Skip to main content
Log in

Large-scale complementary integrated circuits based on organic transistors

  • Letter
  • Published:

From Nature

View current issue Submit your manuscript

Abstract

Thin-film transistors based on molecular and polymeric organic materials have been proposed for a number of applications, such as displays1,2,3 and radio-frequency identification tags4,5,6. The main factors motivating investigations of organic transistors are their lower cost and simpler packaging, relative to conventional inorganic electronics, and their compatibility with flexible substrates7,8. In most digital circuitry, minimal power dissipation and stability of performance against transistor parameter variations are crucial. In silicon-based microelectronics, these are achieved through the use of complementary logic—which incorporates both p- and n-type transistors—and it is therefore reasonable to suppose that adoption of such an approach with organic semiconductors will similarly result in reduced power dissipation, improved noise margins and greater operational stability. Complementary inverters and ring oscillators have already been reported9,10. Here we show that such an approach can realize much larger scales of integration (in the present case, up to 864 transistors per circuit) and operation speeds of ∼1 kHz in clocked sequential complementary circuits.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Figure 1: Chemical structures of organic semiconductors and schematic layer structures of circuits.
Figure 2: Representation of circuits and their constituents.
Figure 3: Characteristics of the 48-stage shift register.
Figure 4: Row decoder design.
Figure 5: Characteristics of the three-bit decoder.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Sirringhaus, H., Tessler, N. & Friend, R. H. Integrated optoelectronic devices based on conjugated polymers. Science 280, 1741–1744 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Dodabalapur, A. et al. Organic smart pixels. Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 142–144 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Jackson, T. N. et al. Organic thin-film transistors for organic light-emitting flat-panel display backplanes. IEEE J. Spec. Topics. Quant. Electron. 4, 100–104 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Brown, A. R. et al. Logic gates made from polymer transistors and their use in ring oscillators. Science 270, 972–974 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Drury, C. et al. Low cost all-polymer integrated circuits. Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 108–111 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ziemelis, K. Putting it on plastic. Nature 394, 619–620 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Garnier, F. et al. Thin film transistors based on organic conjugated semiconductors. Chem. Phys. 227, 253–262 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bao, Z. et al. High-performance plastic transistors fabricated by printing techniques. Chem. Mater. 9, 1299–1301 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Dodabalapur, A. et al. Complementary circuits with organic transistors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 69, 4227–4229 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Lin, Y.-Y. et al. Organic complementary ring oscillators. Appl. Phys. Lett. 74, 2714–2716 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Bao, Z., Lovinger, A. J. & Brown, J. New air-stable n-channel organic thin-film transistors. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 120, 207–208 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Dodabalapur, A., Torsi, L. & Katz, H. E. Organic transistors: two dimensional transport and improved electrical characteristics. Science 268, 270–271 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Katz, H. E., Torsi, L. & Dodabalapur, A. Synthesis, material properties and transistor performance of highly purified thiophene oligomers. Chem. Mater. 7, 2235–2237 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Filas, R. W. in Advances in Electronic Packaging Vol. 1, 1265–1282 (Am. Soc. Mech. Eng., New York, 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Rabay, J. M. in Digital Integrated Circuits: A Design Perspective Ch. 6 (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Dimitrakopoulos, C. et al. Low-voltage organic transistors on plastic comprising high dielectric constant gate insulators. Science 283, 822–824 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Dodabalapur, A., Katz, H. E., Torsi, L. & Haddon, R. C. Organic heterostructure field-effect transistors. Science 269, 1560–1562 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Dodabalapur, A., Baumbach, J., Baldwin, K. & Katz, H. E. Hybrid organic/inorganic complementary circuits. Appl. Phys. Lett. 68, 2246 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Bonse, M. et al. in IEDM Technical Digest 249–252 (Inst. Elect. Electron. Eng., Piscataway, New Jersey, USA, 1998).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank B. Batlogg, E. A. Chandross, A. J. Lovinger, J. H. O'Neill, M. Pinto, V. R. Raju, E. Reichmanis, J. Rogers, R. E. Slusher and P. Wiltzius for discussions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Dodabalapur.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Crone, B., Dodabalapur, A., Lin, YY. et al. Large-scale complementary integrated circuits based on organic transistors. Nature 403, 521–523 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35000530

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35000530

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Navigation