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Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

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In this work, the potential of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) as gate dielectric has been studied. Thin films of PMMA were prepared by spin coating on glass substrate. The spin process was optimized with respect to the material in use. The maximum process temperature was 160 ( C), which corresponds to the baking of the polymeric gate dielectric. A fabrication process for building up a Metal- Insulator-Metal (MIM) structure was developed. Capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) behaviour of the fabricated glass/silver/ PMMA/silver, glass/Indium Tin Oxide (ITO)/PMMA/silver as well as glass/aluminium/PMMA/aluminium MIM structures were studied. The measurements were carried out at constant frequency of 100 kHz in the voltage range of -10 V to +10 V. Furthermore, the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use was verified. In addition, the field strength ranges at which breakdown occurs were examined. Frequency dependence of the electronic properties was also investigated. The rea
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levon altunyan PMMA - THIN FILMS AS DIELECTRIC LAYER FOR PRINTABLE FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTORS
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Page 1: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

levon altunyan

P M M A - T H I N F I L M S A S D I E L E C T R I C L AY E RF O R P R I N TA B L E F I E L D E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R S

P M M A - T H I N F I L M S A S D I E L E C T R I CL AY E R F O R P R I N TA B L E F I E L D E F F E C T

T R A N S I S T O R S

levon altunyan

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degreeof Bachelor of Science

Institute for Nano Structures and Technology (NST)Faculty of Engineering

University of Duisburg-Essen

January 07 2009 - April 07 2009

Levon Altunyan PMMA - thin films as dielectric layer for printable fieldeffect transistors in partial fulfillment of the requirements for thedegree of Bachelor of Science copy January 07 2009 - April 07 2009

supervisorsProf Dr rer nat Roland SchmechelProf Dr-Ing Einar Kruis

locationcampus Duisburg

time frameJanuary 07 2009 - April 07 2009

A B S T R A C T

In this work the potential of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) asgate dielectric has been studied Thin films of PMMA were preparedby spin coating on glass substrate The spin process was optimizedwith respect to the material in use The maximum process temper-ature was 160 (C) which corresponds to the baking of the poly-meric gate dielectric A fabrication process for building up a Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structure was developed Capacitance-voltage(C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) behaviour of the fabricated glasssil-verPMMAsilver glassIndium Tin Oxide (ITO)PMMAsilver aswell as glassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM structures werestudied The measurements were carried out at constant frequencyof 100 kHz in the voltage range of -10 V to +10 V Furthermore thedielectric constant of the PMMA in use was verified In addition thefield strength ranges at which breakdown occurs were examinedFrequency dependence of the electronic properties was also investi-gated The realization of Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-EffectTransistor (MISFET) glassaluminiumPMMApentacenealuminiumand glassaluminiumPMMAC60aluminium structures as well astheir characteristic curves are presented

Keywords Poly(methyl methacrylate) Polymer gate dielectricOrganic thin film transistor

iv

The smallest act of kindnessis worth more than

the grandest intention

mdash Oscar Wilde

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

I would like to take the opportunity to say THANK YOU to Prof Drrer nat Roland Schmechel and Dr Ing Dibakar Roy Chowdhuryfor their time and guidance during the development of this projectWithout them this bachelor thesis would not have been possibleFurthermore I would like to thank the whole team of the Institute forNano Structures and Technology (NST) for their support concerningmy work in the laboratory Their advices contributed to the pleasantand fruitful experience that I obtained during this time

In addition I would like to thank all those people that motivatedme throughout the years to constantly try to make the best that I amcapable of doingThe words would not fully express my gratitude to my family fortheir continuous support during my bachelor studies NeverthelessI would like to give my special thanks to my parents which haveprovided me with the opportunity to learn and face so many newthings Last but not least I would like to thank one special memberof my family namely my dog - Archi for the inspiration he hasbeen giving me during the times of hopeless laziness independentlyfrom the distance which is dividing us

v

C O N T E N T S

i introduction 1

1 introduction 2

ii technology development 5

2 spin coating process 6

3 metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 17

4 organic field-effect transistor 36

5 conclusion and future work 44

bibliography 46

vi

L I S T O F F I G U R E S

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) 3

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Repre-sentation 7

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type SurfaceProfilometer Ambios Technologies 8

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) 9

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) 10

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA SpinCoated Films [43] 10

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compar-ison 12

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 25(s) 13

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 30(s) 13

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP 14

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed OneSpin Phase 15

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights -Transition Region 16

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System 17

Figure 14 Keithley 2612 18

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents 18

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1 20

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1 23

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2 25

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA HighCurrents 26

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA LowCurrents 26

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View 27

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Studies 28

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model SemiconductorCharacterization System 30

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements 30

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp375(nm) 31

vii

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp475(nm) 32

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp700(nm) 32

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant(ε) 33

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm) 34

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm) 34

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm) 35

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized Field-EffectTransistors (FETs) 36

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials 37

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and CrossSectional View of the MISFET for Different Volt-age Regions 38

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations 39

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures 40

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 1 40

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 2 41

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 1 41

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 2 42

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface 42

L I S T O F TA B L E S

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 3500](rpm) 8

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 7000](rpm) 9

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA) 11

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Ac-celeration Comparison 11

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s)Spin Time Comparison 12

viii

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Tran-sition Region 16

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters 19

Table 8 ITO Material Data 19

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8 21

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18 22

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27 24

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) forSamples 19-24 29

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Con-tacts Geometric Areas and PMMA Thicknesses 33

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA 35

A C R O N Y M S

PMMA Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)

ITO Indium Tin Oxide

MIM Metal-Insulator-Metal

Ag Silver

Al Aluminium

FET Field-Effect Transistor

OTFT Organic Thin-Film Transistor

MIS Metal Insulator Semiconductor

MISFET Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

OFET Organic Field-Effect Transistor

MPS Metal Polymer Semiconductor

SSE Sum of Squared Error

RMSE Root Mean Squared Error

ix

Part I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 2: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

P M M A - T H I N F I L M S A S D I E L E C T R I CL AY E R F O R P R I N TA B L E F I E L D E F F E C T

T R A N S I S T O R S

levon altunyan

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degreeof Bachelor of Science

Institute for Nano Structures and Technology (NST)Faculty of Engineering

University of Duisburg-Essen

January 07 2009 - April 07 2009

Levon Altunyan PMMA - thin films as dielectric layer for printable fieldeffect transistors in partial fulfillment of the requirements for thedegree of Bachelor of Science copy January 07 2009 - April 07 2009

supervisorsProf Dr rer nat Roland SchmechelProf Dr-Ing Einar Kruis

locationcampus Duisburg

time frameJanuary 07 2009 - April 07 2009

A B S T R A C T

In this work the potential of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) asgate dielectric has been studied Thin films of PMMA were preparedby spin coating on glass substrate The spin process was optimizedwith respect to the material in use The maximum process temper-ature was 160 (C) which corresponds to the baking of the poly-meric gate dielectric A fabrication process for building up a Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structure was developed Capacitance-voltage(C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) behaviour of the fabricated glasssil-verPMMAsilver glassIndium Tin Oxide (ITO)PMMAsilver aswell as glassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM structures werestudied The measurements were carried out at constant frequencyof 100 kHz in the voltage range of -10 V to +10 V Furthermore thedielectric constant of the PMMA in use was verified In addition thefield strength ranges at which breakdown occurs were examinedFrequency dependence of the electronic properties was also investi-gated The realization of Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-EffectTransistor (MISFET) glassaluminiumPMMApentacenealuminiumand glassaluminiumPMMAC60aluminium structures as well astheir characteristic curves are presented

Keywords Poly(methyl methacrylate) Polymer gate dielectricOrganic thin film transistor

iv

The smallest act of kindnessis worth more than

the grandest intention

mdash Oscar Wilde

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

I would like to take the opportunity to say THANK YOU to Prof Drrer nat Roland Schmechel and Dr Ing Dibakar Roy Chowdhuryfor their time and guidance during the development of this projectWithout them this bachelor thesis would not have been possibleFurthermore I would like to thank the whole team of the Institute forNano Structures and Technology (NST) for their support concerningmy work in the laboratory Their advices contributed to the pleasantand fruitful experience that I obtained during this time

In addition I would like to thank all those people that motivatedme throughout the years to constantly try to make the best that I amcapable of doingThe words would not fully express my gratitude to my family fortheir continuous support during my bachelor studies NeverthelessI would like to give my special thanks to my parents which haveprovided me with the opportunity to learn and face so many newthings Last but not least I would like to thank one special memberof my family namely my dog - Archi for the inspiration he hasbeen giving me during the times of hopeless laziness independentlyfrom the distance which is dividing us

v

C O N T E N T S

i introduction 1

1 introduction 2

ii technology development 5

2 spin coating process 6

3 metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 17

4 organic field-effect transistor 36

5 conclusion and future work 44

bibliography 46

vi

L I S T O F F I G U R E S

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) 3

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Repre-sentation 7

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type SurfaceProfilometer Ambios Technologies 8

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) 9

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) 10

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA SpinCoated Films [43] 10

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compar-ison 12

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 25(s) 13

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 30(s) 13

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP 14

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed OneSpin Phase 15

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights -Transition Region 16

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System 17

Figure 14 Keithley 2612 18

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents 18

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1 20

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1 23

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2 25

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA HighCurrents 26

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA LowCurrents 26

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View 27

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Studies 28

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model SemiconductorCharacterization System 30

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements 30

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp375(nm) 31

vii

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp475(nm) 32

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp700(nm) 32

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant(ε) 33

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm) 34

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm) 34

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm) 35

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized Field-EffectTransistors (FETs) 36

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials 37

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and CrossSectional View of the MISFET for Different Volt-age Regions 38

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations 39

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures 40

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 1 40

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 2 41

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 1 41

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 2 42

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface 42

L I S T O F TA B L E S

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 3500](rpm) 8

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 7000](rpm) 9

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA) 11

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Ac-celeration Comparison 11

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s)Spin Time Comparison 12

viii

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Tran-sition Region 16

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters 19

Table 8 ITO Material Data 19

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8 21

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18 22

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27 24

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) forSamples 19-24 29

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Con-tacts Geometric Areas and PMMA Thicknesses 33

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA 35

A C R O N Y M S

PMMA Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)

ITO Indium Tin Oxide

MIM Metal-Insulator-Metal

Ag Silver

Al Aluminium

FET Field-Effect Transistor

OTFT Organic Thin-Film Transistor

MIS Metal Insulator Semiconductor

MISFET Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

OFET Organic Field-Effect Transistor

MPS Metal Polymer Semiconductor

SSE Sum of Squared Error

RMSE Root Mean Squared Error

ix

Part I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 3: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

Levon Altunyan PMMA - thin films as dielectric layer for printable fieldeffect transistors in partial fulfillment of the requirements for thedegree of Bachelor of Science copy January 07 2009 - April 07 2009

supervisorsProf Dr rer nat Roland SchmechelProf Dr-Ing Einar Kruis

locationcampus Duisburg

time frameJanuary 07 2009 - April 07 2009

A B S T R A C T

In this work the potential of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) asgate dielectric has been studied Thin films of PMMA were preparedby spin coating on glass substrate The spin process was optimizedwith respect to the material in use The maximum process temper-ature was 160 (C) which corresponds to the baking of the poly-meric gate dielectric A fabrication process for building up a Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structure was developed Capacitance-voltage(C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) behaviour of the fabricated glasssil-verPMMAsilver glassIndium Tin Oxide (ITO)PMMAsilver aswell as glassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM structures werestudied The measurements were carried out at constant frequencyof 100 kHz in the voltage range of -10 V to +10 V Furthermore thedielectric constant of the PMMA in use was verified In addition thefield strength ranges at which breakdown occurs were examinedFrequency dependence of the electronic properties was also investi-gated The realization of Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-EffectTransistor (MISFET) glassaluminiumPMMApentacenealuminiumand glassaluminiumPMMAC60aluminium structures as well astheir characteristic curves are presented

Keywords Poly(methyl methacrylate) Polymer gate dielectricOrganic thin film transistor

iv

The smallest act of kindnessis worth more than

the grandest intention

mdash Oscar Wilde

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

I would like to take the opportunity to say THANK YOU to Prof Drrer nat Roland Schmechel and Dr Ing Dibakar Roy Chowdhuryfor their time and guidance during the development of this projectWithout them this bachelor thesis would not have been possibleFurthermore I would like to thank the whole team of the Institute forNano Structures and Technology (NST) for their support concerningmy work in the laboratory Their advices contributed to the pleasantand fruitful experience that I obtained during this time

In addition I would like to thank all those people that motivatedme throughout the years to constantly try to make the best that I amcapable of doingThe words would not fully express my gratitude to my family fortheir continuous support during my bachelor studies NeverthelessI would like to give my special thanks to my parents which haveprovided me with the opportunity to learn and face so many newthings Last but not least I would like to thank one special memberof my family namely my dog - Archi for the inspiration he hasbeen giving me during the times of hopeless laziness independentlyfrom the distance which is dividing us

v

C O N T E N T S

i introduction 1

1 introduction 2

ii technology development 5

2 spin coating process 6

3 metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 17

4 organic field-effect transistor 36

5 conclusion and future work 44

bibliography 46

vi

L I S T O F F I G U R E S

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) 3

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Repre-sentation 7

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type SurfaceProfilometer Ambios Technologies 8

