Dielectric optimization for Inkjet-Printed TIPS-
Pentacene Organic Thin-Film Transistors
Subhash Singh
Materials Science Programme, &
Samtel Centre for Dislay Technologies
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Kanpur-208016, India
subhashs@iitk.ac.in
Abstract— We have fabricated inkjet-printed 6,13-
bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) (TIPS) pentacene thin-film transistor
by optimizing a cross-linked poly-4-vinylphenol (PVP) dielectric
on glass substrate. The quality and integrity of the polymer
dielectric has been studied for different weight percent of PVP
and the poly(melamine-co-formaldehyde) as a cross-linking agent
(CLA) in propylene glycol methyl ether acetate (PGMEA), so as
to minimize the dielectric leakage current. The dielectric constant
is measured for different weight percent of the solution through
capacitance measurements of metal-insulator-metal structures.
The typical dielectric leakage current density ranges between 10-9
to 10-7 Ampere/mm2 for various weight percent and the dielectric
capacitance ranges from 6 nF/cm2 to 21 nF/cm2. The electrical
characteristics of the OTFT exhibits the saturation field effect
mobility 2 X 10-3 cm2/V-s, the current ON/OFF ratio of ~102, a
threshold voltage of 1.52 Volt.
Index Terms— Inkjet-printed, dielectric, thin-film transistor,
6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS).
I. INTRODUCTION
Solution-processed thin-film transistors are emerging as a
key component of technology for many novel low-cost large
area electronic applications, such as active-matrix display,
electronic paper and flexible electronics where high
processing speeds are not required [1,2]. A combination of
spin-coating for the dielectric and inkjet printing of the active
semiconductor is a process combination that is of current
interest for developing systems on glass or plastic. Printing
methods have attracted considerable attention in device
fabrication due to their many advantages including non-
contact patterning, low material wastage, and hence a low cost
of fabrication [3].
Various organic materials, such as polyvinylalcohol
(PVA), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polyimide, and
poly-4-vinylphenol (PVP) have been used as organic gate
insulators. Cross-linked poly(4-vinylphenol) is a well-known
gate dielectric [4] and investigated most for the fabrication of
OTFTs due to the easy thin-film formation and its excellent
electrical characteristics. It is also reported that PVP shows a
relatively higher dielectric constant with smaller leakage
Y.N.Mohapatra
Department of Physics
Materials Science Programme, &
Samtel Centre for Dislay Technologies
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Kanpur-208016, India
ynm@iitk.ac.in
current, and is therefore a suitable dielectric material for
OTFTs. However, optimization of the dielectric prior to OTFT
fabrication remains a challenge since the parameter space
affecting the dielectric quality remains large in solution-
processed methods. For example, the concentration of the
solution and CLA determine the viscosity of the solution and
hence the thickness, and also the quality of the film in terms of
its free volume and leakage pathways. Hence, a key step in the
fabrication of solution-processed OTFT is to optimize the
dielectric prior to fabrication of the active device. There have
been previous attempts to reduce the dielectric leakage current
by mixing polymers of two different molecular weights to
reduce the free volume of the dielectric [5]. In this paper, we
obtain the optimized process parameters for low leakage and a
high dielectric constant, and demonstrate its utility by
fabricating TIPs-pentacene-based OTFT for two different
channel lengths.
At first we investigate the dielectric properties such as the
leakage current and dielectric constant with different
concentration of PVP by fabricating metal-insulator-metal
(MIM) capacitors. After finding the optimized weight percent
of PVP and CLA and the corresponding spin speed, we
fabricate inkjet-printed TIPS pentacene OTFTs with PVP as
gate dielectric. We derive the electrical properties such as the
mobility, threshold voltage (VT) and Ion / Ioff ratio from the
transfer (IDS - VGS) characteristics.
II. MATERIAL AND DEVICE-FABRICATION PROCESS
As shown in Figure 1, we have fabricated MIM structures
for the dielectric study, and bottom-gate bottom contact TIPS
pentacene-based OTFT on a glass substrate coated with a 150
nm indium tin oxide (ITO) layer. The ITO layer was patterned
as the gate electrode by photolithography. The patterned ITO
substrate was RCA-cleaned and dried at room temperature.
The gate dielectric solution (PVP) was spin-coated on top of
the ITO as the gate insulator and then cured at 1000C for 10
minute and then 2000C for 1 hour in a vacuum of 5x10-6 Torr.
To form the source and drain electrodes, gold (80 nm) was
evaporated onto the PVP layer through a shadow mask. The
cross-linked poly(4-vinylphenol) surface was UV/O3-treated
for 10 minutes and finally, TIPS-pentacene with 1.5 wt%
solution in toluene was used for printing as the active
semiconductor layer for OTFT. Metal–insulator–metal (MIM) 1200
devices were fabricated for capacitance and leakage current
measurements of the gate 900

