Self-aligned printing of high-performance polymer thin-film transistors

Self-aligned printing (SAP) is a recently developed bottom-up printing technique which utilizes the unique ink droplet motion on heterogeneous surfaces to define nanoscale critical features with high yield and uniformity. It was originally developed with conductive polymers. Here we extend this method to fabrication of functional conductive nanostructures with gold nanoparticle ink that allow achieving much higher conductivities. Channel lengths down to 60 nm were achieved by controlling the motion of the droplet contact line. The higher conductivity of gold results in significantly improved thin-film transistor (TFT) performance. We will discuss the device physics of these printed submicron organic transistors, provide an update on our ongoing work to improve device scaling and further reduce parasitic capacitance, and realize high-performance printed submicrometer OTFT devices and circuits