Fully integrated organic layered processes for making plastic electronics based on conductive polymers and semiconductor nanowires

Abstract

The present invention is directed to thin film transistors using nanowires (or other nanostructures such as nanoribbons, nanotubes and the like) incorporated in and/or disposed proximal to conductive polymer layer(s), and production scalable methods to produce such transistors. In particular, a composite material comprising a conductive polymeric material such as polyaniline (PANI) or polypyrrole (PPY) and one or more nanowires incorporated therein is disclosed. Several nanowire-TFT fabrication methods are also provided which in one exemplary embodiment includes providing a device substrate; depositing a first conductive polymer material layer on the device substrate; defining one or more gate contact regions in the conductive polymer layer; depositing a plurality of nanowires over the conductive polymer layer at a sufficient density of nanowires to achieve an operational current level; depositing a second conductive polymer material layer on the plurality of nanowires; and forming source and drain contact regions in the second conductive polymer material layer to thereby provide electrical connectivity to the plurality of nanowires, whereby the nanowires form a channel having a length between respective ones of the source and drain regions.