AbstractsFor the feasibility of material-device-circuit co-design for polymer thin-film transistors, we established the density-of-states-based analytical model and the modelincorporated circuit simulator and performed the design of inkjet-printed polymer SRAM-cell for flexible FPGA. The sampling speed of 12~34 ms and the hold time of longer than 1 s were demonstrated. The model was verified by the low error (within 3%).1. Introduction Solution-processable polymer-based thin-film transistors (PTFTs) are suitable for flexible large-area electronics and have great potential as supplements to solid and expensive counterpart devices. For this reason, PTFTs have been applied to various applications such as displays, RFIDs, sensors, and actuators [1]. Furthermore, the 8-bit organic microprocessor has been demonstrated on plastic foil with emphasis on a low power consumption, which has opened the way to integrating small plastic circuits into everyday objects [2]. On the other hand, the PTFT-based user customizable logic paper has been adopted for the architecture of transmission-gates and ink-jet printed interconnects [3]. As the possibility of implementing innovative circuits with a reliable and PTFT technology increases, a systematic approach for material-device-circuit co-design becomes indispensable to the design methodology of PTFT-based circuits and systems in order to project and assess the promise of available applications and their performance, even in the early stage of developing this promising PTFT technology.In this work, we demonstrated a simple example of the material-device-circuit co-design, which was performed based on the extraction of the sub-bandgap density-of-states (DOS). We established DOS-based analytical I-V and C-V models, incorporating the model into a SPICE-based circuit simulator, finally, into the design of the PTFT-based SRAM-cell. The model-incorporated circuit simulator was verified by comparing the measured PTFT-based inverter characteristics with simulated results. In addition, it was found that our SRAM-cells which were optimized in perspective of the static noise margin (SNM) and the size of transistors showed the "write" speed of 12~34 ms and a "hold" time of longer than 1 sec. Notably, our approach is the first step for the material-device-circuit co-design of PTFT-based electronics because the SRAM-based "sample and hold" operation is either a critical function or a fundamental building block in the implemention of a basic logic circuit and/or flexible field-programmable gate array (FPGA).
ExperimentalA polymer semiconductor (Poly (tetryldodecyloctathiophene-alt-didodecylbithiazole-co-tetryldodecylhexathiophene-alt -didodecylbithiazole); P(8T2Z-co-6T2Z)-12) [4] was dissolved in tetrahydronaphthalene (THN) at a concentration of 0.2 wt%, and then inkjet-printed via Dimatix printer. The solution-processed PTFT with a bottom-gate and bottom-source/drain (S/D) structure and its fabrication process were schematically illustrated in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 shows an optical image of the inkjet-p...