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) 9

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) 10

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA SpinCoated Films [43] 10

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compar-ison 12

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 25(s) 13

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 30(s) 13

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP 14

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed OneSpin Phase 15

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights -Transition Region 16

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System 17

Figure 14 Keithley 2612 18

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents 18

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1 20

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1 23

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2 25

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA HighCurrents 26

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA LowCurrents 26

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View 27

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Studies 28

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model SemiconductorCharacterization System 30

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements 30

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp375(nm) 31

vii

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp475(nm) 32

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp700(nm) 32

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant(ε) 33

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm) 34

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm) 34

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm) 35

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized Field-EffectTransistors (FETs) 36

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials 37

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and CrossSectional View of the MISFET for Different Volt-age Regions 38

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations 39

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures 40

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 1 40

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 2 41

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 1 41

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 2 42

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface 42

L I S T O F TA B L E S

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 3500](rpm) 8

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 7000](rpm) 9

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA) 11

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Ac-celeration Comparison 11

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s)Spin Time Comparison 12

viii

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Tran-sition Region 16

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters 19

Table 8 ITO Material Data 19

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8 21

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18 22

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27 24

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) forSamples 19-24 29

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Con-tacts Geometric Areas and PMMA Thicknesses 33

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA 35

A C R O N Y M S

PMMA Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)

ITO Indium Tin Oxide

MIM Metal-Insulator-Metal

Ag Silver

Al Aluminium

FET Field-Effect Transistor

OTFT Organic Thin-Film Transistor

MIS Metal Insulator Semiconductor

MISFET Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

OFET Organic Field-Effect Transistor

MPS Metal Polymer Semiconductor

SSE Sum of Squared Error

RMSE Root Mean Squared Error

ix

Part I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 4: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

A B S T R A C T

In this work the potential of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) asgate dielectric has been studied Thin films of PMMA were preparedby spin coating on glass substrate The spin process was optimizedwith respect to the material in use The maximum process temper-ature was 160 (C) which corresponds to the baking of the poly-meric gate dielectric A fabrication process for building up a Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structure was developed Capacitance-voltage(C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) behaviour of the fabricated glasssil-verPMMAsilver glassIndium Tin Oxide (ITO)PMMAsilver aswell as glassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM structures werestudied The measurements were carried out at constant frequencyof 100 kHz in the voltage range of -10 V to +10 V Furthermore thedielectric constant of the PMMA in use was verified In addition thefield strength ranges at which breakdown occurs were examinedFrequency dependence of the electronic properties was also investi-gated The realization of Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-EffectTransistor (MISFET) glassaluminiumPMMApentacenealuminiumand glassaluminiumPMMAC60aluminium structures as well astheir characteristic curves are presented

Keywords Poly(methyl methacrylate) Polymer gate dielectricOrganic thin film transistor

iv

The smallest act of kindnessis worth more than

the grandest intention

mdash Oscar Wilde

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

I would like to take the opportunity to say THANK YOU to Prof Drrer nat Roland Schmechel and Dr Ing Dibakar Roy Chowdhuryfor their time and guidance during the development of this projectWithout them this bachelor thesis would not have been possibleFurthermore I would like to thank the whole team of the Institute forNano Structures and Technology (NST) for their support concerningmy work in the laboratory Their advices contributed to the pleasantand fruitful experience that I obtained during this time

In addition I would like to thank all those people that motivatedme throughout the years to constantly try to make the best that I amcapable of doingThe words would not fully express my gratitude to my family fortheir continuous support during my bachelor studies NeverthelessI would like to give my special thanks to my parents which haveprovided me with the opportunity to learn and face so many newthings Last but not least I would like to thank one special memberof my family namely my dog - Archi for the inspiration he hasbeen giving me during the times of hopeless laziness independentlyfrom the distance which is dividing us

v

C O N T E N T S

i introduction 1

1 introduction 2

ii technology development 5

2 spin coating process 6

3 metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 17

4 organic field-effect transistor 36

5 conclusion and future work 44

bibliography 46

vi

L I S T O F F I G U R E S

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) 3

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Repre-sentation 7

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type SurfaceProfilometer Ambios Technologies 8

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) 9

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) 10

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA SpinCoated Films [43] 10

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compar-ison 12

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 25(s) 13

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 30(s) 13

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP 14

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed OneSpin Phase 15

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights -Transition Region 16

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System 17

Figure 14 Keithley 2612 18

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents 18

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1 20

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1 23

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2 25

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA HighCurrents 26

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA LowCurrents 26

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View 27

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Studies 28

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model SemiconductorCharacterization System 30

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements 30

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp375(nm) 31

vii

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp475(nm) 32

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp700(nm) 32

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant(ε) 33

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm) 34

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm) 34

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm) 35

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized Field-EffectTransistors (FETs) 36

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials 37

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and CrossSectional View of the MISFET for Different Volt-age Regions 38

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations 39

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures 40

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 1 40

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 2 41

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 1 41

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 2 42

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface 42

L I S T O F TA B L E S

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 3500](rpm) 8

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 7000](rpm) 9

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA) 11

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Ac-celeration Comparison 11

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s)Spin Time Comparison 12

viii

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Tran-sition Region 16

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters 19

Table 8 ITO Material Data 19

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8 21

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18 22

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27 24

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) forSamples 19-24 29

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Con-tacts Geometric Areas and PMMA Thicknesses 33

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA 35

A C R O N Y M S

PMMA Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)

ITO Indium Tin Oxide

MIM Metal-Insulator-Metal

Ag Silver

Al Aluminium

FET Field-Effect Transistor

OTFT Organic Thin-Film Transistor

MIS Metal Insulator Semiconductor

MISFET Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

OFET Organic Field-Effect Transistor

MPS Metal Polymer Semiconductor

SSE Sum of Squared Error

RMSE Root Mean Squared Error

ix

Part I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 5: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

The smallest act of kindnessis worth more than

the grandest intention

mdash Oscar Wilde

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

I would like to take the opportunity to say THANK YOU to Prof Drrer nat Roland Schmechel and Dr Ing Dibakar Roy Chowdhuryfor their time and guidance during the development of this projectWithout them this bachelor thesis would not have been possibleFurthermore I would like to thank the whole team of the Institute forNano Structures and Technology (NST) for their support concerningmy work in the laboratory Their advices contributed to the pleasantand fruitful experience that I obtained during this time

In addition I would like to thank all those people that motivatedme throughout the years to constantly try to make the best that I amcapable of doingThe words would not fully express my gratitude to my family fortheir continuous support during my bachelor studies NeverthelessI would like to give my special thanks to my parents which haveprovided me with the opportunity to learn and face so many newthings Last but not least I would like to thank one special memberof my family namely my dog - Archi for the inspiration he hasbeen giving me during the times of hopeless laziness independentlyfrom the distance which is dividing us

v

C O N T E N T S

i introduction 1

1 introduction 2

ii technology development 5

2 spin coating process 6

3 metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 17

4 organic field-effect transistor 36

5 conclusion and future work 44

bibliography 46

vi

L I S T O F F I G U R E S

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) 3

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Repre-sentation 7

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type SurfaceProfilometer Ambios Technologies 8

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) 9

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) 10

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA SpinCoated Films [43] 10

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compar-ison 12

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 25(s) 13

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 30(s) 13

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP 14

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed OneSpin Phase 15

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights -Transition Region 16

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System 17

Figure 14 Keithley 2612 18

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents 18

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1 20

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1 23

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2 25

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA HighCurrents 26

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA LowCurrents 26

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View 27

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Studies 28

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model SemiconductorCharacterization System 30

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements 30

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp375(nm) 31

vii

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp475(nm) 32

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp700(nm) 32

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant(ε) 33

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm) 34

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm) 34

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm) 35

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized Field-EffectTransistors (FETs) 36

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials 37

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and CrossSectional View of the MISFET for Different Volt-age Regions 38

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations 39

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures 40

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 1 40

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 2 41

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 1 41

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 2 42

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface 42

L I S T O F TA B L E S

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 3500](rpm) 8

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 7000](rpm) 9

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA) 11

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Ac-celeration Comparison 11

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s)Spin Time Comparison 12

viii

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Tran-sition Region 16

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters 19

Table 8 ITO Material Data 19

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8 21

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18 22

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27 24

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) forSamples 19-24 29

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Con-tacts Geometric Areas and PMMA Thicknesses 33

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA 35

A C R O N Y M S

PMMA Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)

ITO Indium Tin Oxide

MIM Metal-Insulator-Metal

Ag Silver

Al Aluminium

FET Field-Effect Transistor

OTFT Organic Thin-Film Transistor

MIS Metal Insulator Semiconductor

MISFET Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

OFET Organic Field-Effect Transistor

MPS Metal Polymer Semiconductor

SSE Sum of Squared Error

RMSE Root Mean Squared Error

ix

Part I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 6: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

C O N T E N T S

i introduction 1

1 introduction 2

ii technology development 5

2 spin coating process 6

3 metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 17

4 organic field-effect transistor 36

5 conclusion and future work 44

bibliography 46

vi

L I S T O F F I G U R E S

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) 3

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Repre-sentation 7

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type SurfaceProfilometer Ambios Technologies 8

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) 9

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) 10

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA SpinCoated Films [43] 10

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compar-ison 12

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 25(s) 13

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 30(s) 13

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP 14

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed OneSpin Phase 15

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights -Transition Region 16

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System 17

Figure 14 Keithley 2612 18

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents 18

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1 20

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1 23

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2 25

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA HighCurrents 26

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA LowCurrents 26

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View 27

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Studies 28

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model SemiconductorCharacterization System 30

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements 30

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp375(nm) 31

vii

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp475(nm) 32

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp700(nm) 32

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant(ε) 33

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm) 34

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm) 34

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm) 35

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized Field-EffectTransistors (FETs) 36

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials 37

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and CrossSectional View of the MISFET for Different Volt-age Regions 38

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations 39

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures 40

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 1 40

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 2 41

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 1 41

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 2 42

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface 42

L I S T O F TA B L E S

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 3500](rpm) 8

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 7000](rpm) 9

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA) 11

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Ac-celeration Comparison 11

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s)Spin Time Comparison 12

viii

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Tran-sition Region 16

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters 19

Table 8 ITO Material Data 19

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8 21

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18 22

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27 24

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) forSamples 19-24 29

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Con-tacts Geometric Areas and PMMA Thicknesses 33

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA 35

A C R O N Y M S

PMMA Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)

ITO Indium Tin Oxide

MIM Metal-Insulator-Metal

Ag Silver

Al Aluminium

FET Field-Effect Transistor

OTFT Organic Thin-Film Transistor

MIS Metal Insulator Semiconductor

MISFET Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

OFET Organic Field-Effect Transistor

MPS Metal Polymer Semiconductor

SSE Sum of Squared Error

RMSE Root Mean Squared Error

ix

Part I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

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[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 7: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

L I S T O F F I G U R E S

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) 3

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Repre-sentation 7

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type SurfaceProfilometer Ambios Technologies 8

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) 9

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coatingω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) 10

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA SpinCoated Films [43] 10

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compar-ison 12

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 25(s) 13

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocitytspin = 30(s) 13

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP 14

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed OneSpin Phase 15

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights -Transition Region 16

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System 17

Figure 14 Keithley 2612 18

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents 18

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1 20

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1 23

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2 25

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA HighCurrents 26

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA LowCurrents 26

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View 27

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Studies 28

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model SemiconductorCharacterization System 30

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements 30

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp375(nm) 31

vii

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp475(nm) 32

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp700(nm) 32

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant(ε) 33

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm) 34

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm) 34

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm) 35

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized Field-EffectTransistors (FETs) 36

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials 37

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and CrossSectional View of the MISFET for Different Volt-age Regions 38

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations 39

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures 40

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 1 40

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 2 41

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 1 41

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 2 42

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface 42

L I S T O F TA B L E S

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 3500](rpm) 8

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 7000](rpm) 9

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA) 11

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Ac-celeration Comparison 11

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s)Spin Time Comparison 12

viii

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Tran-sition Region 16

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters 19

Table 8 ITO Material Data 19

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8 21

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18 22

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27 24

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) forSamples 19-24 29

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Con-tacts Geometric Areas and PMMA Thicknesses 33

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA 35

A C R O N Y M S

PMMA Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)

ITO Indium Tin Oxide

MIM Metal-Insulator-Metal

Ag Silver

Al Aluminium

FET Field-Effect Transistor

OTFT Organic Thin-Film Transistor

MIS Metal Insulator Semiconductor

MISFET Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

OFET Organic Field-Effect Transistor

MPS Metal Polymer Semiconductor

SSE Sum of Squared Error

RMSE Root Mean Squared Error

ix

Part I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 8: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp475(nm) 32

