. Kan, J.; Chen, Y.; Qi, D.; Liu, Y.; Jiang, J. “High performance air stable ambipolar organic
field effect transistor based on Tris(phthalocyaninato) Europium(III)”, Adv. Mat. 2012, 24(13),
1755–1758.
196. Treier, M.; Arlin, J. B.; Ruzié, C.; Geerts, Y. H.; Lemaur, V.; Cornil, J.; Samorı̀, P. “Am-
bipolar organic field effect transistors with balanced mobilities through solvent vapour an-
nealing induced phase separation of bicomponent mixtures”, J. Mater. Chem. 2012, 22(19),
9509–9512.
197. Dodabalapur, A.; Katz, H. E.; Torsi, L.; Haddon, R. C. “Organic heterostructure field-èffect
transistors”, Science. 1995, 269(5230), 1560–1562.
198. Li, C.; Pan, F.; Wang, X.; Wang, L.; Wang, H.; Wang, H.; Yan, D. “Effect of the work function of
gate electrode on hysteresis characteristics of organic thin-film transistors with Ta2 O5 /polymer
as gate insulator”, Org. Electron. 2009, 10(5), 948–953.
199. Michaelson, H. B. “The work function of the elements and its periodicity”, J. Appl. Phys.
1977, 48(11), 4729–4733.
200. Waldrop, J. R. “Electrical properties of ideal metal contacts to GaAs: Schottky-barrier height”,
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B. 1984, 2(3), 445-1–445-4.
201. Wondmagegn, W.; Pieper, R. “Simulation of top contact pentacene thin film transistor”, J.
Comput Electron. 2009, 8(10), 19–24.
202. Alborghetti, S.; Coey, J. M. D.; Stamenov, P. “Dependence of charge carrier injection on the
interface energy barrier in short channel polymeric field effect transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett.
2012, 100(14), 143301-1–143301-4.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 107

203. Li, Y.; Li, D. Y. “Experimental studies on relationships between the electron work function,
adhesion, and friction for 3d transition metals”, J. Appl. Phys. 2004, 95(12), 7961-1–7961-1.
204. Gupta, R. K.; Singh, R. A. “Bonelike/PLGA hybrid materials for bone regeneration: prepara-
tion route and physicochemical characterisation”, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Electron. 2005, 16(3),
253-1–253-9.
205. Cheng, J. W. J.; Chen, C. P.; Lin, Y. M.; Lee, C. Y.; Ho, J. R.. US Patent US2011/0117695A1,
Fabrication Method of Organic Thin Film Transistor; 2011.
206. Sarma, R.; Saikia, D.; Konwar, K.; Baishya, B. “Pentacene thin film transistors using La2 O3
as gate insulator”, Indian J. Phys. 2010, 84(5), 547–552.
207. Yan, H.; Kagata, T.; Arima, S.; Sato, H.; Okuzaki, H. “High-dielectric-constant hafnium silicate
insulator for low-voltage pentacene field-effect transistors”, Phys. Stat. Sol. (A) 2008, 205(12),
2970–2974.
208. Chang, M. F.; Lee, P. T.; McAlister, S. P.; Chin, A. “Small-subthreshold-swing and low-voltage
flexible organic thin-film transistors which use HfLaO as the gate dielectric”, IEEE Electron
Device Lett. 2009, 30(2), 133–135.
209. Sarma, R.; Saikia, D.; Barua, B. Organic thin film transistor with Pr6 O11 dielectric layer.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

