Low-voltage, high speed inkjet-printed flexible complementary polymer electronic circuits

We report the development of high-performance inkjet-printed organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and complementary circuits using high-k polymer dielectric blends comprising poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) for high-speed and low-voltage operation. Inkjet-printed p-type polymer semiconductor scontaining alkyl-substituted thienylenevinylene (TV) and dode-cylthiophene (PC12TV12T) and n-type P(NDI2OD-T2) OFETs showed high field-effect mobilities of 0.1-0.4 cm(2)V(-1)s(-1) and low threshold voltages down to 5V. These OFET properties were modified by changing the blend ratio of P(VDF-TrFE) and PMMA. The optimum blend - a 7:3 wt% mixture of P(VDF-TrFE) and PMMA - was successfully used to realize high-performance complementary inverters and ring oscillators (ROs). The complementary ROs operated at asupplied bias (V-DD) of 5 V and showed an oscillation frequency (f(osc)) as high as similar to 80 kHz at V-DD = 30 V. Furthermore, the f(osc) of the complementary ROs was significantly affected by a variety of fundamental parameters such as the electron and hole mobilities, channel width and length, capacitance of the gate dielectrics, VDD, and the overlap capacitance in the circuit configuration. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.