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp700(nm) 32

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant(ε) 33

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm) 34

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm) 34

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm) 35

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized Field-EffectTransistors (FETs) 36

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials 37

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and CrossSectional View of the MISFET for Different Volt-age Regions 38

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations 39

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures 40

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 1 40

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Charac-teristic Curve 2 41

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 1 41

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Char-acteristic Curve 2 42

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface 42

L I S T O F TA B L E S

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 3500](rpm) 8

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin[1000 7000](rpm) 9

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA) 11

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Ac-celeration Comparison 11

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s)Spin Time Comparison 12

viii

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Tran-sition Region 16

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters 19

Table 8 ITO Material Data 19

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8 21

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18 22

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27 24

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) forSamples 19-24 29

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Con-tacts Geometric Areas and PMMA Thicknesses 33

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA 35

A C R O N Y M S

PMMA Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)

ITO Indium Tin Oxide

MIM Metal-Insulator-Metal

Ag Silver

Al Aluminium

FET Field-Effect Transistor

OTFT Organic Thin-Film Transistor

MIS Metal Insulator Semiconductor

MISFET Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

OFET Organic Field-Effect Transistor

MPS Metal Polymer Semiconductor

SSE Sum of Squared Error

RMSE Root Mean Squared Error

ix

Part I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 9: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Tran-sition Region 16

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters 19

Table 8 ITO Material Data 19

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8 21

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18 22

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27 24

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) forSamples 19-24 29

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Con-tacts Geometric Areas and PMMA Thicknesses 33

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA 35

A C R O N Y M S

PMMA Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)

ITO Indium Tin Oxide

MIM Metal-Insulator-Metal

Ag Silver

Al Aluminium

FET Field-Effect Transistor

OTFT Organic Thin-Film Transistor

MIS Metal Insulator Semiconductor

MISFET Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

OFET Organic Field-Effect Transistor

MPS Metal Polymer Semiconductor

SSE Sum of Squared Error

RMSE Root Mean Squared Error

ix

Part I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 10: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

Part I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 11: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

1I N T R O D U C T I O N

The crucial process of charge accumulation and transport in field-effect transistors takes place at and very close to the interface betweenthe gate dielectric and the semiconductor hence the properties ofthis interface and the dielectric have a huge influence on devicecharacteristics as well as great impact on hole and electron transportin Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) Device parameters such as mobil-ity threshold voltage subthreshold swing etc depend not only onthe nature of the semiconductor but also on the chemical structureand dielectric properties of the insulator The requirements for gatedielectrics in field-effect transistors are rigorous They should showhigh dielectric breakdown strength contain only minimal concentra-tions of impurities that could act as traps and be environmentallystable easily processable and compatible with preceding and subse-quent processing steps Apart from their breakdown strength gatedielectrics are mainly characterized by their dielectric constant ε (alsonamed κ) which determines the capacitance C = εε0A

d of a dielectriclayer of thickness d (ε0 is the permittivity in vacuum) and thus theamount of induced charges per applied gate electrode voltage (Vg)Hence in order to achieve a certain amount of charges in the transis-tor channel one can either reduce the dielectric thickness or use adielectric with a higher ε On the other hand an important part in themodern field of printable electronics is the possibility to make lowcost semiconducting devices from low-temperature-processable ma-terials like polymers or nanoparticles Furthermore a material whosecharacteristics can be tuned over a wide range by changing its chem-ical structure should be preferred [44] Polymer gate dielectrics havebeen used in top as well as bottom gate transistors and their impacton morphology and mobility was investigated [10 19 25 31 32 45]They are easily applied in top gate transistors where they are spunon top of the semiconductor from solvents orthogonal to the semi-conductor and do not influence the interface morphology or damagethe semiconductor [5 35 41] Therefore with respect to plastic aswell as to transparent electronics it is of significant importance tobe investigated how thin but still insulating polymer layers can bemade as well as how the semiconducting active layers behave on thesurface of such polymer layers Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)is one of the promising polymeric materials and there are numerouspapers for its application as a gate dielectric in Organic Thin-Film

2

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

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[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

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[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 12: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

introduction 3

(a) Structure of the PMMA Polymer (b) Dielectric EG (PMMA)

Figure 1 Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA)

Transistors (OTFTs) [33 34 40] Therefore the main goal of this workis to verify the feasibility of PMMA as a gate dielectric in the field ofinexpensive electronics PMMA is a polymeric resist commonly usedin high resolution nanolithographic processes which use electronbeam deep UV (220-250 nm) or X-ray radiation PMMA has also beenused as a protective layer for wafer thinning Its thermal and me-chanical stability together with a high resistivity (gt 2times 1015Ωcm)

[34] and suitable dielectric constant similar to that of silicon diox-ide (ε = 39) make PMMA a good candidate as a dielectric layer inMetal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) structures Besides PMMA canbe easily deposited on large areas by spin-coating and baked at lowtemperatures (lt 170(C)) Puigdollers et al [33 34] fabricated pen-tacene thin film transistor using PMMA and SiO2 as gate dielectricsThey stated that transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric showedbetter electrical characteristics than SiO2 They also observed thatPMMA surface favors the formation of bigger crystalline grains thanSiO2 surface which consequently leads to improved field effectmobility Uemura et al [40] investigated the effect of surface modifi-cation of PMMA with clay mineral and showed that leakage currentwas smaller than unmodified PMMA diode structure El-Shahawy[11] studied the dielectric constant (ε) of solution cast PMMA film(thickness = 1 mm) and PMMA mixed with some organic laser dyes atdifferent temperatures ranging from 30

C to 130C and for various

frequencies ranging from 06 to 10 kHz They observed that the ε

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 13: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

introduction 4

value increased from 36 to 51 with the increase of temperature for10 kHz Davis and Pathrick [9] reported the variation of dielectricconstant and dielectric loss of PMMA (Mw = 136000) with frequency(1times 102 to 1times 105 Hz) for different annealing temperatures (30 50

and 120C) and for various annealing times (0minus 64h) Na and Rhee

[28] investigated characteristics such as Capacitance-Voltage (C-V)and Current-Voltage (I-V) behavior of aluminiumPMMAp-Si MISstructure aka Metal Polymer Semiconductor (MPS) They concludedthat the electronic properties of the annealed PMMA film at aboveglass transition temperature were degraded substantially with largershift in flat band voltage low dielectric constant and low breakdownvoltage

In this work the optimization of the spin-coating process [17 30]for PMMA as well as the development of a Metal-Insulator-Metal(MIM) structure is demonstrated Furthermore studies of the Current-Voltage as well as the Capacitance-Voltage characteristics of thesestructures are presented In addition the dielectric constant of thePMMA in use (εPMMA100kHz) was verified After optimization of therelated parameters and electrically characterization of the developedMIMs was achieved several Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MISFET) devices were built Thus the the realizationof transistors using PMMA as a gate dielectric was achieved and isdescribed

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 14: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

Part II

T E C H N O L O G Y D E V E L O P M E N T

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 15: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

2S P I N C O AT I N G P R O C E S S

Fundamental progresshas to do

with the reinterpretation of basic ideas

mdash Alfred North Whitehead

In this section the optimization of the spin-coating process ofPMMA will be described Furthermore the information and proce-dures needed to replicate the build up of the MIM structures willbe explained Moreover the equipment and materials needed willbe listed Finally the reasons limitations and assumptions whichinfluenced the choice of the methods in use will be stated

The MIM structures were fabricated on microscope cover slip trans-parent hydrolytic glasses (class 1) The substrates had a square shape15times 15 (mm) and thickness of 05 - 06 (mm) [15] As a first stepeach of the glasses was carefully cleaned so that oils and organicresidues which appear on this type of surfaces are removed Theprocedure that has been used involved the following ordered steps

1 rinsing in acetone

2 rinsing in ethanol

3 rinsing in isopropanol

4 rinsing in distilled water

5 blow drying with compressed air

The next step included studies of the spin coating process forPMMA One of the most important factors in spin coating is repeata-bility Subtle variations in the parameters that define the spin processcan result in drastic variations in the coated film As a first approacha dynamic dispense process was preferred The reason for this wasthe high viscosity PMMA in use In this way dispensing is achievedwhile the substrate is turning at low speed (ω1) A speed of about1000 (rpm) was commonly used during this step of the process Thisserved to spread the fluid over the substrate as well as resulted in lesswaste of resin material since it was not necessary to deposit as muchto wet the entire surface of the substrate This is a particularly advan-tageous method when the fluid or substrate itself has poor wetting

6

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 16: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

spin coating process 7

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

t1 t2

ω1

ω2

t

ω

0

0

Figure 2 Dynamic Dispense Process - Schematic Representation

abilities and can eliminate voids that may otherwise form After thedispense step the samples were accelerated to a relatively high speed(ω2) to thin the fluid to near its final desired thickness Typical spinspeeds for this step ranged from 1000minus 6000 (rpm) This step wasstudied in the range from 10 seconds to a minute The combinationof spin speed (ω2) and time (t2) selected for this step defined thefinal film thickness In general higher spin speeds and longer spintimes created thinner films The spin coating process involved a largenumber of variables that tended to cancel and average out duringthe spin process That was the reason why sufficient time for this tooccur was needed The acceleration of the substrate towards the in-termediate (ω1) and the final spin speed (ω2) also affected the coatedfilm properties Since the resin begins to dry during the first part ofthe spin cycle it is important to accurately control acceleration Inmany cases the substrate could retain topographical features fromprevious processes It was therefore important to uniformly coatthe resin over and through these features While the spin process ingeneral provides a radial (outward) force it is the acceleration thatprovides a twisting force to the resin This twisting aids in the dis-persal of the resin around topography that might otherwise shadowportions of the substrate from the fluid In operation the spin motoraccelerates (a1a2) or decelerates (a3) in a linear ramp to the finalspin speed At first relatively low accelerations such as 200

(rpm

s2

)

500(rpm

s2

)and 600

(rpm

s2

)were selected A schematic representation

of the two phases method can be seen in fig 2After changing the PMMA type from one with high viscosity to a

one with considerably lower one - the number of steps had to beaccordingly adjusted Throughout the later experiments the PMMA

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 17: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

spin coating process 8

Table 1 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm) Tbaking = 150(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

material (Dielectric EG) had wt = 4 5 () This fact was initiallynot taken into consideration which led to the observed in fig 4 andfig 5 results based on the parameters listed in tables 1 and 2

(a) Measurements of the Surface Mor-phology

(b) Surface Profilometer and Benchtop Vi-bration Insulator Instrument Set

Figure 3 XP-200 High Resolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer AmbiosTechnologies

The layer thickness has been measured with the XP-200 HighResolution Stylus-Type Surface Profilometer from Ambios Technolo-gies (fig 3a) To isolate vertical and horizontal vibration as well asvibration generated around the vertical axis of rotation as well asboth horizontal axes of inclination a Micro 40 benchtop unit fromHalcyonics was utilized The instrumentsrsquo arrangement needed forthis step could be seen on fig 3b

Diagrams 4 and 5 as well the final study of the PMMA layer thick-ness versus angular velocity have been fitted The used fitting func-tion (in red color) serves only as a good reference for the generalbehavior of the measured set of data points This generalized corre-lation is a widely observed experimental result and it is thereforeaccepted that the (empirically derived) mathematical relationshiphas the following form h = k1ω

α where h is the film thickness ωis the angular velocity while k1 and α are empirically determinedconstants [24] The α has been observed to change only slightly forvarious polymersolvent systems and has by most workers beenset in close vicinity of -05 [2 3 7 8 23 26 36]

The goodness of the fit is reduced due to the fact that the concen-tration factor cα was not taken into account Using the suggested by

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

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[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

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[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

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[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 18: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

spin coating process 9

1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

500

550

600

650

700

750

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 4 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 3500](rpm)

Table 2 Two Phase Spin Coating Parameters ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

Measurement Rate First Spin Second Spin Baking Conditions1 samplestep size ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm) Tbaking = 120(C)

8 pointssample a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) tbaking = 50(min)

step size = 500(rpm) t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

[43] values a sample plot of the layer thickness as a function of thematerial concentration and the angular velocity could be seen on fig6

After obtaining the kindly provided material data from Evonik(table 3) the benefits of the static dispense were found out and itbecame the preferred method

Thus simply depositing a small puddle of the PMMA fluid on ornear the center of the glass substrate was sufficient The amountof material was selected in a way that the substrate is fully coatedAs a general observation once the substrate area was fully coatedthe exact amount of material did not drastically influenced the finalspin coated layer thickness Therefore a larger puddle to ensure fullcoverage of the substrate during the high speed spin step should bepreferred By choosing one instead of several smaller interlockingcircular drops reduced the number of impurities as well as airbubbles inside the final PMMA layer Consequently the maximumpossible acceleration of the spin coater in use was utilized Thusthe time needed to reach the final angular velocity was reduced tominimum The maximum stated in the specifications accelerationwas 2000

(rpm

s2

) Nevertheless if the weight of the substrate is low

enough we could go for higher values To verify if there is majordifference in the acceleration parameter for values greater than thestated maximum supported by the spin coater tests at a

prime1 = 3000

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 19: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

spin coating process 10

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 5 Two Phase Spin Coating ω2 isin [1000 7000](rpm)