In: Indo-Russian Workshop on Nanotechnology and Laser Induced Plasma Proc. (IRNANO-
2009), 2009; p 42.
210. Zhang, X. H.; Domercq, B.; Wang, X.; Yoo, S.; Kondo, T.; Wang, Z. L.; Kippelen, B. “High-
performance pentacene field-effect transistors using Al2O3 gate dielectrics prepared by atomic
layer deposition (ALD)”, Org. Electron. 2007, 8(6), 718–726.
211. Brondijk, J. J.; Spijkman, M.; Torricelli, F.; Blom, P. W. M.; De-Leeuw, D. M. “Charge
transport in dual gate organic field effect transistors”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2012, 100(2), 023308-
1-023308-4.
212. Wu, M.; Alivov, Y. I.; Morkoc, H.; “High-k dielectrics and advanced channel concepts for Si
MOSFET”, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Electron. 2008, 19, 915–951.
213. Malachowsk, M. J.; Zmija, J. “Organic field effect transistors”, Opto-Electron. Rev. 2010,
18(2), 121–136.
214. Sarma, R.; Saikia, D.; Saikia, Puja; Saikia, P. K.; Baishya, B. “Pentacene based thin film
transistors with high k dielectric Nd2 O3 as a gate insulator”, Braz. J. Phys. 2010, 40(3),
357–360.
215. Scheinert, S.; Paasch, G.; Schrodner, M.; Roth, H. K.; Sensfub, S.; Doll, Th. “Sub threshold
characteristics of field effect transistors based on poly (3-dodecylthiophene) and an organic
insulator”, J. Appl. Phy. 2002, 92(1), 330–337.
216. Park, S. J.; Sung, J. H.; Park, J. H.; Choi, H. J.; Choi, J. S. “Characteristics of poly(vinyl
acetate) as a gate insulating material in organic thin film transistors”, Curr. Appl. Phys. 2006,
6(4) 636–639.
217. Puigdollers, J.; Voz, C.; Martin, I.; Orpella, A.; Vetter, M.; Alcubilla, R. “Pentacene thin film
transistors on polymeric gate dielectric: Device fabrication and electrical characterization”, J.
Non-Cryst. Solids. 2004, 338–340, 617–621
218. De Angelis, F.; Cipolloni, S.; Mariucci, L.; Fortunato, G. “High-field-effect-mobility pentacene
thin-film transistors with polymethylmetacrylate buffer layer”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2005, 86(20),
203505-1-203505-3.
219. Chou, W. Y.; Kuo, C. W.; Cheng, H. L.; Chen; Y. R.; Tang, F. C.; Yang, F.Y.; Shu, D. Y.; Liao,
C. C. “Effect of surface free energy in gate dielectric in pentacene thin-film transistors”, Appl.
Phys. Lett. 2006, 89(11), 112126-1-112126-1.
220. Yoon, M. H.; Yan, H.; Facchetti, A.; Marks, T. J. “Low-voltage organic field-effect transistors
and inverters enabled by ultrathin cross-linked polymers as gate dielectrics”, J. Am. Chem.
Soc. 2005, 127, 10388–10395.
221. Wei, C. Y.; Huang, W. C; Yang, C. K.; Chang, Y. Y.; Wang, Y. H. “Low operating voltage
pentacene based transistors and inverters with solution-processed barium zirconate titanate
insulators”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2011, 32(12), 1755–1757.
 108 B. Kumar et al.

222. Chu, C. W.; Chen, C. W.; Li, S. H.; Yanga, Y. “Integration of organic light emitting diode and
organic transistor via a tandem structure”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2005, 86(25), 253503-1-253503-3.
223. Peng, X. Z.; Horowitz, G.; Fichou, D.; Garnier, F. “All-organic thin-film transistors made of
alpha-sexithienyl semiconducting and various polymeric insulating layers”, Appl. Phys. Lett.
1990, 57(19), 2013-1-2013-3.
224. Garnier, F.; Horowitz, G.; Peng, X. Z.; Fichou, D. “An all-organic soft thin film transistor with
very high carrier mobility”, Adv. Mater. 1990, 2(12), 592–594.
225. Bao, Z.; Feng, Y.; Dodabalapur, A.; Raju, V. R.; Lovinger, J. “High-Performance Plastic
Transistors Fabricated by Printing Techniques”, Chem. Mater. 1997, 9(6), 1299–1301.
226. Kane, M. G.; Campi, J.; Hammond, M. S.; Cuomo, F. P.; Greening, B.; Sheraw, C. D.; Nichols,
J. A.; Gundlach, D. J.; Huang, J. R., Kuo, C. C.; Jia, L.; Klauk, H.; Jackson, T. N. “Analog
and digital circuits using organic thin-film transistors on polyester substrates”, IEEE Electron
Device Lett. 2000, 21(11), 534–536.
227. Chen, H. C.; Kung, C. P.; Houng, W. G.; Peng, Y. R.; Hsien, Y. M.; Chou, C. C.; Kao, C. J.;
Yang, T. H.; Hou, J. “Polymer inverter fabricated by inkjet printing and realized by transistors
arrays on flexible substrates”, IEEE /OSA J. Disp. Technol. 2009, 5(6), 216–223.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

