APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 88, 233514 共2006兲

Static model for organic field-effect transistors including

both gate-voltage-dependent mobility and depletion effect
R. R. Schliewe, F. A. Yildirim, W. von Emden, R. Witte, and W. Bauhofera兲
Institute of Optical and Electronic Materials, Hamburg University of Technology, Eissendorfer Strasse 38,
D-21073 Hamburg, Germany
W. Krautschneider
Institute of Nanoelectronics, Hamburg University of Technology, Eissendorfer Strasse 38,
D-21073 Hamburg, Germany
共Received 26 January 2006; accepted 27 April 2006; published online 9 June 2006;
publisher error corrected 15 November 2006兲
Physics-based models of organic field-effect transistors 共OFETs兲 which can be used for
computer-aided simulation of organic integrated circuits were investigated. For this purpose
hybrid OFETs with poly共3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl兲 as the semiconductor were fabricated and
characterized. The differential drain-source resistance reveals the need for a unified consideration of
a gate-voltage-dependent mobility and of the depletion effect. We avoid neglecting the capacitance
of the insulator and the semiconductor which would have otherwise introduced restrictions. The
analytic modeling yields a compact static equivalent circuit diagram. © 2006 American Institute of
Physics. 关DOI: 10.1063/1.2211148兴

Integrated circuits 共ICs兲 based on organic materials are
of great interest for technical applications, for instance, as
active matrix organic light emitting diodes 共AMOLEDs兲 or
as radio frequency identification 共RFID兲 tags. The perspec-
tive of cost effective mass production of large area flexible
devices seems very attractive. Several research groups have
presented all-organic integrated circuits. Large efforts have
been undertaken to reduce operating voltage and to increase
frequency and lifetime. Progress in this field will lead to
circuits with enhanced complexity. At the same time, organic
field effect transistor 共OFET兲 models for simulation tools
will become essential to support the design of ICs and dis-
plays. In the beginning, models for inorganic transistors or
empirical models were applied.1 The concepts for current
transport and mobility can be roughly distinguished into
variable range hopping 共VRH兲 of polarons, multiple trapping
and thermal release 共MTR兲, and bandlike transport.2–4 Dif-
ferent OFET models have been published. On one hand there
are VRH-based models of the Philips group which are suited
for polymer devices.5 On the other hand there are MTR-
based models according to Horowitz et al., which better de-
scribe devices fabricated from small and ordered molecules.6
Another type of model reveals a gate-controlled injection
barrier caused by non-Ohmic contacts between source elec-
trode, drain electrode, and semiconductor.7,8
In this letter, we describe preparation and characteriza-
tion of hybrid OFETs whose characteristics have been mod-
eled. In contrast to previous publications which either con-
sider a gate-voltage-dependent mobility5 or the depletion
effect in a restrictive approximation,6,9 we combine both ef-
fects with less restrictions in a single model. This approach is
motivated by the observed drain-source resistance which
gives information on the operating modes of the transistor.
VRH is used since we deal with nonoptimized devices hav-
ing average mobilities but Ohmic contacts.
a兲
Electronic mail: bauhofer@tuhh.de
The fabrication of our OFET structures started with the
formation of electrodes on thermally oxidized n++-silicon
wafers 共tins = 300 nm兲.10 10 nm chromium was used as adhe-
sive layer and 40 nm gold was deposited as electrode mate-
rial via electron beam evaporation through a shadow
mask. Electrode separations of L = 26 ␮m and widths of
W ⬃ 1 mm were obtained.
All following processing steps were carried out in a
glove box with partial pressures p共O2兲 and p共H2O兲
⬍ 2 ppm. The samples were cleaned with CHCl3 and
treated with HMDS. Subsequently, regioregular poly共3-
hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl兲 共P3HT兲 of Rieke Metals was de-
posited. Differential scanning calorimetry 共DSC兲 measure-
ments on this polymer gave a melting temperature of
Tm,peak = 227 ° C and a crystallization temperature of
Tc,peak = 191 ° C. NMR measurements proved a regioregular-
ity of 97.3%. After purification of the polymer by recrystal-
lization a solution of 0.5 wt % in CHCl3 共99.9% + purity,
⬍0.01% H2O兲 was filtered 共0.2 ␮m pore size兲 and spin
coated 共3 s at 800 rpm, 10 s at 2000 rpm兲 on the electrode
structure. Residues of the solvent were removed with a tem-
perature treatment at 150 ° C for 24 h in vacuum. P3HT layer
thicknesses were around tsc = 60 nm.
The three-pole devices were characterized in the glove-
box with a self-built probe station 共Rshortcut = 3.3 ⍀,
Ropenloop ⬎ 150 T⍀兲. A Keithley parameter analyzer SCS
4200 was used outside the box. For a given sweep the time
for the first measurement point and the time interval between
consecutive points were set to 4 s and 2 s, respectively. This
timing represented a compromise between steady-state con-
ditions and degradation of the polymer through excessive
power. Conventional evaluation of measured OFET charac-
teristics yielded mobilities around 4 ⫻ 10−4 cm2 / V s, on/off
ratios up to 4 ⫻ 104, threshold voltages around −1.3 V, and
inverse subthreshold slopes below 2.7 V/decade.
Figure 1 depicts the OFET characteristics which were
used for modeling. The nearly linear slope of the logarithmi-
cally plotted resistance RDS at small drain-source voltages

