• Sandberg, Henrik G. O.

Abstract

Printable electronics is a key application area forconjugated polymers. Much emphasis is placed ondeveloping a transistor that could be built merely fromsolution processable materials, show stable electronicperformance, and offer a sufficient lifetime for anychosen application. Conjugated polymers offer one of themost versatile material alternatives for printedtransistors. Solubility in common solvents is animportant advantage held by polymers compared with theirmolecular counterparts. Therefore, the focus of polymertransistors research is on devices that may bemanufactured at low cost by solution processing, e.g.,printing. The semiconductor layer is of specificrelevance when transistors are developed, though theimportance of the insulating and conducting materialsshould not be neglected. Furthermore, the interfacesbetween layers play an important role in deviceperformance. Stability is one of the key issues whenprocessing is scaled up both in device fabricationvolumes and in circuit integration. This chapter gives ageneral introduction to polymer transistors. The basicoperating principle for the devices and currently themost central materials are discussed, and a futureoutlook with regard to processing and applications, inparticular, are presented. The chapter should be read asa complement to Chapter 10 and it is for this reason thatthis chapter should be regarded more as a review of thefield.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• polymer
• semiconductor
• solution processing