C. Kapnopoulos

High performance transistors based on the controlled growth of triisopropylsilylethynyl-pentacene crystals via non-isotropic solvent evaporation

Triisopropylsilylethynyl-pentacene (TIPS-PEN) has proven to be one of the most promising small molecules in the field of molecular electronics, due to its unique features in terms of stability, performance and ease of processing. Among a wide variety of well-established techniques for the deposition of TIPS-PEN, blade-metered methods have recently gained great interest towards the formation of uniform crystalline films over a large area. Following this rationale, we herein designed a versatile approach based on blade-coating, which overcomes the problem of anisotropic crystal formation by manipulating the solvent evaporation behaviour, in a way that brings about a preferential degree of crystal orientation. The applicability of this method was evaluated by fabricating field-effect transistors on glass as well as on silicon dioxide/silicon (SiO2/Si) substrates. Interestingly, in an attempt to improve the rheological and wetting behaviour of the liquid films on the SiO2/Si substrates, we introduced a polymeric interlayer of polystyrene (PS) or polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) which concurrently acts as passivation and crystallization assisting layer. In this case, the synergistic effects of the highly-ordered crystalline structure and the oxide surface modification were thoroughly investigated. The overall performance of the fabricated devices revealed excellent electrical characteristics, with high saturation mobilities up to 0.72 cm2 V−1 s−1 (on glass with polymeric dielectric), on/off current ratio >104 and low threshold voltage values (<−5 V).

Universal Compact Model for Organic Solar Cell

Accurate description of the electrical behavior of organic solar cells (OSCs) becomes necessary with the advance of OSC technology toward up-scaled modules. We propose here a compact model for OSCs, by identifying different regimes present in the device operation in dark and under light: OFF, exponential sub-VON, power-law above-VON, and photocurrent. We also present a complete parameter extraction method for the model. In addition, we discuss the effect of the resistivity of transparent electrode and the device size on the OSC performance, by illustrating expected modifications on the current- voltage curve and parameter values.

The effect of laser pulse duration and beam shape on the selective removal of novel thin film layers for flexible electronic devices

Lightweight, flexible substrates coated with thin film layers <0.5μm thick are commonly utilized for modern electronic devices that are portable and constantly reducing in size, weight, power consumption and material cost. Patterning techniques for these thin films are required to provide device functionality and alternatives to photolithography such as direct write laser processes are particularly attractive. However, for complex devices with multiple thin layers, the quality requirements for laser scribing are extremely high, since each individual thin film layer must be patterned without damaging the underlying thin film layer(s) and also provide a suitable topography for subsequent layers to be deposited upon. Hence, the choice of the laser parameters is critical for a number of emerging thin film materials used in flexible electronic devices such as ITO, pedot:PSS, silver nanoparticle inks, amongst others. These thin films can be extremely sensitive to the thermal interaction with lasers and this report outlines the influence of laser pulse duration and beam shaping techniques on laser patterning of these thin films and the implications for laser system design.