Patterning an Erosion-Free Polymeric Semiconductor Channel for Reliable All-Photolithography Organic Electronics

Renzhong Chen; Yongkun Yan; Xuejun Wang; Cheng Chang; Yan Zhao; Yunqi Liu; Dacheng Wei

doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c01982

Patterning an Erosion-Free Polymeric Semiconductor Channel for Reliable All-Photolithography Organic Electronics

J Phys Chem Lett. 2022 Aug 25;13(33):7673-7680. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c01982. Epub 2022 Aug 12.

Authors

Renzhong Chen^{1

2}, Yongkun Yan², Xuejun Wang^{1

2}, Cheng Chang^{1

2}, Yan Zhao², Yunqi Liu^{2

3}, Dacheng Wei^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
² Institute of Molecular Materials and Devices, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
³ Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.

PMID: 35960015
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c01982

Abstract

Reliable patterning of organic semiconductors (OSCs) with high uniformity is essential to all-photolithography organic electronics. However, the majority of cross-linked OSCs experience performance fluctuations after photolithography because of the inherent vulnerability of low-ordered regions. Herein, we develop an anti-solution penetration photolithography process to achieve the reliable patterning of the OSC layer for all-photolithography integrated organic electronics. Using a thick and highly cross-linked semiconductor film and a low-solubility developer, an erosion-free semiconductor channel is obtained with a high mobility of up to 1.254 cm² V^-1 s^-1 and a uniform threshold voltage close to zero. Compared with existing all-photolithography organic circuits, the unit logic gate area consumption is lower by 1-3 orders of magnitude at 0.0069 mm², while the transistor density is higher by 1-2 orders of magnitude at 6780 Tr cm^-2. The miniaturized organic inverters maintain uncompromised voltage gains, and the 15-stage organic ring oscillators feature higher oscillation frequencies, making them promising for applications in wide-ranging integrated organic circuits.