Photo-patternable high-k ZrOx dielectrics prepared using zirconium acrylate for low-voltage-operating organic complementary inverters

• Photo-patterned high-k zirconium oxide thin films were prepared using zirconium acrylate.
• ZrOx exhibited good dielectric properties including high capacitances and low leakage currents after DUV annealing.
• OFETs and complementary inverters prepared with ZrOx dielectrics exhibited high performance at low voltages of ≤3 V.

Solution-processed dielectric materials with a high dielectric constant (k) have attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications in low-voltage-operating organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) for realizing large-area and low-power electronic devices. In terms of device commercialization, the patterning of each film component via a facile route is an important issue. In this study, we introduce a photo-patternable precursor, zirconium acrylate (ZrA), to fabricate photo-patterned high-k zirconium oxide (ZrOx) dielectric layers with UV light. Solution-processed ZrA films were effectively micro-patterned with UV exposure and developing, and transitioned to ZrOx through a sol-gel reaction during deep-UV annealing. The UV-assisted and ∼10 nm-thick ZrOx dielectric films exhibited a high capacitance (917.13 nF/cm2 at 1 KHz) and low leakage current density (10−7 A/cm2 at 1.94 MV/cm). Those films could be utilized as gate dielectric layers of OFETs after surface modification with ultrathin cyclic olefin copolymer layers. Finally, we successfully fabricated organic complementary inverters exhibiting hysteresis-free operation and high voltage gains of over 42 at low voltages of ≤3 V.

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