Valerie Jeanne Kuck

Silsesquioxane Resins as High‐Performance Solution Processible Dielectric Materials for Organic Transistor Applications

Silsesquioxane polymers have been successfully used as the dielectric layer in organic field-effect transistors (FETs) deposited on robust, plastic substrates. Performance comparable to that found with silicon substrates having SiO2 as the active dielectric layer was observed with six p- and n- channel organic semiconductors. These organopolysiloxane materials can be deposited using conventional liquid coating technologies and are compatible with non-photolithographic microcontact printing. Their low curing temperature permits the use of a variety of low-cost plastic materials as substrates in FET devices. These findings have facilitated the realization of low-cost, large area plastic electronics.

Novel organic and polymeric semiconductors for plastic electronics

Recent research on organic and polymeric semiconductors is directed towards highly ordered molecular structures in solid states. Through molecular design and engineering, it has been shown possible to control the molecular orientation and processing conditions of these materials as well as fine tuning their energy levels and color emissions. Thin film field-effect transistors (FETs) have been used as testing structures for evaluating the semiconducting properties of new organic semiconducting materials. Performance similar to amorphous-Si can now be realized with some organic materials. Large-scale integration of organic transistors has been demonstrated. In addition, several low cost novel non-lithographic patterning methods have been developed, which resulted in the first flexible electronic paper. The field-effect transistor device structure can also be utilized as a means to induce a great amount of charge carriers in organic thin films through the gate field. Using this type of structure, superconductivity was observed in a highly ordered conjugated regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene).