Self-Assembled Au/P3HT, High-k Bilayer Dielectric-Based Solution Processed Low Voltage OTFT for Multiparametric Ammonia Sensor at Room Temperature

Abstract

A self-assembled, fully solution-processed, bilayer (TiO2/HfO2) dielectric-based thin film transistor (TFT) has been fabricated and explored for highly sensitive ammonia gas at room temperature (RT—25 °C). The bilayer dielectric film has been grown over a heavily boron-doped silicon substrate (p++ Si), and the thickness of each layer has been optimized by spin coating rotation speed and spin time to find a high-quality gate oxide. The obtained dielectric has a high areal capacitance of 0.926 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{F}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> /cm2, low rms roughness of 0.914 nm, and low leakage current density of ~1 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{A}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> /cm2, high dielectric constant of ~42, which are much more favorable for the high-performance organic TFT (OTFT). The incorporation of the TiO2 layer in between the p++ Si and HfO2 layer enhances the areal capacitance and minimizes the rms roughness (TiO2 minimizes the no. of interface trap states at the dielectric/semiconductor interface) of the bilayer dielectric film, thereby improving the charge transfer mechanism. The developed high- <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${k}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> bilayer solution-processed dielectric layer has been utilized to develop a low voltage operated (−1.5 V) OTFT for ammonia (NH3) gas at RT. The fabricated OTFT device utilized the solution-processed floating film transfer method (FTM) to grow the Au(gold) doped P3HT film as a sensing/organic semiconductor channel (OSC) layer. The Au/P3HT sensing layer shows a quick response/recovery time (5/17 s), with a high sensing response of 55% (5 ppm) toward the NH3 analyte. The study aims to find a low-voltage, solution-processed, cost-efficient OTFT device for a high-performance gas sensor at RT.