228. Dimitrakopoulos, C. D.; Furman, B K.; Graham, T.; Hedge, S.; Purushothaman, S. “Field effect
transistors comprising molecular beam deposited α, ω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric
insulator”, Synth. Met. 1998, 92(1), 47–52.
229. Butko, V.Y.; Chi, X.; Lang, D.V.; Ramirez, A. P. “Field-effect transistor on pentacene single
crystal”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2003, 83(23), 4773-1-4773-1.
230. Yun, Y.; Pearson, C.; Petty, M. C. “Bootstrapped inverter using a pentacene thin-film transistor
with a poly(methyl methacrylate) gate dielectric”, IET Circuits Devices Syst. 2009, 3(4),
182–186.
231. Dimitrakopoulos, C. D.; Brown, A. R.; Pomp, A. “Molecular beam deposited thin films
of pentacene for organic field effect transistor applications”, J. Appl. Phys. 1996, 80(4),
2501–2508.
232. Cai, Y. G.; Zheng, X.; Ling, Z. S.; Jun, Z. F.; Wei, J. W.; Dan, S. D.; Na, Z. H.; Yan, L. S.;
Ying, H. J.; Hao, H., Rong, X. X. “Characteristics of pentacene organic thin film transistor
with top gate and bottom contact”, Chin. Phys. B 2008, 17(5), 1887–1892.
233. Li, D.; Guo, L. J. “Organic thin film transistors and polymer light-emitting diodes patterned
by polymer inking and stamping”, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 2008, 41(10), 105115-1–105115-7.
234. Cho, H.; Yoon, H.; Char, K.; Hong, Y.; Lee, C. “Organic thin film transistors with transfer
printed Au electrodes on flexible substrates”, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 2010, 49(5), 05EB08-1-
05EB08-4.
235. Sele, C. W.; von Werne, T.; Friend, R. H.; Sirringhaus, H. “Lithography-free, self-
aligned inkjet printing with sub-hundred-nanometer resolution”, Adv. Mater. 2005, 17(8),
997–1001.
236. Assadi, A.; Svensson, C. M.; Willander, O. I. “Field-effect mobility of poly(3-
hexylthiophene)”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 1988, 53(3), 195-1-195-3.
237. Moon, H.; Kim, M.; Yoo, S. “Bilayer source/drain electrodes self-aligned with fluoropolymer
dielectrics for stable high-performance organic TFTs”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2011, 32(8),
1137–1139.
238. Kim, J. M.; Jha, S. K.; Lee, D. H.; Chand, R., Jeun, J. H.; Kim, Y. S. “A flexible pentacene
thin film transistors as disposable DNA hybridization sensor”, J. Indri. Engg.Chem. 2012, 18,
1642–1646.
239. Singh, V. K.; Baquer, M. Impact of scaling of dielectric thickness on mobility in top contact
pentacene organic thin film transistors”, J. Appl. Phys. 2012, 111(3), 034905-1-034905-6.
240. Rogers, J. A.; Dodabalpur, A.; Bao, Z. K.; Katz, H. “Low-voltage 0.1 μm organic transistors
and complementary inverter circuits fabricated with a low-cost form of near-field photolithog-
raphy”, Appl. Phy. Lett. 1999, 75(7), 1010-1–1010-3.
241. Zhang, Y.; Petta, J. R.; Ambily, S.; Shen, Y.; Ralph, D. C.; Malliaras, G. G. “30 nm channel
length pentacene transistors”, Adv. Mater. 2003, 15(19), 1632–1635.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 109

