Organic and printed process design kits: review, analysis and comparison

Organic and printed electronics (OE) is a promising technology for reducing the waste and the price of electronic systems for new devices. OE offers technological advantages not available in conventional silicon processes such as physical flexibility, large area fabrication, mask-less deposition, low process temperatures and fully additive manufacturing-processes that all enable low-cost and low-waste fabrication techniques. Despite these advantages, important difficulties remain for developing compact models for transistors due to intrinsic variability in the manufacturing process and the behaviour of organic materials, which make it difficult to match the model and the experimental data. Due to disparity in the fabrication methodologies and the different topologies of transistors used, the diversity in compact models is noticeable. These different models provide specific solutions for particular devices and require various process design kits (PDKs) for each manufacturing process. This review covers the different PDKs developed in the OE field and compares them with the electric models used for simulation purposes. Both simulated and fabricated systems are included with the aim of providing the reader with a clear state-of-the-art of the OE situation.