Emerging Materials and Nanotechnology

In recent years, significant advances have been made in organic semiconductor materials and process development for printed electronics. The field-effect mobility of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) has progressed from gross performance deficiency over a decade ago to meeting electronic application requirements today. This quantum leap in OTFT performance has been propelled by both creative semiconductor design and process innovation. Notwithstanding these achievements, there remain significant technical challenges for transitioning printed transistors from laboratory to marketplace.

 

This presentation discusses the issues and challenges of printed transistors and potential approaches to circumventing these technical difficulties.  Particular emphasis will focus on materials design and process strategies directed to promoting ad facilitating molecular self-assembly of polymer semiconductors to enhance charge carrier transport efficacy. Through simple solution processes under appropriate conditions, we have been able to drive molecular self-assembly of polymer semiconductors to significantly higher molecular orders, leading to greatly enhanced field-effect mobility and current modulation.