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 233514-2 Schliewe et al.
FIG. 1. Measured 共•,쐓兲 and simulated 共—兲 output characteristics 共a兲 and
differential drain-source resistance 共b兲 of a hybrid organic field-effect tran-
sistor 共W = 3.6 mm兲. Inset: Equivalent circuit for the simulation model; open
circles 共o兲 represent the simulation of an advanced model shown in
Fig. 2共c兲.
VDS suggests a forward diode characteristic.7 However, con-
ventional metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor
共MOSFET兲 models behave similar in this region. In addition,
the monotonous increase of the curves in Fig. 1共a兲 and the
increase of the differential resistance in Fig. 1共b兲 are indica-
tive for Ohmic contacts which are modeled with series resis-
tances Rser. Extrapolation of the gate voltage to infinity
would yield 2Rser at the y axis in Fig. 1共b兲. Therefore, Rser is
definitely below 10.3 M⍀ in this case. RDS saturates for
small gate voltages around 1.5 G⍀. This value is attributed
to the bulk resistance of the semiconductor 共bulk conductivi-
ties between 10−7 and 10−5 S / cm兲,10 which is modeled by a
parallel Rpar.
The accumulation channel is described with a gate-
voltage-dependent mobility derived in Ref. 2 using a perco-
lation model for the linear region of the transistor:
␮ = a共Vso − VGx兲b .
Here, VGx denotes the voltage between gate and a given po-
sition x along the semiconductor-insulator interface and Vso
the switch-on voltage. The parameters a and b are physics-
based quantities. Relation 共1兲 is also used for the saturation
region.5 Within the gradual channel approximation this re-
sults in an analytical description of p-type OFET accumula-
tion channels:
共1兲 ⬙ b+2
W aCins
IDS =− 关r 共Vso − VGS兲 − rb+2共Vso − VGD兲兴,
L b+2
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Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 233514 共2006兲
FIG. 2. 共a兲 Extracted differential resistance RDS at VDS = −77.5 V as a func-
tion of the gate voltage VGS 共channel width W = 1.15 mm兲. 共b兲 Schematic
cross section of an OFET short before pinchoff. 共c兲 Advanced equivalent
circuit diagram.
⬙ =
Cins
␧0␧r,ins
tins
, r共V兲 = 再 V, V 艌 0
0, V ⬍ 0.
冎 共3兲
W and L denote width and length of the channel and Cins ⬙ the
insulator capacity per area. Describing the equivalent circuit
of Fig. 1共a兲 and the analytical description of the OFET in
VHDL-AMS the characteristics of Fig. 1共b兲 and subse-
quently of Fig. 1共a兲 have been fitted with the parameters
Rpar = 1.5 G⍀, Rser = 2.3 M⍀, and b = 0.8. These values are
comparable with recently published values.11 With the pre-
sented model the measured output characteristics can be fit-
ted in the range from VDS = 0 to − 20 V with an accuracy of
±5 nA 共ca. 6%兲 and from VDS = −20 to − 60 V with an accu-
racy of ±0.5%. The inaccuracy at low voltages may be at-
tributed to the fact that steady-state conditions had not yet
been reached at the beginning of a sweep. For drain-source
voltages exceeding −60 V and high gate voltages a system-
atic difference between calculated and measured values is
observed. This difference is attributed to carrier depletion
effects which tend to increase the drain-source resistance.
Deviations between simulation and measurement similar to
Fig. 1 also occur in Refs. 9 and 11 which only consider
depletion but no variable mobility and vice versa.
In spite of the use of a gate-voltage-dependent mobility
the values for the parameters a and Vso still vary with VGS.
This fact is attributed to charged species 共traps and mobile
ions兲 which may screen the gate and thus cause a reduction
of the mobility.
In order to obtain a model valid for the whole investi-
gated voltage range the parallel resistance Rpar has to be re-
placed by a parasitic depletion transistor based on the obser-
vation that, depending on the gate potential, the p-type
semiconducting film will increase in resistivity through
depletion. Equation 共4兲 describes the depletion depth at po-
sition x as a function of the voltage VGx.6,9
冋冑 册
共1兲
⬙
Csc ⬙ 2·共Vso − VGx兲
2Cins
T共VGx兲 = tsc 1− −1 . 共4兲
⬙
Cins ⬙
qNtscCsc
Here, Csc⬙ denotes the capacity per area of the semiconduct-
ing film, q the elementary charge, and N the dopant concen-
tration. The depletion depth vanishes for VGx ⬍ Vso, as seen
in Fig. 2共b兲. For VGx = Vpo it covers the total film thickness of
the semiconductor which leads to pinchoff of the parasitic
channel: T = tsc. In this context, the differing definitions of the
pinch-off voltage Vpo used in the literature should be pointed
共2兲
out.6,9 Figure 2共a兲 shows the differential resistance of another
 233514-3 Schliewe et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 233514 共2006兲

