320-nm Flexible Solution-Processed 2,7-dioctyl[1] benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene Transistors

Hang Ren; Qingxin Tang; Yanhong Tong; Yichun Liu

doi:10.3390/ma10080918

320-nm Flexible Solution-Processed 2,7-dioctyl[1] benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene Transistors

Materials (Basel). 2017 Aug 9;10(8):918. doi: 10.3390/ma10080918.

Authors

Hang Ren¹, Qingxin Tang², Yanhong Tong³, Yichun Liu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Advanced Optoelectronic Functional Materials Research and Key Laboratory of UV-Emitting Materials and Technology, Northeast Normal University, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, China. renh221@nenu.edu.cn.
² Centre for Advanced Optoelectronic Functional Materials Research and Key Laboratory of UV-Emitting Materials and Technology, Northeast Normal University, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, China. tangqx@nenu.edu.cn.
³ Centre for Advanced Optoelectronic Functional Materials Research and Key Laboratory of UV-Emitting Materials and Technology, Northeast Normal University, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, China. tongyh@nenu.edu.cn.
⁴ Centre for Advanced Optoelectronic Functional Materials Research and Key Laboratory of UV-Emitting Materials and Technology, Northeast Normal University, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, China. ycliu@nenu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Flexible organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) have received extensive attention due to their outstanding advantages such as light weight, low cost, flexibility, large-area fabrication, and compatibility with solution-processed techniques. However, compared with a rigid substrate, it still remains a challenge to obtain good device performance by directly depositing solution-processed organic semiconductors onto an ultrathin plastic substrate. In this work, ultrathin flexible OTFTs are successfully fabricated based on spin-coated 2,7-dioctyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene (C8-BTBT) films. The resulting device thickness is only ~320 nm, so the device has the ability to adhere well to a three-dimension curved surface. The ultrathin C8-BTBT OTFTs exhibit a mobility as high as 4.36 cm² V^-1 s^-1 and an on/off current ratio of over 10⁶. These results indicate the substantial promise of our ultrathin flexible C8-BTBT OTFTs for next-generation flexible and conformal electronic devices.

Keywords: 2,7-dioctyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene (C8-BTBT); conformal; flexible; organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs); solution-processed; ultrathin.