title: A high-mobility electron-transporting polymer for printed transistors.
abstract: Printed electronics is a revolutionary technology aimed at unconventional electronic device manufacture on plastic foils, and will probably rely on polymeric semiconductors for organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) fabrication. In addition to having excellent charge-transport characteristics in ambient conditions, such materials must meet other key requirements, such as chemical stability, large solubility in common solvents, and inexpensive solution and/or low-temperature processing. Furthermore, compatibility of both p-channel (hole-transporting) and n-channel (electron-transporting) semiconductors with a single combination of gate dielectric and contact materials is highly desirable to enable powerful complementary circuit technologies, where p- and n-channel OTFTs operate in concert. Polymeric complementary circuits operating in ambient conditions are currently difficult to realize: although excellent p-channel polymers are widely available, the achievement of high-performance n-channel polymers is more challenging. Here we report a highly soluble ( approximately 60 g l(-1)) and printable n-channel polymer exhibiting unprecedented OTFT characteristics (electron mobilities up to approximately 0.45-0.85 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)) under ambient conditions in combination with Au contacts and various polymeric dielectrics. Several top-gate OTFTs on plastic substrates were fabricated with the semiconductor-dielectric layers deposited by spin-coating as well as by gravure, flexographic and inkjet printing, demonstrating great processing versatility. Finally, all-printed polymeric complementary inverters (with gain 25-65) have been demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Polyera Corporation, 8045 Lamon Avenue, Skokie, Illinois 60077, USA.
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Zhihua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.forename: Jordan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dötz
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kastler
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Facchetti