Exploring spray technology for the fabrication of organic devices based on poly(3-hexylthiophene)

In order to fully exploit the potential of polymer electronics, large-area/low-cost processing technologies are necessary. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of air atomizing spray technology for large-area/low-cost fabrication of organic electronic and optoelectronic thin-film devices based on solution-processable polythiophene derivatives. For this purpose an airbrush coating system was implemented and two main classes of organic devices were fabricated, organic photodetectors (OPD) and organic thin-film transistors (OTFT). Electrical and electro-optical characteristics, as well as film morphology and roughness of spray coated devices were compared to those of spin coated ones fabricated with similar structure. Although films deposited by spray coating show a considerably higher surface roughness and lower overall homogeneity, the spray-coated devices are capable of achieving performances comparable to the spin-coated ones.