Producing advanced organic semiconductor devices
High performance organic semiconductor devices display several advantages including easy processing, low cost and flexibility that could significantly advance the field of optoelectronics. Motivated by this the ILO project aimed at investigating the effect of organic injection laser technology that is based on organic semiconductors in solid state. Part of project work involved the realisation of efficient light efficient diodes and transistors using synthesised new coordinated metal complexes. One of the key project results involves the fabrication of organic Light-Emitting (Field-Effect) Transistors (LETs) on the basis of a flexible and transparent plastic foil (Mylar). The major innovation with this material is that it may act both as substrate and gate dielectric. These LETs that are made of plastic substrates may be exploited to produce flexible devices that combine the switching function of a transistor and the light emission. The dielectric sheet is transparent to Ultra Violet and Visible rays, which allows increased potentialities in the development of the device structure. For example, a transparent or semi-transparent gate electrode may result in light collection from both sides of the film. Moreover, using a highly reflective metal as gate electrode on one side of the sheet could allow optimisation of light extraction from the opposite side. Organic LETs may find useful applications in the development of disposable optoelectronic integrated circuits and electronic niches such as smart cards.
