David J. Gundlach

Pentacene-based organic thin-film transistors

Organic thin-film transistors using the fused-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pentacene as the active electronic material have shown mobility as large as 0.7 cm/sup 2//V-s and on/off current ratio larger than 10/sup 8/; both values are comparable to hydrogenated amorphous silicon devices. On the other hand, these and most other organic TFTs have an undesirably large subthreshold slope. We show here that the large subthreshold slope typically observed is not an intrinsic property of the organic semiconducting material and that devices with subthreshold slope similar to amorphous silicon devices are possible.

Threshold voltage shift in organic field effect transistors by dipole monolayers on the gate insulator

We demonstrate controllable shift of the threshold voltage and the turn-on voltage in pentacene thin film transistors and rubrene single crystal field effect transistors (FET) by the use of nine organosilanes with different functional groups. Prior to depositing the organic semiconductors, the organosilanes were applied to the SiO2 gate insulator from solution and form a self-assembled monolayer (SAM). The observed shifts of the transfer characteristics range from −2to50V and can be related to the surface potential of the layer next to the transistor channel. Concomitantly the mobile charge carrier concentration at zero gate bias reaches up to 4×1012∕cm2. In the single crystal FETs the measured transfer characteristics are also shifted, while essentially maintaining the high quality of the subthreshold swing. The shift of the transfer characteristics is governed by the built-in electric field of the SAM and can be explained using a simple energy level diagram. In the thin film devices, the subthreshold re...

Contact-induced crystallinity for high-performance soluble acene-based transistors and circuits

The use of organic materials presents a tremendous opportunity to significantly impact the functionality and pervasiveness of large-area electronics. Commercialization of this technology requires reduction in manufacturing costs by exploiting inexpensive low-temperature deposition and patterning techniques, which typically lead to lower device performance. We report a low-cost approach to control the microstructure of solution-cast acene-based organic thin films through modification of interfacial chemistry. Chemically and selectively tailoring the source/drain contact interface is a novel route to initiating the crystallization of soluble organic semiconductors, leading to the growth on opposing contacts of crystalline films that extend into the transistor channel. This selective crystallization enables us to fabricate high-performance organic thin-film transistors and circuits, and to deterministically study the influence of the microstructure on the device characteristics. By connecting device fabrication to molecular design, we demonstrate that rapid film processing under ambient room conditions and high performance are not mutually exclusive.

Pentacene organic thin-film transistors for circuit and display applications

We have fabricated organic thin-film transistors (TFTs) using the small-molecule polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon pentacene as the active material. Devices were fabricated on glass substrates using low-temperature ion-beam deposited silicon dioxide as the gate dielectric, ion-beam deposited palladium for the source and drain contacts, and vacuum-evaporated pentacene to form the active layer. Excellent electrical characteristics were obtained, including carrier mobility as large as 0.6 cm/sup 2//V-s, on/off current ratio as large as 10/sup 8/, and subthreshold slope as low as 0.7 V/dec, all record values for organic transistors fabricated on nonsingle-crystal substrates.

Substrate-dependent interface composition and charge transport in films for organic photovoltaics

The buried interface composition of polymer-fullerene blends is found by near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy to depend on the surface energy of the substrate upon which they are cast. The interface composition determines the type of charge transport measured with thin film transistors. These results have implications for organic photovoltaics device design and the use of transistors to evaluate bulk mobility in blends.

Fast organic thin-film transistor circuits

We have fabricated organic thin-film transistors and integrated circuits using pentacene as the active material. Devices were fabricated on glass substrates using low-temperature ion-beam sputtered silicon dioxide as the gate dielectric and a double-layer photoresist process to isolate devices. These transistors have carrier mobility near 0.5 cm/sup 2//V-s and on/off current ratio larger than 10/sup 7/. Using a level-shifting design that allows circuits to operate over a wide range of threshold voltages, we have fabricated ring oscillators with propagation delay below 75 /spl mu/s per stage, limited by the level-shifting circuitry. When driven directly, inverters without level shifting show submicrosecond rise and fall time constants.

Undoped polythiophene field-effect transistors with mobility of 1cm2V−1s−1

We report on charge transport in organic field-effect transistors based on poly(2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene) as the active polymer layer with saturation field-effect mobilities as large as 1cm2V−1s−1. This is achieved by employing Pt instead of the commonly used Au as the contacting electrode and allows for a significant reduction in the metal/polymer contact resistance. The mobility increases as a function of decreasing channel length, consistent with a Poole-Frenkel model of charge transport, and reaches record mobilities of 1cm2V−1s−1 or more at channel lengths on the order of few microns in an undoped solution-processed polymer cast on an oxide gate dielectric.

A Flexible Solution-Processed Memristor

A rewriteable low-power operation nonvolatile physically flexible memristor device is demonstrated. The active component of the device is inexpensively fabricated at room temperature by spinning a TiO2 sol gel on a commercially available polymer sheet. The device exhibits memory behavior consistent with a memristor, demonstrates an on/off ratio greater than 10 000 : 1, is nonvolatile for over 1.2 times 106 s, requires less than 10 V, and is still operational after being physically flexed more than 4000 times.

Organic thin-film transistors for organic light-emitting flat-panel display backplanes

The performance of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) has improved significantly in the last several years and it now appears likely that they will find application in low-cost large-area electronic applications. Active-matrix displays are of special interest and integration of OTFTs with organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) in all-organic displays is particularly attractive. The device requirements for active-matrix OLED displays are very similar to those of active-matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs) and can be satisfied with OTFTs fabricated using stacked pentacene active layers. Such devices have demonstrated field-effect mobility near 1.5 cm/sup 2//V/spl middot/s, on/off current ratio near 10/sup 8/, near-zero threshold voltage, and subthreshold slope less than 1.6 V/decade. These characteristics are similar to those obtained with hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) devices and such devices would allow the use of polymeric substrates with advantages in weight, ruggedness, and cost compared to glass substrates currently used with a-Si:H devices in AMLCDs.

Mobility overestimation due to gated contacts in organic field-effect transistors.

Parameters used to describe the electrical properties of organic field-effect transistors, such as mobility and threshold voltage, are commonly extracted from measured current–voltage characteristics and interpreted by using the classical metal oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor model. However, in recent reports of devices with ultra-high mobility (>40 cm2 V−1 s−1), the device characteristics deviate from this idealized model and show an abrupt turn-on in the drain current when measured as a function of gate voltage. In order to investigate this phenomenon, here we report on single crystal rubrene transistors intentionally fabricated to exhibit an abrupt turn-on. We disentangle the channel properties from the contact resistance by using impedance spectroscopy and show that the current in such devices is governed by a gate bias dependence of the contact resistance. As a result, extracted mobility values from d.c. current–voltage characterization are overestimated by one order of magnitude or more.