Nanoscale flexible organic thin-film transistors

Abstract

Direct-write electron-beam lithography has been used to fabricate low-voltage p-channel and n-channel organic thin-film transistors with channel lengths as small as 200 nm and gate-to-contact overlaps as small as 100 nm on glass and on flexible transparent polymeric substrates. The p-channel transistors have on/off current ratios as large as 4 × 10 9 and subthreshold swings as small as 70 mV/decade, and the n-channel transistors have on/off ratios up to 10 8 and subthreshold swings as low as 80 mV/decade. These are the largest on/off current ratios reported to date for nanoscale organic transistors. Inverters based on two p-channel transistors with a channel length of 200 nm and gate-to-contact overlaps of 100 nm display characteristic switching-delay time constants between 80 and 40 ns at supply voltages between 1 and 2 V, corresponding to a supply voltage–normalized frequency of about 6 MHz/V. This is the highest voltage-normalized dynamic performance reported to date for organic transistors fabricated by maskless lithography.