010

2002000400060008000

0

05

1

15

larr ω [rpm]

d1 [micrometer] = 092(c156)(ωminus051)

larr wt []

d 1 [microm

eter

] rarr

02

04

06

08

1

Figure 6 Theoretical Model for Ultrathin PMMA Spin Coated Films [43]

( rpms2

) and aprimeprime1 = 10000 ( rpm

s2) were carried out All other parameters

were kept constant (see table 4) The data plotted on fig 7 showedthat actually for values higher than the amaxSpinCoater = 2000( rpm

s2)

there are no great differences in the obtained PMMA layer thicknessesThe majority of measured points tended to distribute themselvesin the region between 370 (nm) and 420 (nm)Therefore to reducethe ramp as well as to assure the maximum possible acceleration ineach case the value was set to a = 10000( rpm

s2) Furthermore the time

dependency for the one spin phase was studied Tests were made for2 different time durations with 2 different angular velocities eachThe selected times were t

prime1 = 25(s) and t

primeprime1 = 30(s) The respective

rotational velocities were ωprime1 = 3500( rpm

s2) and ω

prime1 = 4000( rpm

s2) The

reason to carry out this tests was also to compare this behavior withthe reported in the supplied material data for PMMA The rest of the

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 20: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

spin coating process 11

Table 3 Material Data for Dielectric EG (PMMA)Mw 1250000 1250000 1250000

wt 4() 4 5() 5()

Annealing step 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min 160(C) 30min3000 U 236 (nm) 385 (nm) 625(nm)

SD +- 10 +- 15 +- 9

SD 415 379 142 Roughness in nm(Ra1) 2 2 2

Roughness in nm(Rq2) 2 3 3

Waviness in nm(Wt) 10 17 16

Solvent E-Lact BA a Triethylin3 E-Lact BA a Triethylin E-Lact BA a TriethylinSolvent data Ethyllactat(615) Butylacetat(385) Plasticizers(0007)

1 Arithmetic average of absolute values2 Root mean squared3 Ethyllactat Butylacetat and Triethylin

Table 4 Spin Parameters 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Compari-son

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions8 pointssample ω1 = 2000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

3 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 30(min)

6 pointssample ω1 = 10000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

7 samples t1 = 25(s) tbaking = 35(min)

parameters was again kept constant for both cases (tspin=25 (s) andtspin=30 (s)) to the values given in table 5

The results of this play with the time parameters can be seen onfig 8 and fig 9 For both cases the expected decrease in the PMMAlayer heights with increase of the angular velocity was observed Nor-mally with increase in spin coating time the thickness should as welldecrease Nevertheless from the measurements that were carriedout comparing 25(s) and 30(s) this was not confirmed This discrep-ancy between the theoretical model and the actual values should beaccounted to the possible changes in the ambient conditions For allfuture spins the tspin was kept constant to 25(s)

In some cases the positions at which the substrate and the chuckof the spin coater were connected introduced local changes of thePMMA layer It was following the shape of the circular chuck in useOne possible improvement for less surface inhomogeneities suchas waves or others would be the use of a special chuck with aholder that would substitute the employment of vacuum Additionalparameters that are well known to affect the final spin coated layerthickness such as the drying rate of the resin fluid factors like

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 21: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

spin coating process 12

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000300

350

400

450

500

Acceleration a [rpms2] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 7 3000 vs 10000(rpms2) - Acceleration Comparison

Table 5 Spin Parameters tspin = 25(s) vs tspin = 30(s) Spin Time Com-parison

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample ω1 = 3500(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

6 pointssample ω2 = 4000(rpm) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples a1 = 10000(rpms2) tbaking = 45(min)

air temperature humidity and other environmental effects werenot in particular considered Nevertheless their influence was heldapproximately constant or was eliminated during the spin processby the closed bowl design of the spin coater in use All PMMAlayer depositions were made on the Single Wafer Spin Processor forManual Dispense (APT-SPIN150-v3-NPP) seen on fig 10 Baking ofthe spin coated samples was an important step for the preparationof uniform thin PMMA films

Initially the PMMA was baked at low temperatures (Tannealing =

120(C) for tannealing isin [30 60](min) The PMMA layer thicknessdid not show any dependency on a longer heating time duration[17] This as well as PMMA having a glass transition point Tg around120(C) [37] were the reasons why the temperature had to be in-creased a little bit more to Tannealing = 160(C) and the durationwas kept constant to tannealing = 30(min) The set of the initial spincoating procedure could be summarized as follows

bull Use of 2 phases

ndash First Spin parameters

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 22: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

spin coating process 13

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 8 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 25(s)

3000 3500 4000 4500250

300

350

400

450

500

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

Figure 9 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Angular Velocity tspin = 30(s)

ω = 1000(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 20(s)

ndash Second Spin parameters

ω isin [1000(rpm) 7000(rpm)]

stepsize = 500(rpm)

a = 500(rpms2)

t = 60(s)

ndash Baking Conditions

Tannealing = 120(C)

tannealing = 50(min)

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 23: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

spin coating process 14

Figure 10 Spin Coater APT Spin150-v3-NPP

ndash Preparation of 1 samplestep size

ndash PMMA layer thickness measured at 8 pointssample

Taking into account all this factors the spin coating procedure forPMMA in use was optimized The final outcome of all previouslymade considerations could be summarized in the following proce-dure

1 Try to cover the whole substrate area

2 After putting the PMMA drops on the substrate wait for sometime before starting the spin coating twait asymp 10(s)

3 Do not use a two step (dynamic dispense) procedurerarr Useonly one phase for approximately 25(s) tspin asymp 25 (s)

4 Reduce the ramp to minimumrarrUse as high as possible accel-eration (artificially a = 10000

(rpm

s2

)aactual asymp 2000

(rpm

s2

))

5 If possible do not use vacuum mode (special chuck is required)

6 Use temperature in the range of Tbaking = 160(C) (Tbaking gt

Tg)

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 24: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

spin coating process 15

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 11 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Spin Speed One Spin Phase

After the procedure has been optimized and the parameters havebeen fixed the final study of the PMMA layer thickness versus spinspeed has been carried out The study is based on the previouslydiscussed procedure PMMA was spun on glass substrate The SpinCoater Parameters have been fixed to

bull a = 10000( rpms2

)

bull t = 25(s)

bull Tannealing = 160(C)

bull tannealing = 30(min)

The considered spin speed was in the rangeω isin [1000(rpm) 6000(rpm)]For each step stepsize = 250(rpm) 2 spin coated samples have beenmeasured For each of the samples 6 points were considered Thepoints were located on two different scratch lines one through thecenter of the sample and one closer to the outer edge of the substrateThree points were measured on each of the two lines The first oneclose to the left a center one and one close to the right edge of thescratch lines In this way local deviations in the PMMA hight could bedetected and a reasonable average hight for the spun layer assumedFigure 11 is the final outcome of this work

The general trends between theoretical and measured data coin-cides - the final film thickness is inversely proportional to the spinspeed and spin time This results correspond also better to the thick-nesses given by the material data sheet (see table 3) for the case ofwt = 4 5() Less scattering in the obtained values is observed inthe values of the PMMA layer thickness for ω gt 1700(rpm) There-fore the transition region between large inhomoginities and smallscattering in the spin coated PMMA heights was studied better (see

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 25: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

spin coating process 16

fig 12) For ω isin [1500 2000](rpm) the parameters in table 6 werekept constant

Table 6 Spin Parameters High to Low Scattering Transition Region

Measurement Rate Spin Parameters Baking Conditions6 pointssample a1 = 10000(rpms2) Tbaking = 160(C)

2 samples t1=25(s) tbaking = 40(min)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

400

450

500

550

600

650

Spin Speed ω [rpm] rarr

Film

thic

knes

s h

[nm

] rarr

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) vs Spin Speed (rpm)

h = k1ωα

Figure 12 High to Low Scattering PMMA Layer Heights - Transition Region

Concerning the used fit suggested in the literature the followingobservations can be made After the maximum number of functionevaluations was exceeded the fit computation did not convergeTherefore the current equation (d(ω) = k1 lowast (ω(minusα)) may not bea good model for the data The following coefficients (with 95confidence bounds) have been computed

bull k1 = 1465e+ 004(1156e+ 004 1774e+ 004)

bull α = minus04633(minus04362 minus04904)

The goodness of the fit could be summarized within the followingmeasures

bull Sum of Squared Error (SSE) 5195e+005

bull R-square 08105

bull Adjusted R-square 08097

bull Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) 4558

From the values of α gt minus05 [24] suggests that the phenomenon ispossibly caused by the effect of fluid inertia

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 26: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

3M E TA L - I N S U L AT O R - M E TA L ( M I M ) S T R U C T U R E

After optimizing the spin coating procedure for the PMMA layer thebottom and top contacts of the MIM structure had to be designedDifferent combinations of materials and structures have been imple-mented and their effectiveness and properties have been studied andverified The material types that have been used were aluminiumsilver and indium thin oxideInitially the bottom contacts have been made by using relatively thick(dAg = 220nm) layers of silver (ρ = 10 49 gcm3) They were fullymetalized by thermal evaporation (see fig 13a) under low pressureconditions of 2times 10minus6 (mbar) Typical deposition rates in the range

(a) MBraun Evaporation Chamber (b) MBraun 200B Glove Box System

Figure 13 MBraun 200B Glove Box System

of 3-5 (Arings) were used All metal evaporations were made insidethe MB 200B glove box systemrsquos chamber seen on fig 13b After thebottom metalization was ready PMMA was spin coated with differentthicknesses At the end the top contact (dAg isin [220 250](nm)) hasbeen evaporated using a mask of the type seen on figure 16a Afterthe first prototype MIM structures were prepared I-V measurementshave been carried out The instrument used for this procedure was a2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithley(fig 14) The tests were driven in the ranges of -10 V to +10 V Themaximum current was capped to 1 mA A critical issue occurredwhen using this arrangement During the IV measurements highleakage currents have been observed which can be seen on fig 15Several different scenarios for the possible reasons have been takeninto consideration

bull Possible diffusion of the silver contacts inside the PMMA layer

17

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 27: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 18

Figure 14 Keithley 2612

bull Probability that during measurements the top contactrsquos elec-trode probe penetrates through and touches the bottom contactand therefore causes high leakage currents

minus1 minus05 0 05 1minus15

minus1

minus05

0

05

1

15x 106

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 15 High Leakage Currents

That was the reason why as a first step a dirty method of placingthicker top contacts made of silver paste was considered as possiblesolution of the too thin top contact hypotheses Nevertheless theproblems persisted A summary of the parameters and types ofstructures used initially for the MIM structures could be seen ontable 7

To replicate a similar structure [39] Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) wasused as the bottom contact Prefabricated samples were used Thedata for the bottom ITO contacts is given in table 8

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 28: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 19

Table 7 First MIM Structures Types and Parameters1-st Spin 2-nd Spin Structure Type Annealing

1 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) PMMAasymp 1200(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 200(rpms2) a2 = 200(rpms2) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 60(s)

2 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 5000(rpm) PMMAasymp 685(nm) T = 110 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) Top Ag asymp 235(nm) theat = 40(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 50(s)

3 ω1 = 1000(rpm) ω2 = 4000(rpm) TopAgasymp 245(nm) T = 120 (C)

a1 = 500(rpms2) a2 = 500(rpms2) theat = 60(min)

t1 = 20(s) t2 = 40(s)

Table 8 ITO Material Data6 Ωsq typ6 Ωsq typITO-film tk Substrate thickness

ITO-Glass 20 15 100(nm) 11(mm)

The surface of the ITO has been checked with the profilometer forprobable spikes The presence of the later could not been registeredNevertheless the ITO was rubbed so that the surface of the bottomcontact is polished After this the ITO-Glass structure was cleanedusing the same procedure as for cleaning the glass substrates de-scribed previously As a next step the PMMA layer was placed Finallyby the use of shadow masks from the types presented on fig 16a(sample 5 table 9) and fig 16b (samples 6 and 7 table 9) the topcontacts have been evaporated Due to the small connection areasand the technological challenges related with the measurement ofthe MIM characteristics using the structure presented on figure 16aas a top contact this type of mask was excluded from the furthertop metallisation procedures That was the reason why a mask fromthe type seen on fig 16b was preferred On top of the spun PMMAsilver has been evaporated as well as silver paste droplets have beenplaced as top contacts for several MIM structures of the type seen onfig 17a (sample 8 table 9) Furthermore a special design has beentaken into consideration The previously used mask has been usedfor the bottom as well as for the top contacts but rotated by 90 (fig18a) using Silver (Ag) (fig 17b) In this way regions with no over-lapping metalization areas were achieved Therefore at this pointsthe contacts with the probes were made Thus the probability thatduring measurements the top contactrsquos probe penetrates throughand touches the bottom contact and therefore causes high leakagecurrents was considerably decreased This idea was kept for severalMIM samples with different PMMA layer thicknesses (samples 9-18table 10) Unfortunately the high leakage current problems persistedwhich leaded to the conclusion that the silver material is dissolving

