Integrated circuits based on conjugated polymer monolayer

Mengmeng Li,Joshua H Carpenter,Harald Ade,Dago M De Leeuw,He Yan,Deepthi Kamath Mangalore,Hongping Yan,Klaus Müllen,Jingbo Zhao,Wojciech Pisula,Paul W M Blom,Kamal Asadi

doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02805-5

Abstract

It is still a great challenge to fabricate conjugated polymer monolayer field-effect transistors (PoM-FETs) due to intricate crystallization and film formation of conjugated polymers. Here we demonstrate PoM-FETs based on a single monolayer of a conjugated polymer. The resulting PoM-FETs are highly reproducible and exhibit charge carrier mobilities reaching 3 cm2 V−1 s−1. The high performance is attributed to the strong interactions of the polymer chains present already in solution leading to pronounced edge-on packing and well-defined microstructure in the monolayer. The high reproducibility enables the integration of discrete unipolar PoM-FETs into inverters and ring oscillators. Real logic functionality has been demonstrated by constructing a 15-bit code generator in which hundreds of self-assembled PoM-FETs are addressed simultaneously. Our results provide the state-of-the-art example of integrated circuits based on a conjugated polymer monolayer, opening prospective pathways for bottom-up organic electronics.

Highlights

It is still a great challenge to fabricate conjugated polymer monolayer field-effect transistors (PoM-FETs) due to intricate crystallization and film formation of conjugated polymers
The performance was further improved on the basis of poly[[2,5-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-2,3,5,6tetrahydro-3,6-dioxopyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-diyl]-alt-[[2,2′(2,5-thiophene)bis-thieno(3,2-b)thiophene]-5,5′-diyl]] (DPPTTT) using the same deposition technique leading to a field-effect mobility of around 1.1 cm[2] V−1 s−133
We further demonstrate the state-of-the-art example of an integrated circuit, IC, based on a conjugated polymer monolayer by constructing a 15-bit code generator, suggesting the great potential for bottom-up organic electronics

Summary

Introduction

It is still a great challenge to fabricate conjugated polymer monolayer field-effect transistors (PoM-FETs) due to intricate crystallization and film formation of conjugated polymers. Solution processing by drop-casting was capable of depositing the monolayer-thick ultrathin films or even single crystals, and the reported mobility ranged from 10−2 to 1 cm[2] V−1 s−15,12–14 Is another efficient bottom-up route to downscale the semiconductor layer into a monolayer[15,16,17,18,19]. It is still a great challenge to obtain high charge carrier mobility in a conjugated polymer monolayer field-effect transistor (PoM-FET). We further demonstrate the state-of-the-art example of an integrated circuit, IC, based on a conjugated polymer monolayer by constructing a 15-bit code generator, suggesting the great potential for bottom-up organic electronics

Methods

Results

Conclusion