Plastic Microelectronics with Organic and Polymeric Thin Film Transistors

In this paper, some important experimental results in organic and polymeric thin film transistors (TFTs) for plastic microelectronics are reviewed. Special emphasis is given to the charge transport properties of the transistors and the difficulties in interpreting the range of experimental results using standard inorganic silicon MOSFET theory and modifications of it. Further, difficulties associated with instability, reliability and variation of device parameters in both polymeric and organic TFTs will be highlighted. A new model – the injection-drift-limited model (IDLM) that can explain many of the experimental characteristics of the TFTs will be reviewed. Finally, recent experimental results on the optical characteristics of TFTs will be discussed.