Log Thickness (nm)

Slope=-0.233
600
7.03 cP
Slope=-0.127
5.50 cP (10wt%/5wt%)
Slope=-0.097
(8wt%/4wt%)
300 4.21 cP

(6wt%/3wt%)

800 1600 2400 3200 4000 4800

Log Spin Speed (rpm)

(a) (b)
Figure 1.Schematic diagram of (a) MIM structure and (b) bottom-gate, Figure2. Relation between spin speed and thickness for different PVP and
bottom-contact OTFT .
CLA concentration.

dielectric. The MIM devices were completed by evaporating
the top gold electrode. The active area of MIM device was
2.25mm2.
We use the DMP-2831 Inkjet Printer for printing and the
drop spacing was 5 micron and after printing the devices were
dried at room temperature for 1 hour. The current-voltage (I-
V) characteristics of the TFT were measured by a
semiconductor characterization system (Keithley 2602A). The
TFT characteristic has been investigated for two different
channel lengths. The surface morphology of the inkjet-printed
active layer has been analyzed by atomic force microscopy
and optical microscopy.
III. RESULTS and DISCUSSION
the validity of equation (1) and the viscosity and the n value
are indicated for each case in the figure.
We fabricated MIM devices as described in the last
section for each of the cases to evaluate leakage current
density and the capacitance per unit area. The case of 10 wt%
of PVP (with 5 wt% CLA) spun at 4000 rpm yields some of
the best results in terms of leakage current and quality of
films. A typical set of curves of voltage dependence of
leakage current density is shown in Figure 3 for this case.
The inset of the figure shows the corresponding J-E
characteristics so as to make a fair comparison, considering
the difference in thickness for the samples containing different
weight percent. From these characteristics it is evident that the

The key step in optimizing the spin coating of the

dielectric is to have thickness in the required range and have
control on process parameters such as viscosity and spin
-3
speed. In this study, we keep the ratio of the concentration of 10 PVP : CLA :: 6:3
Leakage Current Density (A/mm2)

PVP : CLA :: 8:4

the polymer to the CLA as a constant at 2:1, and vary the 10
-4
PVP : CLA :: 10:5
weight percent of the polymer in the solution, which changes 10
-5

the viscosity of the solution to be coated. Figure 2 shows in a -6

10
log-log plot the thickness of the spin-coated film as a function -7
10
of spin speed for various weight percent of the polymer,
A/mm 2)

keeping the ratio of CLA constant.

