Fully-printed high-performance organic thin-film transistors and circuitry on one-micron-thick polymer films

Thin, ultra-flexible devices that can be manufactured in a process that covers a large area will be essential to realizing low-cost, wearable electronic applications including foldable displays and medical sensors. The printing technology will be instrumental in fabricating these novel electronic devices and circuits; however, attaining fully printed devices on ultra-flexible films in large areas has typically been a challenge. Here we report on fully printed organic thin-film transistor devices and circuits fabricated on 1-μm-thick parylene-C films with high field-effect mobility (1.0 cm 2 V −1 s −1 ) and fast operating speeds (about 1 ms) at low operating voltages. The devices were extremely light (2 g m −2 ) and exhibited excellent mechanical stability. The devices remained operational even under 50% compressive strain without significant changes in their performance. These results represent significant progress in the fabrication of fully printed organic thin-film transistor devices and circuits for use in unobtrusive electronic applications such as wearable sensors. Organic electronics with good electrical performance and high mechanical stability are of great potential because of their low cost and scalability. Here, Fukuda et al. report the large-area fabrication of fully printable organic thin-film transistors that are only 1 μm thick.