Low-voltage, 30 nm channel length, organic transistors with a self-assembled monolayer as gate insulating films

We made nanometer-scale (gate length of 30 nm) organic thin-film transistors using a self-assembled monolayer (2 nm thick) as a gate insulator. The fabrication steps combine electron-beam lithography and lift-off techniques for the deposition of both metal electrodes and organic semiconductors with a chemical approach (self-assembly of organic molecules) to fabricate the gate insulator. Good performances of these transistors (with a record subthreshold slop of 350 mV/decade and a cutoff frequency of 20 kHz) and low-voltage operation (< 2 V) are demonstrated down to a gate length of 200 nm. A gate voltage modulation of the source-to-drain tunnel current is demonstrated for the 30 nm gate length device. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)03414-8].