Up-scaling of the manufacturing of all-inkjet-printed organic thin-film transistors: Device performance and manufacturing yield of transistor arrays

• Published in: Organic electronics Vol. 30; pp. 237 - 246
• Main Authors: Sowade, Enrico, Mitra, Kalyan Yoti, Ramon, Eloi, Martinez-Domingo, Carme, Villani, Fulvia, Loffredo, Fausta, Gomes, Henrique L., Baumann, Reinhard R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-03-2016
• Subjects: All-inkjet-printed thin-film transistors; Inkjet printing; Manufacturing yield; Printed electronics; Printing machinery; Inkjet printing; Manufacturing yield; All-inkjet-printed thin-film transistors; Printed electronics; Printing machinery
• ISSN: 1566-1199; 1878-5530
• DOI: 10.1016/j.orgel.2015.12.018

All-inkjet-printed thin-film transistors (TFTs) have been demonstrated in literature using mainly laboratory inkjet equipment, simple one-channel layout and only a low number of manufactured TFT devices. We report on the development and the up-scaling of the manufacturing of all-inkjet-printed TFT arrays using industrial inkjet equipment. The manufacturing of the TFTs was carried out in ambient condition without the need for cleanroom environments or inert atmospheres and at a maximum temperature of 150 °C enabling the use of flexible polymer films as substrate. Arrays of 924 TFTs were manufactured on an area of about DIN A4 (297 × 420 mm2). This allows the consideration of statistics, e.g. to determine the process yield as a function of device design and layout. We present process yields for all-inkjet-printed TTFs up to 82% demonstrating the potential of the developed all-inkjet-printing process.
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•Up-scaling of the manufacturing of all-inkjet-printed thin-film transistors.•Manufacturing details for each of the layers are presented.•Investigation of manufacturing yield as a function of printing parameters.