High-mobility pentacene organic thin film transistors

Organic thin film transistors (TFTs), are of interest for use in broad area electronic applications. In active matrix liquid crystal displays, AMLCDs, for example, organic TFTs would allow the use of inexpensive, light-weight, and mechanically rugged plastic substrates as an alternative to glass. To date, organic TFTs have exhibited field effect mobilities and current on/off ratios too low to be useful for display technology. For example, organic TFTs based on /spl alpha/-sexithienyl typically have a maximum mobility near 0.05 cm/sup 2//V-s and a maximum on/off ration of about 10/sup 6/. We have fabricated organic TFTs using pentacene, a fused-ring aromatic hydrocarbon, as the active material. These new devices have field-effect mobility greater than 0.6 cm/sup 2//V-s and on/off ratio greater than 10/sup 8/.