Abstract
The development of novel dielectric materials with reliable dielectric properties and low-temperature processibility is crucial to manufacturing flexible and high-performance organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) for next-generation roll-to-roll organic electronics. Here, we investigate the solution-based fabrication of high-k aluminum oxide (Al2O3) thin films for high-performance OTFTs. Nanocluster-based Al2O3 films fabricated by highly energetic photochemical activation, which allows low-temperature processing, are compared to the conventional nitrate-based Al2O3 films. A wide array of spectroscopic and surface analyses show that ultralow-temperature photochemical activation (<60 °C) induces the decomposition of chemical impurities and causes the densification of the metal-oxide film, resulting in a highly dense high-k Al2O3 dielectric layer from Al-13 nanocluster-based solutions. The fabricated nanocluster-based Al2O3 films exhibit a low leakage current density (<10–7 A/cm2) at 2 MV/cm and high dielectric breakdown strength (>6 MV/cm). Using this dielectric layer, precisely aligned microrod-shaped 2,7-dioctyl[1]benzothieno [3,2-b][1] benzothiophene (C8-BTBT) single-crystal OTFTs were fabricated via solvent vapor annealing and photochemical patterning of the sacrificial layer.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 5571 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-10 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Materials |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 23 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2020 |
Keywords
- Deep ultraviolet (DUV) photochemical activation
- Low-temperature process
- Organic thin-film transistor
- Single-crystal organic semiconductor
- Solution-processed metal-oxide gate dielectrics