Effects of plasma process induced damages on organic gate dielectrics of organic thin-film transistors

Abstract

The effects of plasma damages on the organic gate dielectric of the organic thin film transistor (OTFT) during the fabrication process are investigated; metal deposition process on the organic gate insulator by the plasma sputtering mainly generates the process induced damage of bottom contact structured OTFT. For this study, two different deposition methods (thermal evaporation and plasma sputtering) have been tested for their damage effects onto poly(4-vinyl phenol) (PVP) as organic gate dielectric. Unlike thermal evaporation, conventional plasma sputtering process induces serious damages onto the organic layer as increasing the surface energy, changing the surface morphology and degrading OTFT performances.