Pentacene organic transistors and ring oscillators on glass and on flexible polymeric substrates

Abstract

We have fabricated organic thin film transistors, inverters, and ring oscillators on glass and on flexible polyethylene naphthalate, using the small-molecule hydrocarbon pentacene as the semiconductor and solution-processed polyvinylphenol as the gate dielectric. Depending on the choice of substrate, the transistors have a carrier mobility between 0.3 and $\text{0.7\hspace{0.17em}}{\mathrm{cm}}^2/\mathrm{V s},$ an on/off current ratio between ${10}^5$ and ${10}^6,$ and a subthreshold swing between 0.9 and 1.6 V/decade. To account for the positive switch-on voltage of the transistors, circuits were designed to operate with integrated level shifting. Depending on the type of substrate, ring oscillators have a signal propagation delay as low as 15 μs per stage.