In spite of interesting features as flexibility, organic thin-film transistors have commercially lagged behind due to the low mobilities of organic semiconductors associated with hopping transport. Furthermore, organic transistors usually have much larger channel lengths than their inorganic counterparts since high-resolution structuring is not available in low-cost production schemes. Here, we present an organic permeable-base transistor (OPBT) which, despite extremely simple processing without any high-resolution structuring, achieve a performance beyond what has so far been possible using organic semiconductors. With current densities above 1 kA cm−2 and switching speeds towards 100 MHz, they open the field of organic power electronics. Finding the physical limits and an effective mobility of only 0.06 cm2 V−1 s−1, this OPBT device architecture has much more potential if new materials optimized for its geometry will be developed.
The static and dynamic electrical characteristics of thin-film transistors (TFTs) are often limited by the parasitic contact resistances, especially for TFTs with a small channel length. For the smallest possible contact resistance, the staggered device architecture has a general advantage over the coplanar architecture of a larger injection area. Since the charge transport occurs over an extended area, it is inherently more difficult to develop an accurate analytical device model for staggered TFTs. Most analytical models for staggered TFTs, therefore, assume that the contact resistance is linear, even though this is commonly accepted not to be the case. Here, we introduce a semiphenomenological approach to accurately fit experimental data based on a highly discretized equivalent network circuit explicitly taking into account the inherent nonlinearity of the contact resistance. The model allows us to investigate the influence of nonlinear contact resistances on the static and dynamic performance of staggered TFTs for different contact layouts with a relatively short computation time. The precise extraction of device parameters enables us to calculate the transistor behavior as well as the potential for optimization in real circuits.
An optimized vertical organic permeable-base transistor (OPBT) competing with the best organic field-effect transistors in performance, while employing low-cost fabrication techniques, is presented. The OPBT stands out by its excellent power efficiency at the highest frequencies.
The organic permeable base transistor is a vertical transistor architecture that enables high performance while maintaining a simple low-resolution fabrication. It has been argued that the charge transport through the nano-sized openings of the central base electrode limits the performance. Here, we demonstrate by using 3D drift-diffusion simulations that this is not the case in the relevant operation range. At low current densities, the applied base potential controls the number of charges that can pass through an opening and the opening is the current limiting factor. However, at higher current densities, charges accumulate within the openings and in front of the base insulation, allowing for an efficient lateral transport of charges towards the next opening. The on-state in the current-voltage characteristics reaches the maximum possible current given by space charge limited current transport through the intrinsic semiconductor layers. Thus, even a small effective area of the openings can drive huge current densities, and further device optimization has to focus on reducing the intrinsic layer thickness to a minimum.
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