Bending Effect of Organic Field-Effect Transistors with Polyimide Gate Dielectric Layers

We manufactured markedly flexible pentacene field-effect transistors (FETs) on a polyethylenenaphthalate base film with polyimide gate dielectric layers, with a mobility of 0.3 cm2/Vs and an on/off ratio of 105. The electric performance of DC current–voltage characteristics was measured by applying compressive and tensile strains while reducing the bending radius down to 3 mm. It was found that the compressive strain leads to an increase in mobility of 10% induced by the change in strain of up to 1.4±0.1%, although the tensile strain leads to a decrease in mobility of 10%. To elucidate the origin of the enhancement of mobility under the compressive strain, we also investigated the strain dependence of capacitance–voltage characteristics for a pentacene channel layer, and almost no change was observed. Our results suggest that the strains markedly affect the spacing between pentacene molecules rather than the number of induced carriers.