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 29: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 20

(a) Top Contact Mask Type 1 (b) Top Contact Mask Type 2

Figure 16 Top Contact Mask Types - Part 1

inside the PMMA layer which was the reason for the high leakagecurrents observed

Thus the material for the bottom and top contacts has beenchanged to Aluminium (Al) (ρ = 270 gcm3) By using the newbottom and top contacts arrangement design as well as introducingAl as the contacts material leakage current has reduced significantlyThe highest currents flowing case is represented on fig 19 In therest of the cases a graph of the type of fig 20 could be observed

Nevertheless this was not a final proof that the measured lowvalued leakage currents are actually due to the isolating proper-ties of the PMMA After careful investigation of the contact lines itturned out that the bottom pairs are difficult to connect with thetips of the measuring device This was mainly due to the type ofthe needles in use as well as the precautions not to scratch the bot-tom contacts while the PMMA layer is being slightly removed Thusthe bottom contacts acted as if they were broken In this case thewrong impression of low leakage currents could be a consecuenceof the absence of connection between the contacts and the tips ofthe measurement instrument One possible solution for this was theintroduction of a small paper during the spin coating phase Thuspart of the bottom contacts could be prevented of being covered withPMMA The problem with this method was the quality of preventionas well as the introduction of additional non-uniformities (eg glueimpurities) over the contacts That was the reason why this methodwas eventually abandoned Furthermore chemically removementof the PMMA with acetone was also tried The problem with thismethod was the fast distribution and difficulty of opening only a

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

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[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

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[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

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[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 30: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 21

Table 9 Realized MIM Structures Samples 5-8Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

5 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

6 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 120(min)

t1 = 25(s)

7 2xClean-True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

8 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

ITOPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

certain bottom contact area with the needed preciseness Thereforeto verify if the measured current voltage characteristics are correctthe measurement of the MIM capacitance was carried out By measur-ing CMIM isin pF (based on the calculated contacts area and expecteddielectric constant (ε isin [3 5]) was going to give us a sure indicationthat the probes are connected properly at the penetration free areasTherefore it could be concluded that the measured IV behavior isdue to the used PMMA dielectric properties Otherwise due to theinfinitely large area of air the measured capacitance would be in thefF range or resulting in negative values indicating interconnectionbetween the bottom and top conducting lines One other issue thathad to be addressed was the exactness of the PMMA layer thicknessand its distribution over the bottom contacts In our assumptions forthe actual PMMA layer thickness a study based on spin coating overflat glass surface has been used Due to the non-flat surface of thebottom contacts the spun PMMA layer thickness could be distributingin a different difficult to model way as represented on fig 21b Toassure the better PMMA distribution over the bottom contactrsquos planethe heights of the contacts had to be reduced It was verified thatconductance is still observable at Al thicknesses in the range of 25 nmTherefore the ranges of 50-75 (nm) for the bottom and 120-150 (nm)for the top contacts have been selected Thus the pressure causedby the top contact on the PMMA layer has decreased Therefore theMIM structures constructed thereafter had even lower contactsrsquo hightmetalization in the ranges (dAl isin [50 75](nm) At this point in timea MIM structure for which CMIM asymp 50(pF) was measured was built

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 31: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 22

Table 10 Realized MIM Structures Samples 9-18

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

9 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

10 True ω1 = 5000(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

11 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

12 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)

13 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

14 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

15 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

16 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

17 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T =160(C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 30(min)

t1 = 25(s)

18 True ω1 = (rpm) T = (C)Ag

AgPMMA

Glassa1 = (rpms2) theat = (min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 32: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 23

(a) ITOPMMAAg Structure Model (b) AgPMMAAg Structure Model

Figure 17 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 1

(see sample 19 in table 12) Thus the previously mentioned resultsconcerning the current-voltage characteristics of the MIM structureswere proved to be correctThe next step after the succesfull design of the MIM structure wasachieved as well as the Current-Voltage studies have been made wasto verify the dielectric constant of the PMMA in use In parallel to thisto study capacitance more carefully a new set of mask was designedand ordered The mask included open windows of different sizesand shapes The general pattern was repeated in 4times 4 blocks overthe total maskrsquos area (15times 15(mm)) A block consisted of 2 rowsof rectangular shaped areas of 0 1(mm)times 0 2(mm) followed by 2

rows of rectangular shaped areas with increasing width and constantheight Finally a set of circular shaped areas with increasing diame-ter was also included In the first two rows an increasing distancebetween the consecutive elements was designed The step size forthe first row was 005 mm and therefore the distances here rangedfrom 01 mm to 03 mm for the final tuple of rectangles This ideawas kept also for the second row of rectangles The difference for theset of rectangles included here was in the step size with the valueof 002 mm Thus the distances ranged from 01 mm to 02 mm Thethird rowrsquos rectangular shaped areas were having hight of 01 mmand increasing width The distances in between the shapes were keptconstant at 02 mm The widths for this set of rectangles started at01 mm and ended at 04 mm with the step size of 01 mm for theconsecutive geometric figures The widths of this row correspondedto the diameters of the last rowrsquos circular areas In between thesetwo rows the fourth row of structures was present Here the ideaof keeping a constant hight (02 mm) as well as distances between

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 33: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 24

Table 11 Realized MIM Structures Samples 19-27

Before Spin1 Spin Parameters Structure Type Annealing

19 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

20 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

21 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

22 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

23 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

24 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

25 True ω1 = 1000(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

26 True ω1 = 1500(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)

27 True ω1 = 2250(rpm) T = 160(C)

AlPMMA

Glass

Al

a1 = 10000(rpms2) theat = 35(min)

t1 = 25(s)1 Substrate cleaning

t asymp10(s) after placing PMMA before spin coating

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 34: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 25

(a) Bottom and Top Contacts Top View (b) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

Figure 18 3d Models of the MIM Structures - Part 2

the elements (0067 mm) for increasing widths was preserved Thewidths were in the ranges between 02 mm and 05 mm with the stepsize of 01 mm The structure of this design can be seen on fig 22aA schematic representation of the MIM structure used to measurecapacitance and thus determining εPMMA can be seen on fig 22b Bythe time the special design for the top contact was fulfilled initialcapacitance measurements were made For this purpose the crossedcontact structures (samples 19-24 table 11) from before have beenused The connections were made at positions of non-overlappingcontact areas in vertical direction of the MIM as seen on fig 24a Thepreviously mentioned technique of removing the PMMA layers overthe bottom contacts during the I-V measurements can be observedat fig 24b

A prerequisite for determining the dielectric constant was theusage of the one phase PMMA layer thickness versus spin speed hightstudy (11) The Capacitance-Voltage measurements were carried outinside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) The ambient condi-tions inside were in the ranges O2 lt 0 1ppmH2O lt 0 1ppm Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley

The capacitance measurements have been carried for at least 4

different points on each of the MIM structures with crossed Al con-tacts They were executed predominately at f=100 (kHz) SeveralMIM structures were measured for comparison reasons as well ason f=1 (MHz) The difference of the measured capacitances in thiscase compared with the case of lower frequency was approximately

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 35: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 26

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus500

0

500

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 19 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA High Currents

minus10 minus5 0 5 10minus10

minus5

0

5x 10minus3

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [n

A] rarr

Figure 20 Current-Voltage Characteristic of PMMA Low Currents

1 After measuring a certain MIM structure at a given probe con-figuration the average value of the total number of 22 values in the-10 +10 V range has been taken Concerning the thickness of thedielectric material the scattered behavior of the obtained data wastaken into account Therefore a range of around 50(nm) deviationof the PMMA layer thicknesses was assumed After measuring sev-eral samples with different isolator thickness the values for ε werecomputed (see table 12) The area of the conductance plates wasextracted from the Draft Board design of the mask (fig 18a) andwas also verified with the profilometer The intersection regions forthe bottom and top contacts were equal to the square of the stripesides - 0 4(mm)times 0 4(mm) = 0 16(mm2) The origin of the muchhigher than expected values can be explained by the following rea-sons A simplified model of parallel plate capacitor for the crossed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

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[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

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[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 36: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 27

(a) AlPMMAAl Crossed Contacts Struc-ture Model

(b) PMMA Layer Distribution

Figure 21 Crossed Contacts Structure Side View

contacts structure has been used (fig 23a) Taking into considerationthe given structure this model does not fully represent the correctrelations concerning the stray field effects Furthermore it can beconcluded that the PMMA would not distribute in the same way overthe newly introduced bottom contact surface as on a flat glass sub-strate In addition the top contact will follow the morphology of thepreceding PMMA layer and thus it will also bend at the transitionregion between 2 layers (glassPMMA) and 3 layers (glassbottomcontactPMMA) Therefore the main reason for the relatively highcalculated results is that the actual thickness of spin-coated PMMA atthe metalizations edges was actually much thinner compared to theassumed thicknesses The different regions of contact possibilitiescould be summarized on fig 21b From the sketch the regions ofmuch thinner PMMA layer can be also observed These are the placesdefined by the transition step between the glass substrate and thebottom contact At this positions the distance between the contactsis considerably lower and therefore this causes additional effect onthe observed high capacitance values

In summary different materials and thicknesses for the design ofthe MIM structures have been used

bull bottom and top contacts - Ag Agisin [220 250](nm)

bull bottom contact - ITO (ITO=100(nm)) top contact - Ag Ag Paste

bull bottom and top contacts - AlAg Contactbottom isin [27 50](nm)Contacttop isin[50 75](nm)

Furthermore different contact structures have been utilized

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 37: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 28

(a) Mask Designed For Better Capaci-tance Measurements

(b) AlPMMAAl Capacitance TypeStructure Model

Figure 22 Top Contact Mask Type 3 Design for Capacitance-Voltage Stud-ies

bull bottom contacts

ndash flat fully metallised

ndash with rectangular stripes

bull top contacts

ndash with rectangular stripes over flat bottom contact

ndash rectangular stripes perpendicular to bottomrsquos arrange-ment of the same type

The structure of the sucesfully eliminating contacts interconnectionsMIM structure can be summarized as follows

bull Use of aluminium metalized contacts

ndash 25(nm) 6 Albottom 6 50(nm)

ndash 50(nm) 6 Altop 6 75(nm)

bull Use of the crossed contacts design type (see fig 18b)

With the help of the crossed contacts aluminium type of structure(samples 19-24 table 11) high leakage currents problem was solvedFurthermore the insulating properties of the PMMA were verifiedIn addition capacitance measurements were made on the samestructures Due to the reasons described on page 27 the extracteddielectric constant (ε) values were not feasible Therefore the previ-ously mentioned designed mask (see fig 22b) was used to verify theactual εPMMA values over a fully metalized Al bottom contact Therelative static permittivity for different PMMA layer thicknesses was

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 38: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 29

Table 12 Capacitance and Dielectric Constant (ε) for Samples 19-24

Spin Thickness(nm) C(pF) εr

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C11 asymp 47 6743 εr11 isin [19 35 21 03]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C12 asymp 48 7387 εr12 isin [19 78 21 50]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C13 asymp 51 0907 εr13 isin [20 74 22 54]C14 asymp 48 7434 εr14 isin [19 35 21 50]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C21 asymp 70 6584 εr21 isin [22 44 24 94]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C22 asymp 67 6498 εr22 isin [21 49 23 88]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C23 asymp 63 8898 εr23 isin [20 29 22 55]C24 asymp 72 7390 εr24 isin [23 11 25 67]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 C31 asymp 92 8357 εr31 isin [24 25 27 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C32 asymp 94 1920 εr32 isin [24 60 27 93]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 C33 asymp 92 4802 εr33 isin [24 15 27 42]C34 asymp 97 4294 εr34 isin [25 45 28 89]

22 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C41 asymp 46 5045 εr41 isin [18 88 20 52]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] C42 asymp 44 9528 εr42 isin [18 25 19 83]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C43 asymp 46 0825 εr43 isin [18 70 20 33]C44 asymp 45 8466 εr44 isin [18 61 20 23]

23 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C51 asymp 60 3045 εr51 isin [19 16 21 28]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] C52 asymp 61 0021 εr52 isin [19 38 21 53]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C53 asymp 98 9066 εr53 isin [31 42 34 91]C54 asymp 60 6441 εr54 isin [19 26 21 40]

24 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 27 C61 asymp 139 0350 εr61 isin [36 31 41 22]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] C62 asymp 109 2150 εr62 isin [28 52 32 38]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 47 C63 asymp 174 4985 εr63 isin [45 58 51 73]C64 asymp 169 7310 εr64 isin [44 33 50 32]

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 39: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 30

Conductive Aluminium plates

PMMADielectric

dA

(a) Parallel Plate Capacitor Model (b) 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characteri-zation System Probe Arrangement

Figure 23 Parallel Plate Capacitor Model Semiconductor CharacterizationSystem

(a) Capacitance Measurements samples(19-21)

(b) Capacitance Measurements samples(22-24)

