A sub-150-nanometre-thick and ultraconformable solution-processed all-organic transistor

Abstract

Recent advancements in the field of electronics have paved the way to the development of new applications, such as tattoo electronics, where the employment of ultraconformable devices is required, typically achievable with a significant reduction in their total thickness. Organic materials can be considered enablers, owing to the possibility of depositing films with thicknesses at the nanometric scale, even from solution. However, available processes do not allow obtaining devices with thicknesses below hundreds of nanometres, thus setting a limit. Here, we show an all-organic field effect transistor that is less than 150 nm thick and that is fabricated through a fully solution-based approach. Such unprecedented thickness permits the device to conformally adhere onto nonplanar surfaces, such as human skin, and to be bent to a radius lower than 1 μm, thereby overcoming another limitation for field-effect transistors and representing a fundamental advancement in the field of ultrathin and tattoo electronics.

Mechanical Fatigue Resistance of Polydiketopyrrolo‐Pyrrole‐Dithienylthieno[3,2‐b]thiophene‐Based Flexible Field‐Effect Transistors

“…For this reason, a flexible substrate and dielectric layer are typically kept relatively thin to lower stresses at small bending radii of the transistor. [4,31,32] In order to evaluate electrical performance of flexible transistors in a controlled manner, multiple bending cycles on small radii are required to imitate realistic conditions during application. These studies are challenging due to handling thin devices, accurate deformation of the channel area at small radii and monitoring transistor response during bending.…”

“…Most publications report device bending on a relatively large radius by simply wrapping the transistor around cylindrical or spherical objects. [33][34][35] Bending at smaller radii was performed by folding, [9] wrinkling on prestretched elastomer [12,32,36] or placing the sample on a razor blade. [37] However, all these methods did not allow for a precise control of the deformation area and most of them were executed as a single bend of the device, thus not fully representing practical applications.…”

Nanofloating gate modulated synaptic organic light-emitting transistors for reconfigurable displays

“…On the other hand, materials and processing optimization in organic optoelectronics enabled the controlled manufacturing of homogeneous large-area thin films deposited with cost-efficient and scalable liquidbased processing technologies such as spray and blade coating as well as ink jet and three-dimensional printing (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). Nevertheless, the stepwise assembly of superimposed multiple layers by mastering solution processing protocols requires the use of orthogonal solvents for the deposition of successive layers (31,32).…”

A n‐type, Stable Electrolyte Gated Organic Transistor Based on a Printed Polymer

“…[29] Within such framework, a current challenge is therefore the fabrication of stable n-type EGOTs through large-area, scalable, and additive printing techniques for the deposition of the organic semiconductor, facilitating future scaleup and cost-effective process flows. Indeed, through printing techniques such as inkjet, the materials can be deposited in a controllable way over both rigid or flexible substrates, [45][46][47][48][49] without a physical mask or master (the spatial resolution depends on the specific technology employed) and with a small production of waste. [50] Moreover, enabling reliable printed n-type EGOT could pave the way for the development of robust complementary electrolyte-gated electronic circuits, where a selective and precise patterning of the active materials and the devices stable operation in an aqueous medium are needed.…”