Performance of organic field effect transistors with high-k gate oxide after application of consecutive bias stress

We report the effect of consecutive electrical stress on the performance of organic field effect transistors (OFETs). Sputtered aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and hafnium oxide (HfO2) were used as gate oxide layers. After the electrical stress, the threshold voltage, which strongly depends on bulk defects, was remarkably shifted to the negative direction, while the other performance characteristics of OFETs such as on-current, transconductance and mobility, which are sensitive to interface defects, were slightly decreased. This result implies that the defects in the bulk layer are significantly affected compared to the defects in the interface layer. Thus, it is important to control the defects in the pentacene bulk layer in order to maintain the good reliabilities of pentacene devices. Those defects in HfO2 gate oxide devices were larger compared to those in Al2O3 gate oxide devices.