Anton
Weissbach‡
,
Lukas M.
Bongartz‡
,
Matteo
Cucchi
,
Hsin
Tseng
,
Karl
Leo
* and
Hans
Kleemann
Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP), Technische Universität Dresden, Nöthnitzer Str. 61, 01187 Dresden, Germany. E-mail: karl.leo@tu-dresden.de
First published on 7th January 2022
Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have gained increasing attention during the last decade due to their potential for bioelectronic applications, mainly attributed to their mixed conductivity of both electrons and ions as well as their stability in electrolytic environments. Recent advances opened up new areas of applications for OECTs that range from traditional integrated circuits to unconventional brain-inspired devices. This progress is accompanied by comprehensive developments of new polymeric materials for the active channel. Meanwhile, very little effort has been devoted to the design of materials for the electrolyte – a key element for the performance of OECTs. Here, we present a photopatternable solid electrolyte based on the ionic liquid [EMIM][EtSO4] in a polymer matrix. This solid electrolyte can be patterned with standard photolithographic techniques down to a resolution of 10 μm, allowing minimal leakage current and the avoidance of device crosstalk, which is essential for integrated circuits. When employed for PEDOT:PSS-based OECTs, we achieve excellent performance with on–off ratios of 105, a threshold voltage of 200 mV, and a sub-threshold swing of 61 mV dec−1. We characterize the solid electrolyte in detail and investigate the stability of OECT operation in ambient and inert atmosphere. Finally, we examine the pronounced hysteresis found in the transfer characteristics of these devices, for which we provide a way of quantification. This method allows revealing that the hysteresis saturates with the gate voltage range and that its extent is controllable through the scan rate, rendering it a highly appealing feature for integrated circuits and neuromorphic devices.
These accomplishments are the result of a tremendous effort dedicated over the last decade to the development of new OMIECs, alongside with a deeper theoretical understanding of their physics and chemistry.15,16 Much less attention has been devoted to the development of materials for the electrolyte – an element as important as the channel material. The fact that OECTs operate in electrolytic solutions casts a shadow on their use for traditional electronics. Firstly, ions are orders of magnitude slower than electrons, resulting in large time-constants for the charging and discharging of the channel. Furthermore, the electrolyte inherently creates unwanted crosstalk between different devices on the same substrate. Although such global gate configuration can be harnessed for unconventional computing and electronics,9,11,17 it is a hurdle for digital integrated circuits (ICs).
Solid electrolytes based on ionic liquids (ILs) have the potential to overcome these two obstacles at once: when a potential difference between gate and channel is applied, ionic liquids show very fast dynamics, as shown by Melianas et al.18 At the same time, the photochemistry used in the semiconductor industry can be borrowed to produce photopatternable solid electrolytes, in order to decouple adjacent devices and avoid crosstalk while still providing the ionic environment needed for device operation. Examples of OECTs based on solid electrolytes have been successfully shown and led to high performance systems with improved long-term stability.7,19,20 Whereas IL-based solid electrolytes have been designed to be patternable,21–23 to the best of our knowledge, it has never been employed for OECTs before.
Here, we introduce a general approach for photopatternable solid electrolytes, which are compatible with state-of-the-art OMIEC systems. We present and characterize the solid electrolyte, which subsequently allows us to demonstrate its applicability in fully photolithography-patterned OECTs. These transistors show excellent on–off ratios and subthreshold swings, while eliminating device-to-device crosstalk. Their transfer characteristics show a large hysteresis, for which we present a way of quantification. This method allows us to systematically demonstrate its dependencies on scan range and rate, highlighting interesting features for ICs.
We tuned the mechanical and chemical properties of the solid electrolyte: the amount of MBAm directly influences the mechanical stability of the solid electrolyte as well as the gel's ability to swell in the IL.24 We optimized the solid electrolyte to show good mechanical stability as well as sufficient swelling and found the optimal crosslinker-to-monomer ratio to be 1:50. A higher concentration leads to a too rigid matrix, incapable of dissolving the IL. Conversely, too little crosslinker results in a mechanically unstable gel that washes away upon development.
Moreover, we investigate the electronic properties of the electrolyte. The ionic conductivity was investigated by impedance spectroscopy. Impedance spectra and the equivalent circuit used for fitting are shown in Fig. S2 (ESI†). The conductivity was found to be 24 mS cm−1, which reaches up to highly optimized inorganic solid electrolytes25,26 and other gel electrolytes,27,28 and exceeds traditional organic polymer electrolytes by orders of magnitude.28,29
Finally, we employed our solid electrolyte to fabricate OECTs with PEDOT:PSS channel and gate electrode. The devices show exceptional performance and stability. Fig. 1c highlights the importance of a patterned electrolyte. When not patterned, two issues are limiting the OECT performance and integration: at the single-device level, a high gate current limits the off-state of the transistor and hence its on–off ratio. More importantly from an integration standpoint, a non-patterned electrolyte creates communication between adjacent devices which cannot operate simultaneously. This is a key problem to solve for the realization of high-density ICs based on OECTs. We are able to circumvent these problems by photopatterning the solid electrolyte (Fig. S3, ESI†).