-8
10 10
-4
PVP : CLA :: 6:3
PVP : CLA:: 8:4
PVP : CLA:: 10:5

The thickness achieved depends on many parameters but

(

-9
10
Leakage Current Density

-6
10

for the particular solution and substrate combination, we have -10

10
-8
10

calibrated it using the following relationship -11 10

-10

10
-0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4

d = kwn
Electric Field (MV/cm)
(1)
-12
10
0 -4 -8 -12 -16 -20
where d is the thickness achieved at a particular spin speed
Voltage (V)
w, while k and n are constants determined from experiment
for each weight percent (which changes the viscosity of the
Figure 3.Leakage current density as a function of applied Voltage betweentwo
solution). The parameters obtained from the plots shown in
electrodes in the MIM (ITO-PVP-GOLG) structure for different PVP and
Figure 2, where the straight line fits confirm CLA concentration spun at 4000rpm. Inset shows the corresponding J-E
characteristics.
best leakage current density is obtained for 10 wt% samples
even after taking into account variation in thickness. Further,
Figure 4 shows the capacitance per unit area as a function of
voltage, and the corresponding dielectric constant as a
function of wt% of the polymer. The voltage dependence is
flat as expected of a good dielectric film. The dielectric
constant measured at 10 kHz is quite high. It has been argued
in the literature that dielectric constant tends to saturate for
high thicknesses. In our results we see that it saturates for
higher weight percentage when the spin speed is kept the
same. With many experiments (not all reported here), we
conclude that it is the increase of concentration of the polymer
which is responsible for lower free volume and hence a higher
dielectric constant. The relatively high value of the dielectric
constant could be due to contact polarization or the nature of
cross linking. In any case, the net effect is a high dielectric (a)
constant (between 5-11) in all cases in the range of frequency
relevant to the application in which the OTFT currently is a
candidate.
Figure 5 compares the AFM image of the dielectric films
obtained from the same concentration (10 wt% of PVP and 5
wt% CLA) spun at two different speeds of 3000 rpm and

35
Capacitance (nF/cm2)

30

25
(b)
20

PVP : CLA :: 6:3

Figure 5 AFM image of PVP (10 wt%) (a) Spin coated at (3000rpm (b) Spin
15
PVP : CLA :: 8:4 coated (4000rpm).
PVP : CLA :: 10:5
10
-20 -10 0 10 20 4000 rpm as an example. The corresponding thicknesses
Voltage (V)
obtained are 592 nm and 487 nm. The film obtained from
(a) 4000 rpm is more homogeneous with significantly lower
roughness, which points to a more closely packed film.
Having optimized the processing parameters of the
dielectric film, we now proceed to demonstrate its use in
(a)
12 inkjet-printed OTFT fabricated as described earlier. Two
11
devices with a channel length (L) of 62 µm and 104 µm were
fabricated. The output and transfer characteristics for a typical
device with L = 62 µm is shown in Figure 6. The
Dielectric Constant

10

9
characteristics are comparable to those reported in the
literature for OTFTs obtained using the solution processing
8
route. The output characteristics show well-formed saturation
7 (b) and the transfer characteristics show low leakage current as
expected, since the dielectric leakage current is previously
6
6 7 8 9 10 optimized. The parameters obtained from the characteristics of
PVPh dielectric wt% with 50% CLA the two devices are listed in Table I. The electrical
characteristics of the device exhibits the saturation field effect
mobility 2 X 10-3 cm2/V-s, the current ON/OFF ratio of ~102,
a threshold voltage between 1.5 -2.9 Volt, a sub-threshold
(b) swing of 6.33 V/decade and the typical interface defect
density (NSS) is 1.48 X 1013 cm-2 eV-1. Though the leakage
Figure 4(a) C-V for different PVP and CLA concentration and (b) dielectric
constant variation with PVP concentration spin coated at 4000 rpm. current is low, the ON/OFF ratio is not good enough for
switching applications because of the size and quality of the
crystallites and it needs improvement by a separate step of
optimization. The mobility obtained is typicall for inkjet
printed OTFTs, while the interface state density NSS is
comparable to that reported in the literature [6]. It is
significant to note that it is the latter quantity which is an
indicator of the quality of the interface between the TIPS-
pentacene and the dielectric film. The quality of the
crystallites formed using inkjet printeing is shown in an
optical micrograph in the Figure 7. The size and coverage of
the crystallites formed control the mobility and the overall
ON-current density.
Figure 7 Optical Microscopy images of Inkjet printed TIPS-Pentacene on UV-
Ozone treated PVPh dielectric and gold source-drain electrodes for L = 104

