The Stability of Organic Field-Effect Transistors: From Materials, Devices to Circuits

ConspectusOrganic field-effect transistors (OFETs) have attracted broad attention in flexible displays, human-machine interaction, and the Internet of Things (IoTs) due to their unique advantages, including flexibility, low cost, large-area fabrication, and biocompatibility. However, their stability remains a key barrier to commercialization. Focusing on this central obstacle toward commercialization, we bridge the stability gap by proposing an integrated "material-device-circuit" stabilization route. Material stability was achieved from both chemical and physical perspectives. Chemically, by removing reactive oxygen species (ROS) and suppressing triplet excitations via vitamin C (VC) treatment, oxidative degradation of n-type organic semiconductor (OSC) films was effectively prevented; Physically, by revealing the aggregation-state evolution governed by interfacial stress, high morphological stability was achieved through oxygen-induced lattice strain (OILS) and quasi-dispersion strengthening with nanoparticles. Device stability encompassing operational stability, environmental stability (thermal stability, photostability, oxygen stability), and storage stability was achieved by microwave annealing, reaching the zero-temperature-coefficient (ZTC) point, constructing an "exciton-polaron quenching" strategy, and strain balance strategy. Circuit stability was further achieved by stabilizing n-type OFETs and adopting an asymmetric dual-gate strategy toward stable CMOS inverters and uniform unipolar logic circuits.Beyond stability enhancement, we further turned instability into an opportunity. By manipulating the morphological evolution of OSCs, we realized a controllable transformation from polycrystalline to single-crystalline states. By the synthesis of photoresponsive OSCs and the exploiting of the photothermal effect at the electrode/OSC interface of OFETs, the functionalities of UV and IR detection were achieved, respectively. Collectively, our integrated "material-device-circuit" stabilization route establishes a comprehensive and robust framework for the application of OSCs, OFETs, and organic integrated circuits, which expands their potential applications.