Electroless‐Plated Gold Contacts for High‐Performance, Low Contact Resistance Organic Thin Film Transistors

Abstract

AbstractDeposition of metallic electrodes on a semiconductor medium is an indispensable factor in governing carrier injection, and a metal/semiconductor contact that can be formed via solution process is highly desired in printed electronics. However, fine‐patterning the solution processes of metallic electrodes without damaging the excellent electronic properties of organic semiconductors (OSCs) is still a challenge. In this work, electroless plating, a metal coating technique that involves auto‐catalytic reaction in an aqueous solution, is used to fabricate top‐contact organic thin‐film transistors (OTFTs). An electroless‐plated gold pattern with a spatial resolution of 10 micrometers is transferred and laminated on a monolayer of OSCs to serve as a hole‐injection electrode. The fabricated OTFTs exhibit reasonably high field‐effect mobility of up to 13 cm2 V−1 s−1 and decent contact resistance as low as 120 Ω · cm, which implies that an ideal metal/semiconductor contact can be realized. This electroless plating technique can provide possibilities for practical mass production of organic integrated circuits because it is in principle cost‐effective, capable of covering large areas, high‐vacuum free, and environmentally friendly.