The Research Of Flexible Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFET)

The field-effect transistor (field-effect transistor, FET) is the most widely used components inthe electric products as well as the core foundation of modern integrated circuits. With theamazingly fast development of integrated circuits in the fields of high performance computation,consumer electronics, and communications, the field-effect transistor not only serves as thecornerstone of the modern information technology, but also plays the key role of overall control inthis very field. The production and application of these devices are of great significance, and theyare characterized by the low noise, good stability, and easy miniaturization.Thanks to its prominent advantages, the organic field-effect transistor (organic field-effecttransistor, OFET) has become the focus of attention of many researchers and accordingly is beingwidely studied. Due to its abundance in nature, low cost, compatibility with flexible substrate, andcapacity of being processed at low temperatures, it suitable for a large scale production. Also, itsfilm-forming process is simple, and it is easy to quickly obtain low-cost thin-film on a large scaleby spin coating and dip coating technology. It can be used for all-organic active displays, flat paneldisplays, liquid crystal displays (LCD), organic light-emitting displays, smart cards, smart labels,inventory tags, large-scale and ultra large scale integrated circuits, memory components, large areasensor arrays, organic laser complementary logic circuits and superconducting materialpreparation.It is high time to have a combination of the organic field-effect transistor with flexiblesubstrates thanks to its various advantages and wide applications. Compared with traditional rigidfield-effect transistors, the flexible organic field-effect transistor enjoys the advantages of beingfoldable, light weight and low cost, and therefore it promises to have broad application prospectsin flexible displays, flexible sensors and flexible integrated circuits, and it is presently drawingclose attention from the academic and industrial circles, making it a hotspot of current research.After recent years of development, the performance of the flexible OFET has experiencedsignificant improvement, and certain parts of the device performance have come to equal or exceedthat of amorphous silicon. For all the fore-mentioned strengths, there still exist many problems, forinstance, the flexible substrate can easily be bent, making it easy to damage the devices or exert anegative impact on the performance of the devices, and the flexible substrate is sensitive to theoperating conditions, worse still, it tends to be instable in the long-term operation. Hence,low-temperature solution preparation technology compatible with flexible substrates remains to be developed.Taken that the flexible OFETs has great potential for the development of a wide range ofapplications, my paper is intended to focus on its current development and problems. Firstly,experiments and research are to be conducted on the poly (methyl methacrylate)(PMMA)-basedflexible OFETs, and meanwhile, tests will be carried out on its electrical properties and mechanicalbending performance; Subsequently, the effects of the insulating layer on the performance of thedevices of the flexible OFETs is to be explored, and a mixed insulating material, which helpsimprove the performance developed. Finally, tests on mechanical bending will also be conducted,taking the flexible device with the best performance as samples. And, at the same time, asystematic and comprehensive study will be done concerning the effects of the number of bending,the radius bending, and the means of bending on the performance of the flexible OFETs.