Figure 24 Capacitance Measurements

computed using the simplified model for a parallel plate capacitor

CMIM = ε0εPMMAAdPMMA

whereCMIM the measured capacitanceε0 permittivity of free space ε0 asymp 8 8154187times 10minus12( Fm)

A the are of the flat parallel metallic (Al) platesdPMMA the thickness of the PMMA layer

The areas of the flat parallel metallic (Al) plates was as in the previ-ous case extracted from the initial design Draft Board mask sketchHere the used voltage was as well in the -10 +10 V range The fre-quency at which the measurements were made was kept constant tof=100 (kHz) After the measurements at the different existing geo-metric top contacts areas have been finished an average capacitance

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

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[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

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[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

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[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 40: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 31

value for each of them has been calculated The MIM structures (sam-ples 24-27 table 11) in use were having different isolator thicknesses(dPMMA) The expected behavior of higher capacitance values forlower PMMA layer hight has been observed As for the crossed con-tacts type of structure certain tolerances in the spin coated dielectricthickness had to be assumed The measurements of the dielectricconstants (εPMMA) versus contacts area for different PMMA heightsare showed on fig 25 fig 26 and fig 27 A few values deviate highlyfrom the majority of points The main reason for their presence isaccounted to two factors First dielectric constant values for whichε lt 1 were resulting as a consequence of the lower PMMA thick-nesses at some areas of the examined MIM structures On the otherhand the implementation by the responsible company of the shadowmaskrsquos contacts areas were not so precise The diviations from theactual designed Draft Board blue print were the reason for theseveral higher dielectric constant measured values (ε gt 5 5) Whencomparing same sized areas (data extracted from sketch) it was ob-served that values obtained from the circular geometric objects arecoinciding much better to the expected results than those from therectangular shaped contacts

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 014

1

2

3

4

5

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 25 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

In conclusion the computed average value εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72based on the date in table 13 corresponds well to the values given indifferent sources [1 14 16 22] With this step the dielectric constantfor the PMMA in use has been verified

The probability of a failure at a given voltage was the next step inthe studies of PMMA as gate dielectric By definition the breakdownvoltage of an insulator is the minimum voltage that causes a portionof an insulator to become electrically conductive Due to the statis-tical nature of the breakdown voltage of a material definite values

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 41: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 32

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 0142

3

4

5

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 26 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

0 002 004 006 008 01 012 01425

3

35

4

45

5

55

6

Area A [mm2] rarr

Die

lect

ric C

onst

ant

ε PM

MA [minus

] rarr

Figure 27 Dielectric Constant (ε) vs Contacts Area dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

are not given in this work The studies were carried on three sam-ples (19-22 table 11) with different PMMA layer thickness but samecontact type (see 18b) The Breakdown Voltage measurements werecarried out also inside the MB 200B glove box system (fig 13b) Theinstrument used for this purpose was the 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System from Keithley For each of the measure-ments several contact regions were selected The valuersquos ranges ofVbreakdown can be seen on fig 29 for dPMMA asymp 700(nm) fig 30 fordPMMA asymp 475(nm) and fig 31 for dPMMA asymp 375(nm) respectivelyAfter reaching Vcrit a sudden flow of current within very short timeis observed Nevertheless the expected completely destruction of thedielectric to a smoking hot mass of undefinable structure was notdetected The graphs show an unexpected fluctuating behaviourrather than an irreversible and practically always destructive sud-

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

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[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 42: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 33

Table 13 Dielectric Constant (ε) Values for Different Contacts GeometricAreas and PMMA Thicknesses

Area Type dPMMA asymp 700(nm) dPMMA asymp 475(nm) dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Acircular(mm2)

A1 = 0 1256 ε = 2 96 ε = 2 28 ε = 2 92A2 = 0 0706 ε = 2 91 ε = 2 64 ε = 2 99A3 = 0 0314 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 37 ε = 3 30

Average Acircular ε = 3 02 ε = 2 64 ε = 3 04Arectangular(mm

2)

A4 = 0 04 ε = 4 80 ε = 3 51 ε = 4 25A5 = 0 03 εexcluded = 5 26 ε = 4 24 ε = 4 57A6 = 0 02 εexcluded = 5 64 ε = 3 23 ε = 3 87

Average Arectangular ε = 4 80 ε = 3 66 ε = 4 23

350 400 450 500 550 600 650 7000

1

2

3

4

5

PMMA Layer Thickness (nm) rarr

ε PM

MA rarr

εPMMA

vs PMMA Layer Thickness

Figure 28 PMMA Layer Thickness vs Dielectric Constant (ε)

den flow of current Therefore it can be concluded that the PMMAdielectric can recover its full dielectric strength once current flow hasbeen externally interrupted This self-healing property of PMMAthin films corresponds to the reported in literature behaviour [27]Furthermore the statistical nature of Vbreakdown could be observedfrom the different starting points of the breakdown regions

The change in voltage is defined as the work done per unit chargeagainst the electric field Assuming a positive charge moving alonga curved path from the bottom to the top electrode plates requireswork and raises voltage Therefore the general relation betweenvoltage and electric field can be generalized to the line integral

Vf minus Vi = minusint

~E middot ~ds

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 43: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 34

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 29 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 700(nm)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3

4

5x 10minus6

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 30 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 475(nm)

For the case of charged parallel plate conductors (samples 19-21)a constant electric field could be assumed Thus the relationshipbetween work and voltage could be finally given as

Vf minus Vi = minus∣∣∣~E∣∣∣ | ~es| cosΘ

intd0 ds = minusEd

The negative sign shows the direction of the field The results ofthe former equation solved for the magnitudes of the electric field(E) at the breakdown voltage points for different PMMA thicknessesis presented in table 14 Unfortunately Ecrit is not a well definedmaterial property it depends on many parameters the most notable(besides the basic material itself) being the production process thethickness the temperature the internal structure (defects and thelike) the age the environment where it is used (especially humidity)and the time it experienced field stress This behavior was observed

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

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[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

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[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

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[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 44: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

metal-insulator-metal (mim) structure 35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70minus1

0

1

2

3x 10minus5

Voltage V [V] rarr

Cur

rent

I [A

] rarr

Figure 31 Breakdown Voltage dPMMA asymp 375(nm)

Table 14 Electric Field (E) at VBreakdownPMMA

Spin Thickness(nm) Breakdown Voltage Electric Field(MVm)

19 ω1 = 1000(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V11 asymp 13 7(V) E11 isin [21 92 23 82]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [575 625] V12 asymp 18 0(V) E12 isin [25 60 27 82]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V13 asymp 16 0(V) E13 isin [20 74 22 54]

20 ω1 = 1500(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V21 asymp 12 5(V) E21 isin [25 00 27 77]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [450 500] V22 asymp 27 0(V) E22 isin [54 00 60 00]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V23 asymp 27 0(V) E23 isin [54 00 60 00]V24 asymp 10 5(V) E24 isin [21 00 23 33]

21 ω1 = 2250(rpm) Altop asymp 150 V31 asymp 13 0(V) E31 isin [30 95 35 13]a1 = 10000(rpms2) PMMAisin [370 420] V32 asymp 7 0(V) E32 isin [16 66 18 91]

t1 = 25(s) Albottom asymp 70 V33 asymp 11 0(V) E33 isin [26 19 29 72]

in the obtained slightly varying results The majority of values werein the range between 25 to 30 (MVm) These critical field strengthranges correspond to the typical for polymers [12] More importantlythe average of the measured values Ecrit asymp 34 73 (MVm) fittedexactly to those reported for PMMA [13 18] Therefore the obtainedresults were considered as feasible and thus the breakdown voltageand field studies were finalized

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 45: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

4O R G A N I C F I E L D - E F F E C T T R A N S I S T O R

An idea that is developed and put into actionis more important than an idea that exists only as an idea

mdash Siddhartha Buddha

A field-effect transistor (organic or inorganic) requires the follow-ing components (shown in Figure 32) a thin semiconducting layerwhich is separated from a gate electrode by the insulating gate di-electric source and drain electrodes of width W (channel width)separated by a distance L (channel length) that are in contact withthe semiconducting layer

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 32 General Structure of the Realized FETs

In this work the used semiconducting layers were C60 (ρ = 132gcm3) and pentacene (ρ = 165 gcm3) Pentacene (fig 33b) is apromising candidate for the use in organic thin film transistors andOFETs It is one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugatedorganic molecules with a high application potential due to a holemobility in OFETs of up to 55 cm2Vminus1sminus1 (almost comparable toamorphous silicon) [21] Combined with buckminsterfullerene Pen-tacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic devices[6 29] On the other hand the fullerenes class of molecules and theirderivatives part of which is C60 (fig 33a) are characterized by excep-tionally high electron affinity They were shown to yield n-channeltransistors with very high electron mobilities [4 20 42]

36

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 46: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

organic field-effect transistor 37

(a) Buckminsterfullerene C60

activation energy to hop between sites This dependence ofthe mobility on charge density and thus gate voltage has beenobserved for many disordered semiconductors and theVissenberg-Matters model proved to be very useful tomodel organic field-effect transistors and reconcile chargemobilities in organic diode structures and field-effecttransistors64-66

For highly ordered molecular crystals such as egrubrene tetracene and pentacene (Figure 5) howeverexperimental data seems to exclude hopping transportTemperature-dependent time-of-flight67 and time-resolvedterahertz pulse spectroscopy6869as well as recent field-effecttransistor7071measurements on high purity crystals showinghigh mobilities that increase with decreasing temperaturesuggest bandlike transport in delocalized states instead ofhopping transport But at the same time the mean free pathof charge carriers at high temperatures (above 150 K) isfound to be comparable with the crystal unit cell latticeparameters which contradicts delocalized transport7273

Recent theoretical studies suggest that thermal motionmodulates the intermolecular electronic coupling (transferintegrals) between molecules in organic crystals due to theirweak interaction which could lead to localization of chargecarriers even in highly ordered systems7475Furthermore thepolarizability of the gate dielectric can cause localization inorganic single-crystal field-effect transistors as shown byHulea et al76

Models for charge transport in organic semiconductorssuch as polycrystalline thin films of small molecules andmicrocrystalline polymers that lie in between these twoextreme cases have been proposed as well77-79 Note thatin all cases the transfer integral representing the electronic

coupling of adjacent molecules and the polaronic relaxationenergy which is the energy gained when a charge geo-metrically relaxes over a single molecule or polymer seg-ment is an important parameter determining the probabilityof charge transport from one molecule to another anddepends strongly on the particular molecule and the relativeposition of the interacting units They are expected to besimilar although not necessarily the same for holes andelectrons8081

25 Role of Injecting ElectrodesBefore a current can flow through the transistor channel

charges have to be injected from the source electrode intothe semiconductor that means for n-channel transistorsinjection of electrons into the LUMO level and for p-channeltransistors injection of holes into the HOMO level of thesemiconductor Contrary to the case of silicon transistorsthe contacts in organic field-effect transistors rely with fewexceptions82-84 on a direct metal-semiconductor junctionwithout any doping Thus the metal-semiconductor inter-face is usually treated as a Mott-Schottky barrier wherethe barrier height is given by the difference between the metalwork function (aelig) and the semiconductor HOMO or LUMOlevel A good ohmic contact is expected when the workfunction of the injecting metal is close to the HOMO orLUMO level of the semiconductor85 Otherwise a potentialbarrier is formed leading to poor charge injection and non-ohmic contacts This introduces an extra resistance to thetransistor (contact resistance) Contact resistance can bemeasured as the voltage drop at the electrodes with non-contact scanning probe potentiometry (eg Kelvin probe)86

by four-point probe measurements87 or by determining theresistance of transistors with different channel lengths andextrapolating to zero channel length (transfer line method)8889

Depending on the mobility of the semiconductor the channellength and gate voltage contact resistance can be significantor even larger than the channel resistance and thus dominatedevice performance579091 This impacts in particular thelinear regime of field-effect transistors because a large partof the source-drain voltage already drops at the contactsand not across the channel High non-ohmic contact resist-ance typically manifests itself in the output characteristic ofa transistor as an initially suppressed and then superlinearcurrent increase in the linear region

Comparing the work function of the injecting metal withthe HOMOLUMO levels of a semiconductor can help todetermine whether charge injection is likely and whether highor low contact resistance is to be expected For exampleBurgi et al demonstrated that the work function of gold (aelig) 51 eV) is well aligned with the HOMO level of P3HT(48 eV) which leads to a very low contact resistance whilefor copper (aelig ) 47 eV) the contact resistance was severalorders of magnitude higher and almost no charge injectionfrom aluminum (aelig ) 40 eV) was observed86 However thesimple Mott-Schottky model is not always sufficient todescribe contacts Often the interface exhibits an additionaldipole barrier that tends to change the metal work func-tion9293 and hence the interface barrier height Intentionallyintroduced dipoles at the metal surface eg through self-assembled monolayers are useful to improve charge injectioninto organic semiconductors as demonstrated by de Boer etal94 and Hamadani et al95

Although the simple Mott-Schottky model provides aguideline for choosing appropriate injecting electrodes it is

Figure 5 Small molecule semiconductors mentioned in the textwhich are commonly known for their hole channel characteristicsin field-effect transistors

