Poly(sodium-4-styrene sulfonate) (PSSNa)-assisted transferable flexible, top-contact high-resolution free-standing organic field-effect transistors

Abstract

The development of high-integration, flexible and transferable devices is a very important premise to realize authentically wearable applications in the future. Here, we report how to fabricate flexible, free-standing and high-resolution (down to 5 μm) top-contact OFETs based on a polystyrene (PS) dielectric layer. In this process, we use a special sacrificial layer, poly(sodium-4-styrene sulfonate) (PSSNa). It is low-cost, dissolves quickly in water at room temperature and has good compatibility with most organic material processing techniques. With the help of this sacrificial layer, this kind of free-standing transistors can be successfully transferred onto arbitrary substrates. Furthermore, the degradation of the performance of the devices after multiple and successive transfer is tolerated.