242. Lee, J. B.; Chang, P. C., Liddle, J. A.; Subramanian, V. “10-nm channel length pentacene
transistors, IEEE Trans Electron Devices. 2005, 52(8), 1874–1879.
243. Rhee, S. W.; Yun, D. J. “Metal–semiconductor contact in organic thin film transistors”, J.
Mater. Chem. 2008, 18, 5437–5444.
244. Wondmagegn, W. T.; Satyala, N. T.; Pieper, R. J.; Quevedo-Lopez, M. A.; Gowrisanker, S.;
Alshareef, H. N.; Stiegler, H. J.; Gnade, B. E. “Impact of semiconductor/metal interfaces on
contact resistance and operating speed of organic thin film transistors”, J. Comput. Electron.
2011, 10, 144–153.
245. Tiwari, S. P.; Potscavage Jr., W. J.; Sajoto, T.; Barlow, Stephen; Marder, Seth R.; Kippe-
len, Bernard. “Pentacene organic field effect transistors with doped electrode semiconductor
contacts”, Org. Electron. 2010, 11(5), 860–863.
246. Agrawal, N. “Solution Processed Vertical Organic Transistor: Simulation, Fabrication and
Characterization”, M.Tech, Thesis, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India; 2011.
247. Jang, J; Kim, J. W.; Park, N.; Kim, J. J. “Air stable C60 based n-type organic field effect
transistor using a perfluoropolymer insulator”, Org. Electron. 2008, 9(4), 481–486.
248. Lin, Y. Y.; Gundlach, D. J.; Nelson, S. F.; Jackson, T. N. “Stacked pentacene layer organic
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

thin film transistors with improved characteristics”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 1997, 18(12),
606–608.
249. Tiwari, S. P.; Knauer, K. A.; Dindar, A.; Kippelen, B. “Performance comparison of pentacene
organic field-effect transistors with SiO2 modified with octyltrichlorosilane or octadecyl-
trichlorosilane”, Org. Electron. 2012, 13(9), 18–22.
250. Kobayashi, S.; Nishikawa, T.; Takenobu, T.; Mori, S.; Shimoda, T.; Mitani, T.; Shimotani, H.;
Yoshimoto, N.; Ogawa, S.; Iwasa, Y. “Control of carrier density by self-assembled monolayers
in organic field-effect transistors”, Nat. Mater. 2004, 3(5), 317-1–317-22.
251. Jiang, Y. D.; Jen, T. H.; Chen, S. A. “Excellent carrier mobility of 0.24cm2/Vs in regioregular
poly(3-hexylthiophene) based field-effect transistor by employing octadecyltrimethoxysilane
treated gate insulator”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2012, 100(2), 023304-1–023304-4.
252. Ito, Y.; Virkar, A. A.; Mannsfeld, S.; Oh, J. H.; Toney, M.; Locklin, J.; Bao, Z. “Crystalline
ultrasmooth self-assembled monolayers of alkylsilanes for organic field-effect transistors”, J.
Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131(26), 9396–9404.
253. Dodabalapur, A.; Baumbach, J.; Baldwin, K.; Katz, H. E. “Hybrid organic/inorganic comple-
mentary circuits”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 1996, 68(16), 2246–2248.
254. Oh, M. S.; Hwang, D. K.; Lee, K.; Choi, W. J.; Kim, J. H.; Im, S.; Lee, S. “Pentacene and ZnO
hybrid channels for complementary thin film transistor inverters operating at 2V”, J. Appl.
Phys. 2007, 102(7), 076104 –076104–3.
255. Satyala, N.; Pieper, R.; Wondmagegn, W. “ Simulation and transient analysis of or-
ganic/inorganic CMOS inverter circuit”, 41st Southeastern Symposium on System Theory,
U.T. Space Institute of Tullahoma, TN, 2009; pp 324–329.
256. Wang, J.; Wei, B.; Zhang, J. “Fabricating an organic complementary inverter by integrating
two transistors on a single substrate”, Semicond. Sci. Tech. 2008, 23, 055003-1–055003-4.
257. Myny, K.; Beenhakkers, M. J.; Van Aerle, N. A. J. M.; Gelinck, G. H.; Genoe, J.; Dehaene,
W.; Heremans, P. “Unipolar organic transistor circuits made robust by dual-gate technology”,
IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, 2011, 46(5), 1223–1230. 
258. Marien, H.; Steyaert, M. S. J.; Veenendaal, E. V.; Heremans, E.V P A Fully integrated ADC
in organic thin film transistor technology on flexible plastic foil”, IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits.
2011, 46, 276–286.
259. Jeon, J., Murmann, B.; Bao, Z. “Full-swing and high-gain pentacene logic circuits on plastic
substrate”, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2010, 31(12), 1488–1490.
260. Jackson, T. N.; Lin, Y. Y., Gundlach, D. J.; Klauk, H. “Organic thin-film transistors for organic
light-emitting flat-panel display backplanes”, IEEE J. Selected Topics Quantum Electronics,
1998, 4(1), 100–104.
261. Zhou, L.; Wanga, A.; Wu, S. C.; Sun, J.; Park, S.; Jackson, T. N. “All organic active matrix
flexible display, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2006, 88(3), 083502-1–083502-3.
 110 B. Kumar et al.

