Organic thin film transistors on flexible polyimide substrates fabricated by full-wafer stencil lithography

This paper presents new results on miniaturized pentacene thin film transistors (TFTs) fabricated on a spin coated polyimide (PI) film. Patterning steps, which are vital for the integrity and electrical performance of organic TFTs, were done using resistless shadow-mask lithography with two high precision MEMS fabricated stencils, thus avoiding solvents and high temperature processes. Both pentacene and source–drain (S/D) electrodes were directly patterned through stencils with high accuracy on wafer scale. The TFTs have been characterized before and after peeling the flexible PI film off the rigid surface, showing full transistor functionality in both cases.