Formation of PVP- Based Organic Insulating Layers and Fabrication of OTFTs

Abstract

The formation and processing of organic insulators on the device performance have been studied in the fabrication of organic thin film transistors (OTFTs). The series of polyvinyls, poly-4-vinyl phenol(PVP) and polyvinyltoluene (PVT), were used as solutes and propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate(PGMEA) as a solvent in the formation of organic insulators. The cross-linking of organic insulators was also attempted by adding the thermosetting material, poly (melamine-co-formaldehyde) as a hardener in the compound. The electrical characteristics measured in the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structures showed that insulating properties of PVP layers were generally superior to those of PVT layers. Among the layers of PVP series: PVP(10 wt%) copolymer, 5 wt% cross-linked PVP(10 wt%), PVP(20 wt%) copolymer, 5 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%) and 10 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%), the 10 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%) layer showed the lowest leakage current characteristics. Finally, inverted staggered OTFTs using the PVP(20 wt%) copolymer, 5 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%) and 10 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%) as gate insulators were fabricated on the polyether sulphone (PES) substrates. In our experiments, we could obtain the maximum field effect mobility of 0.31 <TEX>$cm^2/Vs$</TEX> in the device from 5 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%) and the highest on/off current ratio of <TEX>$1.92{\times}10^5$</TEX> in the device from 10 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%).