Electron and Ambipolar Transport in Organic FETs Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 1301

(b) Pentacene

Figure 33 Semiconducting Layer Materials

The used gate electrode was made from Al metal placed on glasssubstrate As gate dielectric the previously studied PMMA polymericinsulator was used The source and drain electrodes which injectcharges into the semiconductor were also from Al with work functionof φ = 4 0 eV During the measurements the voltage was appliedto the gate electrode (UG) and the drain electrode (UD) The sourceelectrode was grounded (US = 0)Fig 34 illustrates the basic operating regimes and associated current-voltage characteristics of a field-effect transistor The potential differ-ence between the source and the gate is called the gate voltage (UGSor simply UG) while the potential difference between the sourceand the drain is referred to as the source-drain voltage (UDS) Firstwe can assume a simple MIS diode (that is there is no potentialdifference between source and drain) with a voltage UG applied tothe gate electrode A positive gate voltage for example will inducenegative charges (electrons) at the insulatorsemiconductor interfacethat were injected from the grounded electrodes For negative UGpositive charges (holes) will be accumulated The number of accu-mulated charges is proportional to UG and the capacitance CPMMAof the insulator However not all induced charges are mobile andwill thus contribute to the current in a field-effect transistor Deeptraps first have to be filled before the additionally induced chargescan be mobile That is a gate voltage has to be applied that is higherthan a threshold voltage UT and thus the effective gate voltageis UG minusUT On the other hand donor (for n-channel) or acceptor(for p-channel) states and interface dipoles can create an internalpotential at the interface and thus cause accumulation of charges inthe channel when UG=0 so that in some cases an opposite voltagehas to be applied to turn the channel off When no source-drain

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

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[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

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[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

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[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

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layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 47: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

organic field-effect transistor 38

Figure 34 Characteristic Curve Potential Curve and Cross Sectional Viewof the MISFET for Different Voltage Regions

bias is applied the charge carrier concentration in the transistorchannel is uniform A linear gradient of charge density from thecarrier injecting source to the extracting drain forms when a smallsource-drain voltage is applied (UDS ltlt UG fig 34 Part a) ) This isthe linear regime in which the current flowing through the channelis directly proportional to UDS The potential U(x) within the channelincreases linearly from the source (x = 0U(x) = 0) to UDS at thedrain electrode (x = LU(x) = UDS fig 34 Part b) ) When thesource-drain voltage is further increased a point UDS = UG minusUT isreached at which the channel is pinched off (Figure 34 Part c) )That means a depletion region forms next to the drain because thedifference between the local potential U(x) and the gate voltage isnow below the threshold voltage A space-charge-limited saturation

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

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[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

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[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 48: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

organic field-effect transistor 39

current IDSsat can flow across this narrow depletion zone as carriersare swept from the pinch-off point to the drain by the compara-tively high electric field in the depletion region Further increasingthe source-drain voltage will not substantially increase the currentbut leads to an expansion of the depletion region and thus a slightshortening of the channel Since the potential at the pinch-off pointremains UG minusUT and thus the potential drop between that pointand the source electrode stays approximately the same the currentsaturates at a level IDSsat (Figure 34 Part d) ) [38 44]Transistors with the same components but different geometries canshow very dissimilar behavior The physical nature of the semicon-ductor as well as the employed gate dielectric may require or enabledifferent device structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relation to thesubstrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTG Figure 35a)bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure 35b) and top contac-tbottom gate (TCBG Figure 35c) structures

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(a) Bottom Contact Top Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(b) Bottom Contact Bottom Gate

stable threshold shifts eg induced by polarization of aferroelectric gate dielectric can beused in organic memorydevices5152

Another important parameter of FETsthat can beextractedfrom the transfer characteristics is the onoff ratio which isthe ratio of the drain current in the on-state at a particulargate voltage and the drain current in the off-state (IonIoff)For clean switching behavior of the transistor this valueshould be as large as possible In situations where contactresistance effects at the source- drain electrodes can beneglected theon-current mainly dependson themobility ofthesemiconductor and thecapacitanceof thegatedielectricThe magnitude of the off-current is determined by gateleakage especially for unpatterned gate electrodes andsemiconductor layers by the conduction pathways at thesubstrate interface and by the bulk conductivity of thesemiconductor which can increase due to unintentionaldoping as for exampleoften observed in P3HT transistors53- 55

23 Device StructuresThe physical nature of the semiconductor as well as the

employed gate dielectric may require or enable differentdevice structures that can show very different transistorbehavior The most commonly found structures (in relationto the substrate) are the bottom contacttop gate (BCTGFigure4a) bottom contactbottom gate (BCBG Figure4b)and top contactbottom gate (TCBG Figure 4c) structuresTransistors with the same components but different geom-etries can show very dissimilar behavior

One of the major differences between these devicegeometriesarises from theposition of the injecting electrodesin relation to the gate In the bottom contactbottom gatestructure charges are directly injected into the channel ofaccumulated charges at the semiconductor- dielectric inter-face In theother two structures the sourcedrain electrodesand the channel are separated by the semiconducting layerThus charges first have to travel through several tens of

nanometersof undoped semiconductor before they reach thechannel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBGconfigurations charges are injected not only from the edgeof the electrode but also from those parts of the electrodethat overlap with the gate electrode contributing to thecurrent depending on distance from the edge (currentcrowding)56- 58

Other differencesbetween transistor structuresarise fromthe dielectricsemiconductor and electrodesemiconductorinterfaces such as different morphologies at the top andbottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecular orienta-tion roughness)59 or introduction of trap statesduring metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contacttransistors6061

24 Charge Transport Models

The exact nature of charge transport in organic semicon-ductors is still open to debate Nevertheless one can makea clear distinction between disordered semiconductors suchas amorphous polymers and highly ordered organic singlecrystals at the opposite ends of the spectrum Chargetransport in disordered semiconductors isgenerally describedby thermally activated hopping of charges through adistribu-tion of localized states or shallow traps Bassler et al havedescribed this density of states as aGaussian distribution inorder to model chargetransport in time-of-flight experimentsThe width of the Gaussian density of states is determinedby thespatial and energetic disorder within thesemiconductorand can be determined by temperature-dependent mobilitymeasurements62 A broader density of states leads to lowermobilities and a stronger temperature dependence

A variable range hopping model where charges can hopa short distance with a high activation energy or a longdistance with a low activation energy was used by Vissen-berg and Matters63 They further assumed an exponentialdistribution of localized states which represents the tail ofa Gaussian density of states that dominates the transportcharacteristics at low carrier concentrations The Vissen-berg- Matters model predicts an increase of the field-effectmobility with increasing gate voltage as the accumulatedcharge carriers fill the lower-lying states of the organicsemiconductor first and any additional charges in theaccumulation layer will occupy states at relatively highenergies Thus additional charges will require a lower

Figure3 Representativecurrent- voltagecharacteristicsof an n-channel organic field-effect transistor (a) output characteristics indicatingthe linear and saturation regimes (b) transfer characteristics in the linear regime (Vd Vg) indicating the onset voltage (Von) when thedrain current increases abruptly (c) transfer characteristics in the saturation regime (Vds gt Vg - VTh) indicating the threshold voltageVThwhere the linear fit to the square root of the drain current intersects with the x-axis

Figure 4 Common field-effect transistor configurations (a)bottom contact top gate (BCTG) (b) bottom contact bottom gate(BCBG) (c) top contact bottom gate (TCBG)

1300 Chemical Reviews 2007 Vol 107 No 4 Zaumseil and Sirringhaus

(c) Top Contact BottomGate

Figure 35 Common FET Configurations

One of the major differences between these device geometriesarises from the position of the injecting electrodes in relation tothe gate In the bottom contactbottom gate structure charges aredirectly injected into the channel of accumulated charges at thesemiconductor-dielectric interface In the other two structures thesourcedrain electrodes and the channel are separated by the semi-conducting layer Thus charges first have to travel through severaltens of nanometers of undoped semiconductor before they reachthe channel However in the staggered BCTG and TCBG config-urations charges are injected not only from the edge of the elec-trode but also from those parts of the electrode that overlap withthe gate electrode contributing to the current depending on dis-tance from the edge (current crowding) Other differences betweentransistor structures arise from the dielectricsemiconductor andelectrodesemiconductor interfaces such as different morphologiesat the top and bottom surfaces of a semiconductor film (molecularorientation roughness) or introduction of trap states during metalevaporation on organic semiconductors for top contact transistors[44]

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 49: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

organic field-effect transistor 40

Through this work the top contact bottom gate type of struc-ture was implemented for the cases of C60 (fig 36a) and pentacene(fig 36b) isolation layers The initially stated in the task descrip-tion transparent semiconducting nanoparticulate inorganic oxides(SnO2 In2O3 or ZnO) have been changed in favor of the previouslymentioned organics The reason for this decision was based on therelatively easier technological fabrication of the devices under con-sideration as well as on the broader knowledge based on previouswork concerning their properties

GlassAl

PMMA

AlC60

Al

(a) AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure

GlassAl

PMMA

Al AlPentacene

(b) AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFETStructure

Figure 36 Realized MISFET Structures

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=10[V]

Vg=20[V]

Vg=30[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 37 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 1

The procedure building the device was based on the MIM con-struction discussed in the previous chapter After cleaning the glasssubstrates (see page 6) the bottom contacts have been evaporatedFor both MISFET devices full metalization with Albottom = 50(nm)

has been used In addition the gate insulator (PMMA) has been spincoated The layer thickness was in the dPMMA asymp 375(nm) regionAt this point the two devices differed from one another namely in

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 50: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

organic field-effect transistor 41

0 10 20 30 40minus5

0

5

10

15x 10minus6

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [A

] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=40[V]

Figure 38 AlPMMAC60Al MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve 2

minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus8

minus6

minus4

minus2

0

2

I D [n

A] rarr

VDS

[V] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Figure 39 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve1

the used semiconducting material Edwards Auto 306 turbo evap-orator was used for the thermal evaporation of C60 asymp 50(nm) andpentacene asymp 65(nm) Finally the top contacts for the devices havebeen placed For this purpose the shadow mask from fig 16b hasbeen utilized The bottom contact was with the hight of 100 (nm)After the structures were realized their characteristic curve weremeasured with the help of the Keithley 4200-SCS SemiconductorCharacterization System inside the glove box system (C60) and the2612 Dual-Channel System SourceMeter Instrument from Keithleyunder room conditions (pentacene) The reason for the use of the twodifferent instruments was caused due to the technological relatedissues of attaching the probes to visible contact areas The outcomeof this work is presented on figures 38 and 37 for C60 and on figures

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 51: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

organic field-effect transistor 42

minus60 minus50 minus40 minus30 minus20 minus10 0minus400

minus300

minus200

minus100

0

100

VDS

[V] rarr

I D [n

A] rarr

Vg=0[V]

Vg=minus10[V]

Vg=minus20[V]

Vg=minus30[V]

Vg=minus40[V]

Vg=minus50[V]

Vg=minus60[V]

Figure 40 AlPMMAPentaceneAl MISFET Structure Characteristic Curve2

39 and 40 for the pentacene based MISFET structure The C60 n-typeas well as the pentacenersquos p-type behaviour can be observed fromthe given plots Despite the fact that a sharp differentiation couldnot be observed some field effect is noticed - a change in the gatevoltage causes variation in the current from the source to the drainFurthermore in chapter 3 capacitance and a respective dielectricconstant (εPMMA) (table 13) similar to silicon dioxidersquos has beenobserved Therefore it can be concluded that PMMA is a suitablegate dielectric for MISFET structures but additional studies for thereasons causing the observed characteristic behaviour should becarried out As discussed previously (page 39) molecular orientation

SubstrateGate ContactInsulator

Semiconductor

Source

WL Drain

UD

UGGate

Drain ContactSource Contact

Figure 41 MISFET - Non-Ideal Channel Interface

roughness (see fig 41) or introduction of trap states during metal

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 52: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

organic field-effect transistor 43

evaporation influence the properties of a transistor In comparisonto the ideal case of a smooth channel interface the variations of themorphology of the PMMA layer would act as an additional barrierto the accumulated charges Therefore deep traps first have to befilled before the additionally induced charges can be mobile Thisis the reason why it is important that the roughness of the channelinterface is additionally examined Moreover implementation of thestructures presented on fig 35b (bottom contactbottom gate) andfig 35a (bottom contacttop gate) could be a more beneficial choicewith respect to the materials in use Their potential concerning lowerchannel roughness and thus increased gate voltage effect could befurther investigated Therefore it is important that their advantagesare additionally examined

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 53: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

