Insights into the device structure, processing and material design for an organic thin-film transistor towards functional circuit integration

Due to tremendous efforts in materials chemistry and processing techniques of organic semiconductors (OSCs), organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) with much higher mobilities than those of amorphous silicon (a-Si) TFTs have been reported. These progresses have motivated lots of engineering studies to build functional circuits and systems based on OTFTs. However, there is clearly a big gap between the exhibited performance of these circuits and systems and what can be expected based on the reported extraordinarily high mobility values of OSCs. From a different perspective, this review analyzes the performance specifications required for various circuit applications. Then, the choice of device structures and processes for circuit integration in a manufacturable way is discussed. On this basis, material design considerations for compatibility with manufacturing, device performance improvement and technology differentiation are revealed.