Low-temperature processable inherently photosensitive polyimide gate dielectric for organic thin-film transistors: Synthesis, characterization, and application to transistors

Low-temperature processable inherently photosensitive polyimide was prepared from a dianhydride, 3,3′,4,4′-benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride, and aromatic diamines, 4,4′-diamino-3,3′dimethyl-diphenylmethane, through a polycondensation reaction, followed by a chemical imidization method. The photosensitive polyimide cured at 180 °C is used as a gate dielectric to fabricate flexible organic thin-film transistors with pentacene as an active semiconductor on polyethersulfone substrate. With the inherently photosensitive polyimide, the access to the gate electrode could be created easily without complicated and expensive lithographic techniques. A field effect carrier mobility of 0.007 cm2/V s was obtained for the pentacene organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) with the photo-patterned polyimide as a gate dielectric. More detailed analysis for the pentacene OTFTs will be given with electrical properties of the thin polyimide film. Low-temperature processability and patternability of the polyimide give us more freedom to choose plastic substrates in OTFTs and facilitate the realization of low-cost organic electronics.