Self-Aligned Organic Metal–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

Abstract

We propose the design and fabrication of a coplanar electrode structure for an organic metal–semiconductor field-effect transistor (OMESFET), with the gate electrode self-aligned between the source and drain electrodes. We first used nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to define a channel area of the device on a patterned metal, and then used chemical wet etching to create the source and drain electrodes by removing the metal in the channel area. After the wet etching, the gate electrode was deposited in the channel area. The organic semiconductor was then deposited to cover the patterned electrodes. The rectifying response and the device characteristics prove that the self-aligned device is a functional OMESFET. In this experiment, we also demonstrated that the self-aligned OMESFET has lower driving voltages and smaller subthreshold swing (SS) than that of a conventional organic metal–insulator–semiconductor field-effect transistor (OMISFET). Compared with the most common OMESFET structure, this self-aligned coplanar structure effectively eliminates the overlapping area between the gate and source/drain electrodes commonly seen in currently reported OMESFETs, which means that this self-aligned device structure reduces the parasitic capacitance, theoretically allowing the transistor to have a higher cutoff frequency. These features render our proposed OMESFET devices more favorable for low-power and high-frequency organic circuit applications.