Inkjet Printed Organic Thin Film Transistors: Achievements and Challenges

Inkjet printing of organic thin film transistors is an enabling technology for many applications requiring low cost electronics such as RFID tags, sensors, e-paper, and displays. This review summarizes the achievements and remaining challendges in the field. An all inkjet printed organic thin film transistor is feasible, but manufacturability needs to be improved. Often, a hybrid process in which only some layers are inkjet printed is used. Development of devices requires optimization of (1) ink chemistry, (2) inkjet process, (3) substrate ink interaction, and (4) new device structures. Several conducting, dielectric and semiconducting materials have been used to formulate ink. It appears that metal nanoparticle based conducting ink and PEDOT:PSS are widely used materials to fabricate source, drain and gate electrodes. PVPh is the most popular dielectric material for inkjet printing. To print semiconducting layer, both polymers and oligomers/small molecules are used. Many high performance organic semiconductors are p-type, but few n-type organic semiconductors show excellent performance. In addition to improved materials, challenges inherent in the inkjet process also need solutions. These are registration, alignment of the source,and drain with gate, resolution, reducing off-state current, and roll-to-roll processing.

[1]  W. M. de Azevedo,et al.  Writing with conducting polymer , 2005 .

[2]  M. Estrada,et al.  Characterization of PEDOT:PSS dilutions for inkjet printing applied to OLED fabrication , 2008, 2008 7th International Caribbean Conference on Devices, Circuits and Systems.

[3]  Chun-Hao Hsu,et al.  Enhancement of carrier mobility in all-inkjet-printed organic thin-film transistors using a blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and carbon nanoparticles , 2011 .

[4]  Flora M. Li,et al.  Ink-jet printing of carbon nanotube thin film transistors , 2007 .

[5]  K. Chi,et al.  Excimer laser processing of inkjet-printed and sputter-deposited transparent conducting SnO2: Sb for flexible electronics , 2007 .

[6]  Ghassan E. Jabbour,et al.  Inkjet Printing of Oxidants for Patterning of Nanometer‐Thick Conducting Polymer Electrodes , 2006 .

[7]  Ridley,et al.  All-Inorganic Field Effect Transistors Fabricated by Printing. , 1999, Science.

[8]  Sunho Jeong,et al.  Organic thin film transistors with ink-jet printed metal nanoparticle electrodes of a reduced channel length by laser ablation , 2007 .

[9]  Sunho Jeong,et al.  Retraction: “Organic thin film transistors with ink-jet printed metal nanoparticle electrodes of a reduced channel length by laser ablation” [Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 071114 (2007)] , 2008 .

[10]  Sang-Ho Lee,et al.  Self-Defined Short Channel Formation With Micromolded Separator and Inkjet-Printed Source/Drain Electrodes in OTFTs , 2011, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[11]  Ulrich S Schubert,et al.  Microwave Flash Sintering of Inkjet‐Printed Silver Tracks on Polymer Substrates , 2009, Advanced materials.

[12]  Jin Jang,et al.  High-performance thin-film transistor with 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene by inkjet printing , 2008 .

[13]  J. Jang,et al.  Polypyrrole top-contact electrodes patterned by inkjet printing assisted vapor deposition polymerization in flexible organic thin-film transistors , 2012 .

[14]  T. Kurokawa,et al.  Electrical properties of polyacetylene/polysiloxane interface , 1983 .

[15]  Koon Gee Neoh,et al.  Polymer electronic memories: Materials, devices and mechanisms , 2008 .

[16]  Lei Zhang,et al.  All‐Solution‐Processed, High‐Performance n‐Channel Organic Transistors and Circuits: Toward Low‐Cost Ambient Electronics , 2011, Advanced materials.

[18]  G. Kim,et al.  The application of soluble and regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) for organic thin-film transistors , 2005 .

[19]  D. Nothern.  Emerging Plastic Films for Flexible Electronics Substrates , 2006 .

[20]  Effect of SAM layer on bias-stability of inkjet printed TIPS pentacene thin-film transistor , 2012 .

[21]  A. Facchetti,et al.  Enhanced Thin-Film Transistor Performance by Combining 13,6-N- Sulfinylacetamidopentacene with Printed PEDOT:PSS Electrodes , 2011 .

[22]  Jiyoul Lee,et al.  Printable ion-gel gate dielectrics for low-voltage polymer thin-film transistors on plastic. , 2008, Nature materials.

