Electrical Applications of OTFTs

[ ${\pi}-conjugated$ ] organic and polymeric semiconductors are receiving considerable attention because of their suitability as an active layer for electronic devices. An organic inverter with a full swing and a high gain can be obtained through the good qualities of the transfer characteristics of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs); for example, a low leakage current, a threshold voltage ($V_{th}$) close to 0 V, and a low sub-threshold swing. One of the most critical problems with traditional organic inverters is the high operating voltage, which is often greater than 20 V. The high operating voltage may result in not only high power consumption but also device instabilities such as hysteresis and a shift of $V_{th}$ during operation. In this paper, low-voltage and little-hysteresis pentacene OTFTs and inverters in conjunction with PEALD $Al_{2}O_{3}\;and\;ZrO_{2}$ as the gate dielectrics are demonstrated and the relationships between the transfer characteristics of OTFT and the voltage transfer characteristics (VTCs) of inverter are investigated.