Scalable Fabrication of Highly Crystalline Organic Semiconductor Thin Film by Channel-Restricted Screen Printing toward the Low-Cost Fabrication of High-Performance Transistor Arrays

Control over the morphology and crystallinity of small-molecule organic semiconductor (OSC) films is of key importance to enable high-performance organic optoelectronic devices. However, such control remains particularly challenging for solution-processed OSC devices because of the complex crystallization kinetics of small-molecule OSC materials in the dynamic flow of inks. Here, a simple yet effective channel-restricted screen-printing method is reported, which uses small-molecule OSCs/insulating polymer to yield large-grained small-molecule OSC thin-film arrays with good crystallization and preferred orientation. The use of cross-linked organic polymer banks produces a confinement effect to trigger the outward convective flow at two sides of the channel by the fast solvent evaporation, which imparts the transport of small-molecule OSC solutes and promotes the growth of small-molecule OSC crystals parallel to the channel. The small-molecule OSC thin-film array produced by screen printing exhibits excellent performance characteristics with an average mobility of 7.94 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) and a maximum mobility of 12.10 cm(2) V-1 s(-1), which are on par with its single crystal. Finally, screen printing can be carried out using a flexible substrate, with good performance. These demonstrations bring this robust screen-printing method closer to industrial application and expand its applicability to various flexible electronics.