A Pulse-Biasing Small-Signal Measurement Technique Enabling 40 MHz Operation of Vertical Organic Transistors

Organic/polymer transistors can enable the fabrication of large-area flexible circuits. However, these devices are inherently temperature sensitive due to the strong temperature dependence of charge carrier mobility, suffer from low thermal conductivity of plastic substrates, and are slow due to the low mobility and long channel length (L). Here we report a new, advanced characterization circuit that within around ten microseconds simultaneously applies an accurate large-signal pulse bias and a small-signal sinusoidal excitation to the transistor and measures many high-frequency parameters. This significantly reduces the self-heating and therefore provides data at a known junction temperature more accurate for fitting model parameters to the results, enables small-signal characterization over >10 times wider bias I-V range, with ~10⁵ times less bias-stress effects. Fully thermally-evaporated vertical permeable-base transistors with physical L = 200 nm fabricated using C₆₀ fullerene semiconductor are characterized. Intrinsic gain up to 35 dB, and record transit frequency (unity current-gain cutoff frequency, f_T) of 40 MHz at 8.6 V are achieved. Interestingly, no saturation in f_T - I and transconductance (g_m - I) is observed at high currents. This paves the way for the integration of high-frequency functionalities into organic circuits, such as long-distance wireless communication and switching power converters.