Highly stable printed polymer field-effect transistors and inverters via polyselenophene conjugated polymers

Abstract

We report the use of two polyselenophene-based conjugated polymers, poly(3,3 ''-didodecyl-2,2':5,2 ''-terselenophene) (P3Se) and poly(3,3 '',3''',3''''-tetradodecyl-2,5':2',2 '':5 '',2'''-pentaselenophene) (P5Se), as an active layer of printed p-channel organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Top-gate/bottom-contact (TG/BC) P5Se OFETs showed a high-saturation hole mobility of up to similar to 0.1 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) and a high on/off ratio of similar to 10(5) with no hysteresis. In addition, polyselenophene-based OFETs exhibited a much better bias and ambient stability when compared with poly(3-hexylthiophene)-based OFETs. The excellent air stability of those polyselenophenes enables the realization of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverters via extended periods of ink-jetting under ambient conditions. CMOS inverters were demonstrated using p-[P5Se] and n-channel [poly{[N,N'-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-naphthalene-1,4,5,8-bis(dicarboximide)-s,6-diyl]-alt-5,5'-(2,2'-dithiophene)}] ([P(NDI2OD-T2)], Polyera ActivInk N2200/OFETs) by inkjet printing of conjugated polymers. Printed CMOS inverters exhibited a stable voltage transfer characteristic with negligible hysteresis, a DC voltage gain of similar to 10, and a power consumption of similar to 0.025 mW at V-DD = -60 V.