[23]  Ullrich Scherf,et al.  Direct Ink‐Jet Printing of Ag–Cu Nanoparticle and Ag‐Precursor Based Electrodes for OFET Applications , 2007 .

[24]  Jian Gu,et al.  Low-cost fabrication of submicron all polymer field effect transistors , 2006 .

[25]  Soon-Ki Kwon,et al.  All-Inkjet-Printed Organic Thin-Film Transistor Inverter on Flexible Plastic Substrate , 2011, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[26]  C. Pearson,et al.  Control of droplet morphology for inkjet-printed TIPS-pentacene transistors , 2012 .

[27]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[28]  Tianhong Cui,et al.  Low‐Voltage All‐Polymer Field‐Effect Transistor Fabricated Using an Inkjet Printing Technique , 2005 .

[29]  Richard H. Friend,et al.  Lithography‐Free, Self‐Aligned Inkjet Printing with Sub‐Hundred‐Nanometer Resolution , 2005 .

[30]  Y. Ai,et al.  Thin film deposition of an n-type organic semiconductor by ink-jet printing technique , 2004 .

[31]  Fulvia Villani,et al.  Inkjet printed perylene diimide based OTFTs: Effect of the solvent mixture and the printing parameters on film morphology , 2012 .

[32]  H. Sirringhaus,et al.  High-Resolution Ink-Jet Printing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits , 2000, Science.

[33]  V. Subramanian,et al.  Printed organic transistors for ultra-low-cost RFID applications , 2004, 4th IEEE International Conference on Polymers and Adhesives in Microelectronics and Photonics, 2004. POLYTRONIC 2004..

[34]  Costas P. Grigoropoulos,et al.  Fabrication of multilayer passive and active electric components on polymer using inkjet printing and low temperature laser processing , 2007 .

[35]  Tatsuya Shimoda,et al.  Inkjet printing of polymer thin film transistors , 2003 .

[36]  C. Grigoropoulos,et al.  All-inkjet-printed flexible electronics fabrication on a polymer substrate by low-temperature high-resolution selective laser sintering of metal nanoparticles , 2007 .

[37]  Ping Liu,et al.  High‐Performance Organic Thin‐Film Transistors with Solution‐Printed Gold Contacts , 2005 .

[38]  Colin Nuckolls,et al.  Jet-printed electrodes and semiconducting oligomers for elaboration of organic thin-film transistors , 2006 .

[39]  Robert A. Street,et al.  All jet-printed polymer thin-film transistor active-matrix backplanes , 2004 .

[40]  Jung Ah Lim,et al.  Solvent effect of inkjet printed source/drain electrodes on electrical properties of polymer thin-film transistors , 2006 .

[41]  Takao Someya,et al.  Organic-transistor-based flexible pressure sensors using ink-jet-printed electrodes and gate dielectric layers , 2006 .

[42]  Satoshi Inoue,et al.  Polymer thin film transistors with self-aligned gates fabricated using ink-jet printing , 2007 .

[43]  Seungjun Chung,et al.  Contact Resistance of Inkjet-Printed Silver Source–Drain Electrodes in Bottom-Contact OTFTs , 2012, Journal of Display Technology.

[44]  Takao Someya,et al.  Direct inkjet printing of silver electrodes on organic semiconductors for thin-film transistors with top contact geometry , 2008 .

[45]  Tatsuya Shimoda,et al.  Solution-processed silicon films and transistors , 2006, Nature.

[46]  Jang Sub Kim,et al.  Direct writing of copper conductive patterns by ink-jet printing , 2007 .

[47]  A. Facchetti,et al.  A high-mobility electron-transporting polymer for printed transistors , 2009, Nature.

[48]  Yi Su,et al.  Inkjet-printed silver conductors using silver nitrate ink and their electrical contacts with conducting polymers , 2005 .

[49]  M. Wybourne,et al.  Polymers for Microelectronics , 1993 .

[50]  K. Varahramyan,et al.  Inkjet printed silver source/drain electrodes for low-cost polymer thin film transistors , 2006 .

[51]  Piero Cosseddu,et al.  Inkjet printing of transparent, flexible, organic transistors , 2011 .

[52]  Sébastien Sanaur,et al.  Inkjet-printed polymer thin-film transistors : Enhancing performances by contact resistances engineering , 2008 .

[53]  Jin Jang,et al.  Dependence of persistent photocurrent on gate bias in inkjet printed organic thin-film transistor , 2010 .