262. Liu, P. T.; Chu, L.W. Innovative voltage driving pixel circuit using organic thin-film transistor
for AMOLEDs, J. Display Techn. 2009, 5(6), 224–228.
263. Myny, K.; Steudel, S.; Vicca, P.; Beenhakkers, M. J.; Van Aerle, N. A. J. M.; Gelinck, G. H.;
Genoe, J.; Dehaene, W.; Heremans, P. “Organic RFID Tags”, Radio Frequency Identification
Fundamentals and Applications, Design Methods and Solutions, book edited by Cristina Turcu,
pp. 311–324, 2010, INTECH, Croatia.
264. Subramanian, V.; Frechet, J. M. J.; Chang, P. C.; Huang, D. C.; Lee, J. B.; Molesa, S. E.;
Murphy, A. R.; Redinger, D. R.; Volkman, S. K. “Progress toward development of all-printed
RFID tags: materials, processes, and devices”, Proc. of The IEEE, 2005 93(7), 1330–1338.
265. Subramanian, V.; Chang, P. C.; Lee, J. B.; Molesa, S. E.; Volkman, S. K. “Printed organic
transistors for ultra-low-cost RFID applications”, IEEE Trans. Components and Packaging
Technol. 2005, 28(4), 742–747.
266. Baude, P. F.; Enter, D. A.; Haase, M. A.; Kelley, T. W.; Muyres, D. V.; Thesis, S. D. “Pentacene
based radio frequency identification circuitry”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2003, 82(22), 3964-1–3964-3.
267. Myny, K.; Steudel, S.; Vicca, P.; Beenhakkers, M. J.; Van Aerle, N. A. J. M.; Gelinck, G.
H.; Genoe, J.; Dehaene, W.; Heremans, P. “Plastic circuits and tags for HF radio-frequency
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

communication”, Solid State Electron. 2009, 53, 1220–1226.

