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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