Structural, Morphological, and Orientational Requirements for High-Performance Polymeric and Organic Thin-Film Transistors

The interest in "polymer electronics" has been growing rapidly in recent years, fueled by the vision of devices such as thin, flexible flat-panel displays that could be printed or stamped directly onto a plastic roll through a continuous, ambient-temperature process. Such devices would avoid the use of expensive, high-temperature equipment required for silicon processing (e.g., plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition), and rely instead on simple fabrication techniques such as sublimation and solution-casting. The active control elements of such electronic circuits are thin-film transistors (TFTs). For example, in current flat-panel displays each pixel is controlled by its own TFT.