[54]  Yoon-Hyun Kim,et al.  A low-cure-temperature copper nano ink for highly conductive printed electrodes , 2009 .

[55]  Y. N. Mohapatra,et al.  Film processing characteristics of nano gold suitable for conductive application on flexible substrates , 2012 .

[56]  Jooho Moon,et al.  Organic thin film transistor using silver electrodes by the ink-jet printing technology , 2007 .

[57]  V. Subramanian,et al.  A high-performance all-inkjetted organic transistor technology , 2004, IEDM Technical Digest. IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, 2004..

[58]  H. Sirringhaus,et al.  Self-Aligned, Vertical-Channel, Polymer Field-Effect Transistors , 2003, Science.

[59]  Chen-Pang Kung,et al.  Polymer Inverter Fabricated by Inkjet Printing and Realized by Transistors Arrays on Flexible Substrates , 2009, Journal of Display Technology.

[60]  A. Ceschin,et al.  Organic conducting films fabricated with ink jet printing technology and possible application in electric-field probes , 2003, Proceedings of the 2003 SBMO/IEEE MTT-S International Microwave and Optoelectronics Conference - IMOC 2003. (Cat. No.03TH8678).

[61]  V. Subramanian,et al.  Single-monolayer inkjetted oligothiophene organic TFTs exhibiting high performance and low leakage , 2004, Conference Digest [Includes 'Late News Papers' volume] Device Research Conference, 2004. 62nd DRC..

[62]  Jia Sun,et al.  Low-voltage electric-double-layer paper transistors gated by microporous SiO2 processed at room temperature , 2009 .

[63]  Min-Koo Han,et al.  Organic thin-film transistors using suspended source/drain electrode structure , 2007, SPIE Organic Photonics + Electronics.

[64]  H. Sandberg,et al.  Utilizing roll-to-roll techniques for manufacturing source-drain electrodes for all-polymer transistors , 2005 .

[65]  C. Grigoropoulos,et al.  Manufacturing of nanoscale thickness gold lines by laser curing of a discretely deposited nanoparticle suspension , 2004 .

[66]  Jaeyoung Jang,et al.  An inkjet-printed passivation layer based on a photocrosslinkable polymer for long-term stable pentacene field-effect transistors , 2009 .

[67]  C. Grigoropoulos,et al.  Air stable high resolution organic transistors by selective laser sintering of ink-jet printed metal nanoparticles , 2007 .

[68]  Yee-Chia Yeo,et al.  Controlled insulator-to-metal transformation in printable polymer composites with nanometal clusters. , 2007, Nature materials.

[69]  Robert A. Street,et al.  Additive jet printing of polymer thin-film transistors , 2003 .

[70]  M. Plötner,et al.  Investigation of ink-jet printing of poly-3-octylthiophene for organic field-effect transistors from different solutions , 2004 .

[71]  L. Roselli,et al.  Inkjet printed organic transistors for sustainable electronics , 2010, 2010 Proceedings 60th Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC).

[72]  Miss A.O. Penney.  (b) , 1974, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[73]  A. Izumi,et al.  Novel materials for electronic device fabrication using ink-jet printing technology , 2009 .

[74]  V. Subramanian,et al.  Low-voltage inkjetted organic transistors for printed RFID and display applications , 2005, IEEE InternationalElectron Devices Meeting, 2005. IEDM Technical Digest..

[75]  Takeshi Asano,et al.  Ink-Jet Printing of Carbon Nanotube Thin-Film Transistors on Flexible Plastic Substrates , 2009 .

[76]  Yong-Young Noh,et al.  Ink-jet printed ZnO nanowire field effect transistors , 2007 .

[77]  T. Someya,et al.  A large-area wireless power-transmission sheet using printed organic transistors and plastic MEMS switches. , 2007, Nature materials.

[78]  Richard H. Friend,et al.  Inkjet Printed Via‐Hole Interconnections and Resistors for All‐Polymer Transistor Circuits , 2001 .

[79]  Wolfgang Clemens,et al.  Fully printed integrated circuits from solution processable polymers , 2004 .

[80]  Yong-Young Noh,et al.  Downscaling of Organic Field‐Effect Transistors with a Polyelectrolyte Gate Insulator , 2008 .

[81]  Vivek Subramanian,et al.  Inkjetted Organic Transistors using a Novel Pentacene Precursor , 2003 .

[82]  U. Schubert,et al.  Inkjet Printing of Narrow Conductive Tracks on Untreated Polymeric Substrates , 2008 .