Highly stable flexible printed organic thin-film transistor devices under high strain conditions using semiconducting polymers

Abstract

We report on the high mechanical stability of flexible printed organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) devices under high bending stress conditions. The mechanical stability of organic TFT devices using a semiconducting polymer, PBTTT-C16, was comparable to that of OTFT devices using a typical small-molecule semiconductor, pentacene. The drain current of small-molecule OTFT devices decreased by nearly 60% at a 1.5% tensile strain in a direction parallel to the transistor channel, whereas that of polymer-based OTFT devices decreased by only 10% at the same tensile strain. Furthermore, polymer-based OTFT devices exhibited no significant changes in their electrical characteristics after 1000 bending cycles. This stability could be attributed to the high density and good uniformity of the semiconducting polymer layer. Our results indicate that the OTFT devices with polymer-based semiconducting materials have excellent operational stability and reliability under severe bending stress conditions.