Electromechanical Characterization of Organic Field-Effect Transistors with Generalized Solid-State and Fractional Drift-Diffusion Models

Yi Yang, Purdue University

Abstract

The miniaturization and thinning of wearable, soft robotics and medical devices are soon to require higher performance modeling as the physical flexibility causes direct impacts on the electrical characteristics of the circuit – changing its behavior. As a representative flexible electronic component, the organic field effect transistor (OFET) has attracted much attention in its manufacturing as well as applications. However, as the strain and stress effects are integrated into multi-physics modelers with deeper interactions, the computational complexity and accuracy of OFET modeling is resurfacing as a limiting bottleneck. The dissertation was organized into three interrelated studies. In the first study, the MassSpring-Damper (MSD) model for an inverted staggered thin film transistor (TFT) was proposed to investigate the TFT’s internal stress/strain fields, and the strain effects on the overall characteristics of the TFT. A comparison study with the finite element analysis (FEA) model shows that the MSD model can reduce memory usage and raises the computational convergence speed for rendering the same results as the FEA. The second study developed the generalized solid-state model by incorporating the density of trap states in the band structure of organic semiconductors (OSCs). The introduction of trap states allows the generalized solid-state model to describe the electrical characteristics of both inorganic TFTs and organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). It is revealed through experimental verification that the generalized solidstate model can accurately characterize the bending induced electrical properties of an OFET in the linear and saturation regimes. The third study aims to model the transient and steady-state dynamics of an arbitrary organic semiconductor device under mechanical strain. In this study, the fractional drift-diffusion (Fr-DD) model and its computational scheme with high accuracy and high convergence rate were proposed. Based on simulation and experimental validation, the transconductance and output characteristics of a bendable OFET were found to be well determined by the Fr-DD model not only in the linear and saturation regimes, but also in the subthreshold regime.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Voyles, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Alternative Energy|Computer science|Condensed matter physics|Energy|Information Technology|Materials science|Medicine|Physics|Web Studies

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