Thin-film transistor and methods of manufacturing and incorporating a semiconducting organic material

• US 6,621,098 B1
• Filed: 11/29/1999
• Issued: 09/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Penn State Research Foundation
• Original Assignee: Penn State Research Foundation
• Inventors: Jackson, Thomas, Wang, Jianna
• Primary Examiner(s): Whitehead, Jr., Carl
• Assistant Examiner(s): VESPERMAN, WILLIAM C
• Application Number:
  US09/449,559
• Time in Patent Office: 1,387 Days
• Field of Search: 257/40, 257/66, 438/99
• US Class Current: 257/40
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 10/464 Lateral top-gate IGFETs comprising only a single gate
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 10/466 Lateral bottom-gate IGFETs comprising only a single gate
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 85/113 Heteroaromatic compounds comprising sulfur or selene, e.g. polythiophene

Abstract

The present invention is drawn to a thin-film transistor having a layer of semiconducting organic material provided on an insulating substrate and integrated with at least two electrical contacts for applying an electric voltage to the semiconducting organic material, wherein the semiconducting organic material is a semiconducting organic random copolymer with a highly ordered chain structure, a large effective conjugation length and a high regioregularity, and wherein the copolymer is synthesized from different fractions of at least two organic monomer compounds, with the smallest of the at least two monomer compounds being present in the lowest fraction.

Claims

1. A thin-film transistor comprising a layer of semiconducting organic material provided on an insulating substrate and integrated with at least two electrical contacts for applying an electric voltage to said semiconducting organic material, characterized in that the semiconducting organic material is a semiconducting organic random copolymer with a highly ordered chain structure, a large effective conjugation length and a high regioregularity, and that the copolymer is synthesized from different fractions of at least two organic monomer compounds, wherein the smallest of the at least two monomer compounds is present in the lowest fraction.

2. A transistor according to claim 1, characterized in that said semiconducting organic copolymer is a copolymer of thiophenes.

3. A transistor according to claim 2, characterized in that said thiophenes copolymer comprises monomers of thiophene and/or alkyl-substituted thiophene compounds.

4. A transistor according to claim 1, characterized in that said copolymer is a copolymer of one or more of the following monomer compounds:

is substituted and/or unsubstituted phenylenes, xylylenes, xylylidenes, phenylene sulfides, or classes of these monomer compounds.

5. A transistor according to claim 1, characterized in that said copolymer is a copolymer of general semiconducting and/or conducting organic polymers synthesized from monomer compounds.

6. A transistor according to claim 5, characterized in that said organic polymers are synthesized from one of the following compounds:

N-vinylcarbazole, epoxyproprycarbazole, pyromellitimide, N-phenylbenzimidazole, benzoxazole, acylonitrile, azine, phtalocyanine, vinylene, azophenylene, phenylenequinone, or phenyleneferrocene.

7. A transistor according to claim 2, characterized in that said copolymer is a copolymer of thiophene and one or more alkyl-substituted thiophene monomers.

8. A transistor according to claim 2, characterized in that said copolymer is a copolymer of thiophene and one of the following thiophene compounds:

3-hexylthiophene, 3-butylthiophene, or dodecylthiophene.

9. A transistor according to claim 2, characterized in that said copolymer is a copolymer of 3-methylthiophene and one of the following thiophene compounds:

3-hexylthiophene, 3-butylthiophene, or dodecylthiophene.

10. A method of producing an organic thin-film transistor of claim 1 which comprises

providing on an insulating substrate, a layer of a semiconducting organic material that contains a semiconducting organic copolymer with a highly ordered chain structure and increased conjugation length formed from at least two organic monomer compounds.

11. A method of producing an organic thin-film transistor of claim 1 which comprises

providing on an insulating substrate, a layer of a semiconducting organic material that contains a copolymer of 3-methyl thiophene as an active semiconducting material.