268. Myny, K.; Steudel, S.; Vicca, P.; Beenhakkers, M. J.; Van Aerle, N. A. J. M.; Gelinck, G.
H.; Genoe, J.; Dehaene, W.; Heremans, P. “Plastic circuits and tags for HF radio-frequency
communication”, Solid State Electron. 2009, 53, 1220–1226.
269. Myny, K.; Beenhakkers, M. J.; van Aerle, N.A.J.M.; Gelinck, G. H.; Genoe, J.; Dehaene,
W.; Heremans, P. “A 128b organic RFID transponder chip, including Manchester encoding
and ALOHA anti-collision protocol, operating with a data rate of 1529 b/s”, Solid State
Circuits Conference–Digest of Technical Papers, 2009. ISSCC 2009. February 8–12. IEEE
International. 2009, 206–207.
270. Patolsky, F.; Lichtenstein, A.; Willner, I. “Detection of single-base DNA mutations by enzyme-
amplified electronic transduction”, Nat. Biotechnol. 2001, 19, 253–257.
271. Fang, B.; Jiao, S. F.; Li, M. G.; Qu, Y.; Jiang, X. M. “Label-free electrochemical detection
of DNA using ferrocene-containing cationic polythiophene and PNA probes on nanogold
modified electrodes”, Biosens. Bioelectron. 2008, 23(7), 1175–1179.
272. Liu, N.; Hu, Y.; Zhang, J.; Cao, J.; Liu, Y.; Wang, J. “A label-free, organic transistor based
biosensor by introducing electric bias during DNA immobilization”, Org. Electron. 2012,
13(8), 2781–2785.
273. Roberts, M. E.; Sokolov, A. N.; Bao, Z. “Material and device considerations for organic
thin-film transistor sensors”, J. Mater. Chem. 2009, 19(21), 3351–3363.
274. Zhang, Q. T.; Subramanian, V. “DNA hybridization detection with organic thin film transistors:
Toward fast and disposable DNA microarray chips”, Biosens. Bioelectron. 2007, 22(12),
3182–3187.
275. Yan, F.; Mok, S. M.; Yu, J.; Chan, H. L. W.; Yang, M. “Label free DNA sensor based on
organic thin film transistors”, Biosens. Bioelectron. 2009, 24(5), 1241–1245.
276. Schwartz, D. E.; Ng, T. N. “Comparison of static and dynamic printed organic shift registers”,
IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2013, 34(2), 271–273.
277. Aernouts, T.; Aleksandrov, T.; Girotto, C.; Genoe, J.; Poortmans, J. “Polymer based organic
solar cells using ink-jet printed active layers”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2008, 92(3), 033306-1–033306-
3.
278. Yokota, T.; Nakagawa, T.; Sekitani, T.; Noguchi, Y.; Fukuda, K.; Zschieschang, U.; Klauk,
H.; Takeuchi, K.; Takamiya, M.; Sakurai, T.; Someya, T. “Control of threshold voltage in low-
voltage organic complementary inverter circuits with floating gate structures”, Appl. Phys.
Lett. 2011, 98(19), 193302-1–193302-3.
279. Zhang, P.; Jacques, E.; Rogel, R.; Bonnaud, O. “p-type and n-type multi-gate polycrystalline
silicon vertical thin film transistors based on low-temperature technology”, Solid-State Elec-
tron. 2013, 86, 1–5.
 Organic Thin Film Transistors 111

280. Yadav, S.; Sharma, A.; Ghosh, S. “Organic transistor and inverter based on assembly of
organic nanowires achieved by optimizing surface morphology”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2013,
102(9), 093303-1–093303-5.
281. Zaborowski, M.; Tomaszewski, D.; Panas, A.; Grabiec, P. “Double-Fin FETs based on standard
CMOS approach”, Microelectron. Eng. 2010, 87(5–8), 1396–1399.
282. Kim, J. B.; Hernandez, C. F.; Potscavage Jr, W. J.; Zhang, X. H.; Kippelen, B. “Low-voltage
InGaZnO thin-film transistors with Al2 O3 gate insulator grown by atomic layer deposition”,
Appl. Phy. Lett. 2009, 94(14), 142107-1–142107-3.
283. Ukah, N. B.; Granstrom, J.; Gari, R. R. S.; King, G. M.; Guha, S. “Low-operating voltage and
stable organic field-effect transistors with poly (methyl methacrylate) gate dielectric solution
deposited from a high dipole moment solvent”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 2011, 99(12), 243302-
1–243302-3.
Downloaded by [Brijesh Kumar] at 23:32 20 February 2014

View publication stats