Root cause of hysteresis in organic thin film transistor with polymer dielectric

Moisture is identified as the root cause of the hysteresis problem that can occur in the organic thin film transistor with a polymer gate dielectric. The hysteresis problem can be eliminated by simply drying the dielectric layer sufficiently prior to the deposition of semiconductor. The moisture effects are reversible such that the device output characteristics can be made to change from moisture-affected to moisture-free state and then back to the original moisture-affected state. The extent of hysteresis can be related to solubility parameter, a physical property unique to a polymer. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.