A Low-Voltage Operated Organic TFT-Based Inverter With Solution-Processed LiZnOx Dielectric

Abstract

In this work, a self-assembled, low-voltage organic thin-film transistor (TFT) has been fabricated and utilized for inverter application. The device fabrication follows the deposition of a uniform organic polymer film using the floating film transfer (FTM) method over spin-coated LiZnOx dielectric film. The developed LiZnOx dielectric film offers a high capacitance per unit area of 318 nF/cm2, low rms surface roughness of 1.2 nm, and band gap of 3.72 eV, with a minimal leakage current density of 10 nA/cm2 at 2 V. In the present work, the detailed fabrication steps of the device have been explored to fabricate low-voltage, cost-effective solution processed organic TFT for a low-voltage inverter with an external resistive load. The inverting characteristics of the fabricated inverter with an external load resistance have been investigated over the range of dc to 1 kHz frequency span showing a good rise/fall time of 6.67/4 ms and a high logic swing of 1.71 V at 10 Hz frequency. The fabricated low-voltage inverter offers a high gain of 12 and a noise margin of 1.7 V operated at a 2 V voltage supply. The low-voltage-based inverter can be further utilized by low-power operating devices and other electronic circuitry (logic gates, memories, etc.). © 1963-2012 IEEE.