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  4. Analysis of the Contact Resistance of Organic Thin-Film Transistors
 
doctoral thesis

Analysis of the Contact Resistance of Organic Thin-Film Transistors

Wollandt, Tobias  
2024

Many future technologies involve devices fabricated on mobile, wearable, and bio-degradable substrates that are highly flexible, such as plastics or paper. Whenever electronic components are needed for applications in such devices, inorganic semiconductors can typically not be used, since their high processing temperature is incompatible with mechanically flexible substrates. Organic semiconductors, however, are compatible with these substrates and can be used to fabricate organic thin-film transistors (TFTs). The performance of organic TFTs is limited mainly by their contact resistance, which should be minimized in order to improve their performance. In this thesis, the contact resistance is investigated for organic p-channel TFTs based on the organic semiconductor DNTT and its derivative DPh-DNTT. The TFTs with channel lengths as short as 0.9 µm are fabricated in the bottom-gate, bottom-contact architecture and feature a thin hybrid gate dielectric that allows for operation at voltages below 3 V. The contact resistance of the organic TFTs is determined by the transmission line method (TLM). It allows for the comparison of the effectiveness of multiple approaches to modify the charge-injection behavior from the metal source and drain contacts into the organic semiconductor. The impact of several environmental parameters during the fabrication of otherwise identical organic TFTs on the contact resistance was examined. Statistical analysis showed that none of the environmental parameters had a strong correlation, and the observed variability of the contact resistance is mostly stochastic. Functionalizing the gold contacts with thiol molecules changes the work function of the contact, and therefore the energy-level alignment at the metal-semiconductor interface. Pentafluorobenzenethiol (PFBT) resulted in the most reproducible low contact resistance for DPh-DNTT TFTs. It is found, however, that the Fermi level of the contacts is pinned to in-gap states in the semiconductor, hindering the reduction of the Schottky barrier. To reduce the electronic interaction and to lift the Fermi-level pinning (FLP), a decoupling interlayer has been introduced between the metal and the semiconductor. Out of 11 materials tested as an interlayer, TFTs with a tetratetracontane (C44H90) interlayer have shown the greatest reduction in contact resistance compared to TFTs without an interlayer - suggesting that the FLP is at least partially lifted. Furthermore, geometric factors impacting the contact resistance and its extraction have been investigated, especially the effect that fringe currents have on the determination of the contact resistance. Employing contacts with a triangular layout - instead of a rectangular one - enhances the electric field at the apex of the contact, which is found to reduce the contact resistance. The DPh-DNTT TFTs that use PFBT-treated gold contacts showed contact resistances as low as 30 Ohm-cm and intrinsic channel mobilities as high as 9.2 cm²/Vs. The expected values for TFTs on more than 100 substrates over the course of three years were 110 Ohm-cm and 6.7 cm²/Vs, respectively. Incorporating a tetratetracontane interlayer between the contacts and DPh-DNTT yielded TFTs with about 10% reduced contact resistances, as low as 11 ± 5 Ohm-cm. This value is on par the smallest contact resistance of 12 Ohm-cm reported to date for organic TFTs.

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Type
doctoral thesis
DOI
10.5075/epfl-thesis-10751
Author(s)
Wollandt, Tobias  

EPFL

Advisors
Klauk, Hagen  
•
Kern, Klaus  
Jury

Prof. Christian Gabriel Theiler (président) ; Dr Hagen Klauk, Prof. Klaus Kern (directeurs) ; Prof. Holger Frauenrath, Prof. Niko Münzenrieder, Prof. Jens Pflaum (rapporteurs)

Date Issued

2024

Publisher

EPFL

Publisher place

Lausanne

Public defense year

2024-08-30

Thesis number

10751

Total of pages

162

Subjects

organic TFT

•

contact resistance

•

TLM

•

Fermi-level pinning

•

DNTT

EPFL units
LSEN  
Faculty
SB  
School
IPHYS  
Doctoral School
EDPY  
Available on Infoscience
August 13, 2024
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/240716
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