5C O N C L U S I O N A N D F U T U R E W O R K

Every end is a new beginning

mdash Proverb

In this thesis the dielectric properties of Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)(PMMA) were studied First the material behaviour concerning spincoating has been examined As a result by optimizing the processsmooth and compact thin films of PMMA were obtainedMoreover different Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures were im-plemented Throughout this work different technological problemswere faced and were accordingly solved Combinations of differentcontact materials were examined and their feasibility was studiedIt was concluded that silver is dissolving into PMMA Furthermoreit was verified that a thin aluminium layer of dAl = 25(nm) isstill conductive As an outcome of this work a unique structurewas developed The crossed aluminium (Albottom isin [25 50](nm)Altop isin [50 75](nm)) contacts type of MIM has successfully preventedthe shortenings caused by the measurement probes and thus hasproved itself as an advantageous design arrangementThe studies of current-voltage (I-V) relationships of the MIM struc-tures has given useful information about the properties of the gateinsulator interface Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) characteristics of theGlassaluminiumPMMAaluminium MIM showed low frequencydependency (lt1) comparing the f=100 kHz and f=1 MHz caseA major result of this work measured by the capacitive methodwas the verification of the dielectric constant (ε) of the PMMA inuse The relative static permittivity for different contact areas andPMMA layer thicknesses were computed (εPMMAaverage asymp 3 72) Theobtained results correspond well to the data given in different liter-ature Furthermore the breakdown voltage and the correspondingfield strength were studied As an outcome self healing effectas well as an average of EcritPMMA asymp 34 72 (MVm) of the speci-men could be confirmed A further study in this direction couldbe the verification of the breakdown field versus different bakingtemperatures as well as ac voltages for various frequencies Finallyan attempt to realize Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFETs) usingPMMA as gate insulator was made The polymeric dielectric can bedeposited easily by spin coating The maximum temperature in thewhole device manufacturing process is low 160 (C) correspondingto the PMMA baking In addition the verified dielectric constant is

44

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 54: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

conclusion and future work 45

similar to that of silicon dioxide Based on the obtained results itcan be concluded that PMMA can be used as a gate dielectric forpentacene or C60 MISFET structuresPossibility for future development is the implementation of thesuggested methods for different insulator materials and layer thick-nesses In addition capacitance measurements could be done on theMIS structures Evaluation and testing could be carried out in thelaboratory environment focusing on design problems and interfaceissues More precisely the field effect dependence could be furtherinvestigated A combination of these approaches would provide anadditional set of observations which could be used for the furtherdevelopment of the MISFET structures

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 55: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

[1] Inc Boedeker Plastics Acrylic PMMA Accessed 08032009URL httpwwwboedekercomacryl_phtm (Cited onpage 31)

[2] DE Bornside CW Macosko and LE Scriven On the model-ing of spin coating J Imaging Technol 13122ndash130 1987 doi1010631325357 URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Cited on page 8)

[3] B T Chen Investigation of the solvent-evaporation effect onspin coating of thin films Polym Eng Sci 23399 ndash 403 1983(Cited on page 8)

[4] Masayuki Chikamatsu Shuichi Nagamatsu Yuji YoshidaKazuhiro Saito Kiyoshi Yase and Koichi Kikuchi Solution-processed n-type organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl Phys Lett 87203504 2005 doi 10106312130712 URL httplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB872035041 (Cited on page 36)

[5] L-L Chua P K H Ho H Sirringhaus and R H Friend High-stability ultrathin spin-on benzocyclobutene gate dielectric forpolymer field-effect transistors Appl Phys Lett 843400 2004doi 10106311710716 (Cited on page 2)

[6] Science Daily Efficiently Organic Researchers Use PentaceneTo Develop Next-generation Solar Power 2004 December 30Retrieved March 19 2009 URL httpwwwsciencedailycomreleases200412041220005834htm (Cited on page 36)

[7] WJ Daughton and F L Givens An Investigation of the Thick-ness Variation of Spun-on Thin-films Commonly with the Semi-conductor Industry J Electrochem Soc 129173 ndash 179 1982(Cited on page 8)

[8] WJ Daughton and FL Givens On the uniformity of filmsanew technique applied to polyimides J Electrochem Soc 126269 ndash 276 1979 (Cited on page 8)

[9] W J Davis and R A Pethrick Investigation of physical ageingin polymethylmethacrylate using positron annihilation dielec-tric relaxation and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis PureAppl Chem 39(2)255 ndash 266 1998 (Cited on page 4)

46

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 56: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

bibliography 47

[10] Christos D Dimitrakopoulos Bruce K Furman Teresita GrahamSuryanarayan Hegde and Sampath Purushothaman Field-effect transistors comprising molecular beam deposited αω-di-hexyl-hexathienylene and polymeric insulator Solid-StateElectron 92(1)47 ndash 52 1998 doi 101016S0379-6779(98)80021-0(Cited on page 2)

[11] MA El-Shahawy Polymethyl methacrylate mixtures with someorganic laser dyes I Dielectric response Polym Test 18(5)389

ndash 396 1999 ISSN 0142-9418 (Cited on page 3)

[12] Prof Dr Helmut Foumlll Electronic Materials - Skript Accessed28March 2009 URL httpwwwtfuni-kieldematwisamatelmat_enindexhtml (Cited on page 35)

[13] Wikipedia Die freie Enzyklopaumldie PolymethylmethacrylatAufbau und Eigenschaften Last modification 19 February2009 Accessed on 28March 2009 URL httpdewikipediaorgwikiPlexiglasAufbau_und_Eigenschaften (Cited onpage 35)

[14] N D Friction S Kuehn J A Marohn and R F Loring Noncon-tact Dielectric Friction J Phys Chem B 110(30)14525 ndash 145282006 doi 101021jp061865n (Cited on page 31)

[15] Glasbearbeitungswerk GmbH Gerhard Menzel and Co KGMicroscope cover slips Accessed 2822009 httpwwwmenzeldeDeckglaeser6750htmlid=675ampL=1 (Cited on page 6)

[16] S Gross D Camozzo V Di Noto L Armelao and E TondelloPMMA A key macromolecular component for dielectric low-kappa hybrid inorganic-organic polymer films Eur Polym J43(3) 2007 (Cited on page 31)

[17] D B Hall P Underhill and J M Torkelson Spin coating of thinand ultrathin polymer films Polymer Engineering and Science38(12)2039 ndash 2045 1997 doi 101002pen10373 (Cited onpages 4 and 12)

[18] Evonik Industries PLEXIGLASBreg GS PLEXIGLASBreg XT July2008 Accessed 28March 2009 URL httpwwwplexiglasdeNRrdonlyres5FDB46EB-8AB7-486C-AC14-448B2D89303402111PLEXIGLASGS_XT_enpdf (Cited on page 35)

[19] H Klauk M Halik U Zschieschang G Schmid W Radlikand W Weber High-Mobility Polymer Gate Dielectric Pen-tacene Thin Film Transistors J Appl Phys 92(9)5259 ndash 52632002 doi 10106311511826 URL httpwwwfkfmpgdeoepublicationspublicationshtml (Cited on page 2)

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 57: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

bibliography 48

[20] S Kobayashi T Takenobu S Mori A Fujiwara and Y IwasaFabrication and characterization of C60 thin-film transistorswith high field-effect mobility Fabrication and characterization ofC60 thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility Appl PhysLett 824581 2003 doi 10106311577383 (Cited on page 36)

[21] N Koch Organic Electronic Devices and Their FunctionalInterfaces ChemPhysChem 8(10)1438 ndash 1455 2007 doi 101002cphc200700177 (Cited on page 36)

[22] Jochen Kronjaeger Electrical properties of Insulators Accessed08032009 URL httpwwwkronjaegercomhv-oldhvtblprophtml (Cited on page 31)

[23] J H Lai An investigation of spin coating of electron resistsPolym Eng Sci 19(15)1117 ndash 1121 2004 doi 101002pen760191509 (Cited on page 8)

[24] C J Lawrence The mechanics of spin coating of polymerfilms Phys Fluids 31(10)2786 1988 doi 1010631866986URL httpdxdoiorg1010631866986 (Cited on pages 8

and 16)

[25] S Lee B Koo J Shin E Lee H Park and H Kim Effects ofhydroxyl groups in polymeric dielectrics on organic transistorperformance Appl Phys Lett 88162109 2006 doi 10106312196475 (Cited on page 2)

[26] D Meyerhofer Characteristics of resist films produced by spin-ning J Appl Phys 49(7)3993 1978 doi 1010631325357URL httplinkaiporglinkJAPIAU4939931 (Citedon page 8)

[27] Keiichi Miyairi and Eiji Itoh AC Electrical Breakdown andConduction in PMMA Thin Films and the Influence of LiC104

as an Ionic Impurity July 5-9 2004 (Cited on page 33)

[28] M Na and S-W Rhee Electronic characterization of AlP-MMA[poly(methyl methacrylate)]p-Si and AlCEP(cyanoethylpullulan)p-Si structures Organic Electronics 7(4)205 ndash 2122006 ISSN 1566-1199 (Cited on page 4)

[29] D Nanditha M Dissanayake A A D T Adikaari Richard JCurry Ross A Hatton and S R P Silva Nanoimprintedlarge area heterojunction pentacene-C60 photovoltaic deviceAppl Phys Lett 90253502 2007 doi 10106312749863 URLhttplinkaiporglinkAPPLAB902535021 (Cited onpage 36)

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 58: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

bibliography 49

[30] K Norrman A Ghanbari-Siahkali and N B Larsen Studiesof spin-coated polymer films Annu Rep Prog Chem Sect CPhys Chem 101174 ndash 201 2005 doi 101039b408857n (Citedon page 4)

[31] G Nunes Jr S G Zane and J S Meth Styrenic polymersas gate dielectrics for pentacene field-effect transistors J ApplPhys 98104503 2005 doi 10106312134884 (Cited on page 2)

[32] X Peng G Horowitz D Fichou and F Garnier All-organicthin-film transistors made of alpha-sexithienyl semiconductingand various polymeric insulating layers Appl Phys Lett 572013 1990 doi 1010631103994 (Cited on page 2)

[33] J Puigdollers C Voz I Martiacuten A Orpella M Vetter andR Alcubilla Pentacene thin-film transistors on polymeric gatedielectric Device fabrication and electrical characterization JNon-Cryst Solids 338 - 340(20)617 ndash 621 2004 (Cited on page 3)

[34] J Puigdollers C Voza A Orpellaa R Quidantb I MartiacutenM Vettera and R Alcubillaa Pentacene thin-film transistorswith polymeric gate dielectric Organic Electronics 5(1 - 3)67 ndash71 2004 doi 101016jorgel200310002 (Cited on page 3)

[35] H Sirringhaus T Kawase R H Friend T Shimoda M In-basekaran W Wu and E P Woo High-Resolution Inkjet Print-ing of All-Polymer Transistor Circuits Science 290(5499)2123

ndash 2126 2000 doi 101126science29054992123 (Cited onpage 2)

[36] L L Spangler J M Torkelson and J S Royal Influence ofsolvent and molecular weight on thickness and surface topogra-phy of spin-coated polymer films Mater Sci 30644 ndash 653 1990doi 101002pen760301104 (Cited on page 8)

[37] M Takehisa Y Sato and T Sasuga Pmma-dosimeter Accessed0832009 httpwwwfreepatentsonlinecom6969860html(Cited on page 12)

[38] F J Tegude Technische Elektronik - Grundlagen elektronischerBauelemente und Schaltungen Lecture Script 2008 (Cited onpage 39)

[39] Dr Heiko Thiem Materials and processes for Printed Electron-ics Organic Electronics Week 2008 La Jolla November 2008Evonik Industries (Cited on page 18)

[40] S Uemura M Yoshida S Hoshino T Kodzasa and T KamataInvestigation for surface modification of polymer as an insulator

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography
Page 59: Pmma thin films as dielectric layer for printable field effect transistors

bibliography 50

layer of organic FET Thin Solid Films 438 - 439378 ndash 381 2003doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00773-9 (Cited on page 3)

[41] J Veres S D Ogier S W Leeming D C Cupertino and S MKhaffaf Low-k Insulators as the Choice of Dielectrics in OrganicField-Effect Transistors Adv Funct Mater 13(3)199 ndash 204 2003doi 101002adfm200390030 (Cited on page 2)

[42] C Waldauf P Schilinsky M Perisutti J Hauch and CJ BrabecSolution-Processed Organic n-Type Thin-Film Transistors AdvMater 15(24)2084 ndash 2088 2003 doi 101002adma200305623(Cited on page 36)

[43] Christopher B Walsh and Elias I Franses Ultrathin PMMAfilms spin-coated from toluene solutions Thin Solid Films 429(1- 2)71 ndash 76 2003 doi 101016S0040-6090(03)00031-2 (Cited onpages vii 9 and 10)

[44] J Zaumseil and H Sirringhaus Electron and Ambipolar Trans-port in Organic Field-Effect Transistors American Chemical Soci-ety 3(107)1296ndash1323 2007 doi 101002chin200729268 (Citedon pages 2 and 39)

[45] Bao ZN Kuck V Rogers JA and Paczkowski MASilsesquioxane resins as high-performance solution processi-ble dielectric materials for organic transistor applications AdvFunct Mater 12(8)526 ndash 531 2002 (Cited on page 2)

  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Acronyms
  • Introduction
    • 1 Introduction
      • Technology development
        • 2 Spin Coating Process
        • 3 Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Structure
        • 4 Organic field-effect transistor
        • 5 Conclusion and Future Work
        • Bibliography

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