In summary, we have optimized the quality of

-2.0x10
-7
dielectric thin film suitable for OTFT applications using MIM
at VG = 0V structure for PVPh, using different weight percent. It is found
that films so obtained have high dielectric constant within the
at VG = -10V
-1.5x10
-7 at VG = -20V
at VG = -30V
frequency range of operation up to 100 kHz, and have
Drain Current (A)

at VG = -40V

-1.0x10
-7 considerably low leakage current for high weight percent (10
wt% PVPh and 5 wt% CLA) and high spin speed (4000 rpm).
-5.0x10
-8
The leakage current and dielectric constant
combination compares well with the best reported in the
0.0
literature. The dielectric films were used to fabricate OTFT by
0 -10 -20 -30 -40 inkjet-printing and good characteristics with low leakage
Drain Voltage (V) current in transfer characteristics were obtained. For
application as in system on glass and plastic, the
(a) characteristics need to be improved further by optimizing
TIPS- pentacene crystallite size and quality.

-7
REFERENCES
10
at VDS = -10V
at VDS = -20V [1] Yiliang Wu, Yuning Li, Ping Liu, Sandra Gardner, and Beng S.
at VDS = -30V Ong, “Studies of Gold Nanoparticles as Precursors to Printed
Conductive Features for Thin-Film Transistors,” Chem. Mater.,
Drain Current (A)

-8
10
vol. 18, pp. 4627-4632, 2006.
[2] M. Hambsch, K. Reuter, H. Kempa, A.C. Hübler, “Comparison of
fully printed unipolar and complementary organic logic gates,”
Org. Electron.,vol. 13, pp. 1989-1995, 2012.
-9
10

[3] Seungjun Chung, Jongsu Jang, Junhee Cho, Changhee Lee, Soon-
Ki Kwon and Yongtaek Hong, “All-Inkjet-Printed organic thin-
20 10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40
film transistors with silver gate, source/drain electrodes,”
Gate Voltage (V)
Japanese J. of Appl. Phys., vol. 49, 05EB08, 2010.
(b) [4] Youngill Choi, Hyojoong Kim, Kyoseung Sim, KeeChan Park,
Chan Im, Seungmoon Pyo, “Flexible complementary inverter
Figure 6(a) Output and (b) transfer characteristics of inkjet- printed TIPS-
with low-temperature processable polymeric gate dielectric on a
pentacene thin film transistor with L = 62 µm and W = 600 µm.
plastic substrate,” Org. Electron, vol. 10, pp. 1209-1216, 2009.
[5] Hyeok Kim, Jin-Hyuk Bae, Sin-Doo Lee, Gilles Horowitz, “An
TABLE I. effective method to minimize the leakage current in organic
Chann ON/O NSS Dielectri thin-film transistors by using blends of various molecular
Mobility el Vth FF SS (cm-2 c weights,” Org. Electron, vol. 13, pp. 1255-1260, 2012.
(cm2/Vs) Lengt (V) Ratio (V/de eV-1) Capacit [6] Kyuhag Eum, Kyohyeok Kim, Jaejun Han, Ilsub Chung,
h(µm) c) ance “Fabrication and characterization of ink jet processed organic
µlinear =
thin film transistors with poly-4-vinylphenol gate dielectric,” J.
0.85 x 10-3 62 2.9 ~10
2
7.97 1.48 x 17.47
µsaturation = 1013 nF/cm2 Vac. Sci. Technol., A 28, pp, 440-746 Jul/Aug 2010.
1.96 x 10-3 at 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
KHz We thank the Indo-German S&T Council and DST
µlinear = 1.18 x 17.47
1.14 x 10-3 104 1.5 2
1013 nF/cm2
New Delhi for financial support. We gratefully acknowledge
~10 6.37
µsaturation = 2 at 10 help given by Amruth C with the experimental setup.
2.36 x 10-3 KHz