Low voltage, high gain electrolyte-gated complementary inverters based on transfer-printed block copolymer ion gels

Abstract

Low voltage, high gain organic/inorganic complementary invertors using electrolyte-gated thin-film transistors were successfully fabricated by using transfer-printed hydrophobic poly (styrene-b-methyl methacrylate-b-styrene) (SMS) triblock copolymer ion gels as a high capacitance gate dielectric. Solution-processed organic poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and inorganic zinc oxide (ZnO) were employed as the p- and n-type semiconductors, respectively. The fabricated p-and n-type transistors exhibited reliable device performance, a high drain current and on/off ratio, and low voltage operation. To expand the applicability of the SMS ion gels and the transfer printing technique, complementary inverters were fabricated by combining the P3HT and ZnO transistors in series. The resulting inverters exhibited suitable voltage inversion characteristics with a very high voltage gain of 25. These results implied that the transfer-printed block polymer ion gels are promising candidates for various electrochemical devices in which solid-state electrolyte materials are required.