PEDOT:PSS + [EMIM]+ + e− → PEDOT0 + [EMIM]:PSS. |
Fig. 2 (a) Transfer characteristic and transconductance (|gm|) of an OECT (VDS = −0.1 V). (b) Output characteristics of the same device with VGS = −1.0 V, −0.5 V, −0.25 V, 0 V, and 0.5 V. |
We extract the maximum transconductance |gm| with a value of 2.1 mS and the figure of merit μC* with 181 F cm−1 V−1 s−1, which is exceeding most values reported.30 This data was extracted analyzing the switching-off behavior of the device (on → off curve). We observe that from the off-state, upon lowering the gate voltage, the drain current follows a different curve (off → on curve). This hysteretic behavior is very reproducible and will be discussed in detail in the next section.
However, no bias stress effect was observed – an otherwise common, but undesired property of organic transistors.31–33 We conducted stability measurements by recording consecutive transfer curves with no degradation visible (Fig. S4a, ESI†). Additionally, the long-term stability was proven by measuring the device after several days in N2-atmosphere (Fig. S4b, ESI†). In ambient conditions, the threshold voltage shifts to higher values (>0.5 V in 3 days). We attribute this effect to a channel instability rather than to the electrolyte, since its electronic properties remain almost unchanged as proven by impedance spectroscopy in Fig. S5 (ESI†). A resin-based encapsulation solves the problem (Fig. S6, ESI†).
The output characteristics in Fig. 2b indicate that our transistors show saturation behavior and a clear pinch-off point. We investigated OECTs based on a PEDOT:PSS channel because it is the most widely used and studied OMIEC. While the solid electrolyte is expected to be compatible with other hydrophilic semiconducting polymers as well, no gating was observed when tested on the hydrophobic P3HT.
We consider the minimized ionic gate current as the key factor that allows for such good performance of the OECT. As such, we aim to delve deeper into the ion injection mechanism. As mentioned, the patterning reduces leakage paths, hence minimizes the voltage drop across the electrolyte. Consequently, a higher effective voltage drives the device. However, traditional OECTs can show elevated gate currents even when the metal/electrolyte interfaces are passivated, due to lateral movement of ions within the PEDOT:PSS channel. For this reason, we further investigated the interaction of the ionic species of our electrolyte with PEDOT:PSS by producing OECTs gated only with the IL. We find that in N2-atmosphere, the device does not switch off (red curve in Fig. S7a, ESI†). This is coherent with previous findings by Kaphle et al., who attributed it to the excessive size of the ions.34 However, the same system shows a complete switching behavior when a drop of water is added onto it (blue curve in Fig. S7a, ESI†) or when exposed to ambient air (blue curve in Fig. S7b, ESI†). Hence, we conclude that humidity swells the hygroscopic PEDOT:PSS and allows ion movement within the channel. For this particular reason, water is a mandatory component of the solid electrolyte's precursor solution.
We found that the hysteresis of our transistors is very reproducible and consistently progressing clockwise (i.e., the absolute value of the current for the on → off curve is higher than the off → on curve). With the intention of utilizing hysteresis as a valid device property, we verified its reliability through recordings taken consecutively as well as on different days (Fig. S4, ESI†). Both the iterative and long-term evaluations proved the hysteresis as persistent in its extent and loop direction. However, we also observe that the strength of the hysteresis is dependent on a number of parameters. To elaborate these, we attempt a systematic investigation in the following, along with proposing a general way to quantify the hysteretic behavior by introducing two parameters θ and ψ.
