CAREER: High-Performance Nanoscale Polymer Thin-Film Transistors for Integrated Circuit Applications

本研究的目的是为集成电路应用开发具有大规模均匀性的高性能有机薄膜晶体管。该方法是开发、制造和研究具有内链取向的纳米级自对准聚合物薄膜晶体管。共轭聚合物纳米结构的图案化及其内部链取向的操纵是通过可伸缩的纳米压印技术实现的。智能优点：具有低接触电阻和高载流子迁移率的纳米级自对准聚合物薄膜晶体管有望具有超过数百兆赫的截止频率。凭借均匀的聚合物链取向和低电压操作，该技术还有望提高器件的一致性和可靠性，这是可靠和可重复的塑料电路所高度需要的。构图孤立的聚合物纳米结构和控制内链堆积的能力也为在纳米尺度上研究功能聚合物的基本结构-性质关系建立了一个独创的实验平台。更广泛的影响：通过这项研究，在几十到几百兆赫工作的聚合物电路有望获得广泛的应用，以实现无处不在的传感和计算，例如工作在13.56兆赫兹的塑料射频识别标签，以及带有集成有机传感器和板载信号处理电路的全塑料电路。该项目为参与的学生提供多学科培训。少数民族本科生将通过本科生研究计划的支持参与这一研究项目。此外，向7-12年级的学生推广科学、技术、工程和数学教育的外展工作将通过接待少数民族和经济困难中学的教师参加暑期研究项目来完成。

The objective of this research is to develop high-performance organic thin-film transistors with large-scale uniformity for integrated circuit applications. The approach is to develop, fabricate and investigate nanoscale self-aligned polymer thin-film transistors with internal chain orientation. The patterning of conjugated polymer nanostructures and the manipulation of their internal chain orientation are achieved by scalable nanoimprint technique.Intellectual Merit: Nanoscale self-aligned polymer thin-film transistors with low contact resistance and high carrier mobility are expected to have cut-off frequencies over hundreds of mega-hertz. With uniform polymer chain orientation and low voltage operation, the technology is also expected to improve device uniformity and reliability, which are highly desired for reliable and repeatable plastic circuits. The ability to pattern isolated polymer nanostructures and to control internal chain packing also establishes an original experimental platform for investigating the fundamental structure-property relationships in functional polymers at the nanoscale. Broader Impact: Enabled by this research, polymer circuits operating at tens to hundreds of mega-hertz are expected to find broad applications to achieve ubiquitous sensing and computation, such as plastic radio-frequency identification tags operating at 13.56 mega-hertz and all-plastic circuits with integrated organic sensors and on-board signal processing circuitries. This project provides participating students with multidisciplinary training. Minority undergraduate students will participate in this research project through the support of undergraduate research programs. In addition, outreaching to the 7th-12th grade students to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics education will be accomplished by hosting teachers from minority and economically disadvantaged secondary schools in a summer research program.