(585e) Electrochemical and Electrolyte-Enhanced Polymer Thin Film Transistors

Years of development have pushed the speed and reliability of field-effect transistors to the point where they are certainly useful in commercial electronics applications. However, limiations in the ability to manufacture these devices in high-volume roll-to-roll processes and the operating potentials required to switch such transistors (usually well over 10V) have precluded their adoptation in many applications. Electrochemical transistors, on the other hand, are easily manufactured with screen printing or other roll-to-roll processes and operate at low voltages, but operate at painfully slow speeds (Hz rather than kHz or MHz). Many groups, including ours, have recently begun using the electrolyte (found in the electrochemical transistor) instead of traditional dielectrics (found in field-effect transistors) to concentrate the field caused by the potential applied between gate and source electrodes at the channel, where it causes the change in electronic conduction in the device. The result is a fast (kHz or greater) transistor with a low driving voltage (1V or less) that is not as sensitive to registration errors (misalignment) between printed electrodes. In other words, transistors capable of video-speed processing should now be screen-printable. We will present our own transistor design, the characteristics of these devices demonstrating their utility in common electronics applications such as seven-segment display drivers, and a proposed process for manufacturing systems of these devices in a high-speed roll-to-roll process.