Hysteresis can be defined as the presence of multiple device outputs ID(t1) and ID(t2) to the same input stimulus VGS (see Fig. 3a). The ratio of each pair of outputs can thereby be seen as an indicator of the hysteresis strength at this particular input. By taking the natural logarithm of such ratio,
(1) |
Fig. 3 (a) Transfer characteristic with labeled points of the on → off (ID(t1)) and off → on (ID(t2)) curve (VDS = −0.1 V). The orange curve was obtained through eqn (3) with fitting parameters for θ(VGS) (eqn (2)) of θ* = 4.62, and σθ = 0.26 V. (b) Experimental data of eqn (1) (θex.) are approximated by a Gaussian-type expression θ(VGS) (eqn (2)). (c) ψ is defined as the integral of θ(VGS) in boundaries of the scan range (eqn (4)). Two transfer curves are shown with assigned ψ parameters for comparison. A linear plot of this data is provided in Fig. S8 (ESI†). |
As θex. can feature abrupt discontinuities, in particular in the off-state where measurement setups are noisy and the gate current may become dominant, it is useful to find a fitting function. We use a Gaussian-type function θ(VGS) defined as
(2) |
ID(t2) = ID(t1)exp(−θ(VGS)). | (3) |
To express the hysteresis in a single quantity, ψ is formulated as the integral of θ(VGS) over the scanned range from VGS,0 to VGS,1:
(4) |
With these equations, we aim to qualitatively describe the hysteretic behavior of OECTs as shown in Fig. 3c. The approach is general and useful for studying device-to-device variability, different materials, and allows to elaborate related dependencies without aiming to reflect precise physical properties through these equations.
No hysteresis is observed for VGS,1 < 0 V. Upon exceeding 0 V, dedoping and gating occur, and concurrently the hysteresis increases. The inset of Fig. 4a shows the normalized hysteresis strength ψ, which indicates the strongest increase at VGS,1 ∼ 0.5 V and a saturation for VGS,1 > 0.7 V. This behavior becomes obvious in the light and dark blue transfer curves where the hysteresis window (approximately VGS = −0.5 V to 0.5 V) remains constant upon increasing VGS,1 from 1.0 V to 1.5 V. From these examinations, the hysteresis appears as a reliable feature of our solid OECTs, which can be activated and controlled through the chosen scan range. By switching the device completely, the hysteresis can be driven to its maximum, while an even further increase of the scan range renders it constant.
With regard to the aim of utilizing the hysteresis in circuitry, we investigate the according stability. Similar to memory elements, we examined the retention time by applying and holding a gate bias of 0 V (off → on curve), which yielded a time constant of τRT ∼ 10 min (see Fig. S9, ESI†). It is therefore sufficiently long to consider the two transfer paths as stable within the time periods of transistor switching. Since there is an increase of drain current, the finding implies a decreasing hysteresis for decreasing scan rates. We reviewed this assumption and found a peculiar dependency of the hysteresis strength on the scan rate. When decreasing the scan rate to about 5 mV s−1, the hysteresis strength grows, as a comparison of the red and orange transfer curves in Fig. 4b shows. Only for even slower scans, the expectation of a decrease is fulfilled. This observation is also reflected by ψ in the inset, where two regimes can be identified.
The root of an increasing ψ in the first regime is found in the switching speed of the transistor: the electronic elements used to model the circuit, the electrolyte resistance (RSE) and the channel capacitance CCh, cause a latency of the device to an applied bias, since the capacitor needs to charge through the resistor. The associated time constant is the RC time τRC, which is defined as the product of electrolyte resistance and double layer capacitance. From these considerations, we conclude that the increase in hysteresis of regime I is the result of scan rates exceeding τRC, which accordingly do not switch the device entirely and thus yield a small hysteresis. As the capacitance is directly proportional to the channel thickness, we verify this conclusion by measuring OECTs with various PEDOT:PSS thicknesses at a constant scan rate (Fig. S10, ESI†). Transistors with thicker channel and hence larger τRC indeed show smaller hysteresis at high scan rates (regime I). Conversely, when the scan rate is lower than approximately 5 mV s−1, the device is fully switched and the dependency on the retention time becomes dominant (regime II).
These findings are highly interesting for circuitry, since they demonstrate that, by defining the gate voltage range of operation (e.g., ), the transistor can be used as a switch with stable operation on the upper or lower branch of the transfer curve, which enables devices with different threshold voltages. Moreover, the OECTs can be employed as memory devices utilizing the hysteretic behavior, which can be tuned in its extent through the switching speed.
Finally, we tackle the peculiar and reproducible hysteretic behavior of our OECTs, motivated by the importance that hysteresis has in circuit design and the increasing attention it has been receiving for neuromorphic applications. Even if the question of its origin still needs to be answered, we propose a mathematical model to quantify the hysteresis and we study it under different conditions for demonstrating its utility for advanced applications. These studies conclusively show that the hysteresis possesses a saturated state and that it scales with the scan rate in two regimes, namely the RC time-dominated and the retention time-dominated one.
These achievements are a significant step forward for using OECTs as energy-efficient devices in integrated circuitry, since they provide a framework that allows for dense packaging of high-performance, microscale solid OECTs with standard photolithographic techniques. The accompanying empiric equations are thereby valuable from an engineering perspective, as they allow to systematically adjust and implement the pronounced hysteresis to achieve transistors with multiple transfer paths or neuromorphic features.
Footnotes |
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/d1tc04230k |
‡ These authors contributed equally to this work. |
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2022 |