Solution-Processed Bootstrapped Organic Inverters Based on P3HT With a High- $k$ Gate Dielectric Material

Abstract

In this letter, the integration of a high-k gate dielectric has been demonstrated for achieving low-operating-voltage organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and circuits based on solution-processed poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). We have successfully demonstrated all-p-type organic circuits based on P3HT operating at below 4 V supply voltage. The switching behavior is improved by using the bootstrapping technique, with the bootstrapped inverter showing good results with a dc gain ( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">A</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">v</sub> ) of - 1.7 and <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">V</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">OH</sub> and <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">V</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">OL</sub> values of 3.3 and 0.35 V, respectively. The output swing of the bootstrapped inverter is improved by about 40% when compared to that of simple all-p-type inverters, as demonstrated by using experimental characterizations.