Research on organic electronics (or plastic electronics) is driven by
the need to create systems that are lightweight, unbreakable, and
mechanically flexible. With the remarkable improvement in the
performance of organic semiconductor materials during the past few
decades, organic electronics appeal to innovative, practical, and
broad-impact applications requiring large-area coverage, mechanical
flexibility, low-temperature processing, and low cost. Thus, organic
electronics appeal to a broad range of electronic devices and products
including transistors, diodes, sensors, solar cells, lighting, displays,
and electronic identification and tracking devices A number of
commercial opportunities have been identified for organic thin film
transistors (OTFTs), ranging from flexible displays, electronic paper,
radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, smart cards, to low-cost
disposable electronic products, and more are continually being invented
as the technology matures. The potential applications for "plastic
electronics" are huge but several technological hurdles must be
overcome. In many of these applications, transistor serves as a
fundamental building block to implement the necessary electronic
functionality. Hence, research in organic thin film transistors (OTFTs)
or organic field effect transistors (OFETs) is eminently pertinent to
the development and realization of organic electronics. This book
presents a comprehensive investigation of the production and application
of a variety of polymer based transistor devices and circuits. It begins
with a detailed overview of Organic Thin Film Transistors (OTFTs) and
discusses the various possible fabrication methods reported so far. This
is followed by two major sections on the choice, optimization and
implementation of the gate dielectric material to be used. Details of
the effects of processing on the efficiency of the contacts are then
provided. The book concludes with a chapter on the integration of such
devices to produce a variety of OTFT based circuits and systems. The key
objective is to examine strategies to exploit existing materials and
techniques to advance OTFT technology in device performance, device
manufacture, and device integration. Finally, the collective knowledge
from these investigations facilitates the integration of OTFTs into
organic circuits, which is expected to contribute to the development of
new generation of all-organic displays for communication devices and
other pertinent applications. Overall, a major outcome of this work is
that it provides an economical means for organic transistor and circuit
integration, by enabling the use of a well-established PECVD
infrastructure, while not compromising the performance of electronics.
The techniques established here are not limited to use in OTFTs only;
the organic semiconductor and SiNx combination can be used in other
device structures (e.g., sensors, diodes, photovoltaics). Furthermore,
the approach and strategy used for interface optimization can be
extended to the development of other materials systems.