Influence of mechanical strain on the electrical properties of flexible organic thin-film transistors

In this study, we systematically investigated the bending effect on the electrical properties of flexible organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) fabricated on stainless steel substrates. We found that the compressive strain resulted in an increased mobility, while the tensile strain degraded the electrical performance. We further used a transfer line method to extract the channel and parasitic resistances under either compressive or tensile strain. The results indicated that the parasitic resistance increased apparently under the tensile bending condition, which probably could be attributed to the damage of the source/drain contacts. Additionally, we deduced that mechanical strains influence the energy barrier height between the grains of pentacene thin films, thereby resulting in the variation of channel resistances. Overall, the flexible OTFTs fabricated on the metal foils exhibited high mechanical flexibility and stability.