Laser-induced forward transfer of polythiophene-based derivatives for fully polymeric thin film transistors

• We studied the laser-induced forward transfer of thin layers of semiconducting PQT-12.
• PEDOT:PSS was laser-printed to act as conductor in the transistor configuration.
• Optimization by reducing the background pressure and increasing the films thickness.
• We fabricated polymeric thin-film transistors devices using the LIFT technique.
• Transistor performances with mobilities up to 0.02 cm2 V−1 s−1 were obtained.

Polymeric thin-film transistors (pTFTs) have been fabricated by pulsed-laser printing of semiconductor and conductor polythiophene-based derivatives. Thin solid layers of semiconducting poly(3,3′″ didodecylquaterthiophene) (PQT-12) have been transferred by a laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) technique on Si/SiO2 receiver substrates. Optimization of the transfer conditions and of the pixels morphologies has been realized. A marked improvement in the quality of the pixels has been observed, in terms of morphology and structure, by reducing the environmental pressure to 90 mbar during LIFT. Subsequently, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) has also been laser-printed and used as source/drain electrodes in the transistor configuration. Functional polymeric transistors have been obtained with high field-effect mobility up to 2 × 10−2 cm2 V−1 s−1 together with current modulation of 104.

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