OFET which has been detected at high drain-source voltage

VDS with a reduced step width for the gate voltage VGS. For
gate voltages below −17.5 V the resistance deviates from a
Vpo = Vso +
⬙
NqtscCsc
⬙ 2
2Cins
· 冋冉 ⬙
Cins
⬙
Csc
+1 冊 册
2
−1 . 共10兲

constant value which is indicative of the depletion effect.

tS and tD denote the depletion depths at source and drain,
The characteristics have been derived analytically by in-
respectively, and are given in Eq. 共9兲 by replacing x by
tegrating infinitesimal conductivities along the channel
“S” or “D.” As expected, the computer simulation for the
within the gradual channel approximation by adding up vary-
OFET equivalent circuit of Fig. 2共c兲 indeed yields an
ing contributions from the accumulation channel and from
enhanced increase of the differential resistance RDS at high
the bulk. The bulk mobility ␮B is assumed as constant. Com-
VDS and VGS 关open circles 共䊊兲 in Figs. 1共a兲 and 1共b兲兴.
pared with the bulk, the channel is in general narrow with
This excellent agreement strongly supports the proposed
much lower resistivity. Therefore, the full film thickness tsc is
model. The simulation parameters were tsc = 55 nm,
used for the bulk contribution. At the accumulation channel
W = 3.6 mm, a = 9.8⫻ 10−6 cm2 / V1.8 s, b = 0.8, Vso = −40 V,
pinchoff the current flows at the channel end just like the
pB = N = 1.08⫻ 1018 / cm3, and ␮B = 2.8⫻ 10−4 cm2 / V s.
bulk current through the tapered nondepleted semiconduct-
In conclusion, we have fabricated OFETs to study their
ing region 关see Fig. 2共b兲兴. The total current can be decom-
different operation modi. Since existing models do not take
posed in a contribution 共1兲 from the accumulation channel
into account all significant effects they fail to fully describe
and in contributions 共2兲 and 共3兲 from the parasitic depletion
the observed characteristics. The necessity of a simultaneous
transistor:
consideration of gate-voltage-dependent mobility and deple-
共1兲 共2兲 共3兲
IDS = IDS + IDS + IDS , 共5兲 tion effect without neglecting insulator and semiconductor
capacities has been shown by presenting a compact physics-
with
based model.
共2兲 W
IDS =− ␮B pBqtsc关r共Vso − VGS兲 − r共Vso − VGD兲兴 共6兲 The authors acknowledge valuable discussions with
L
Professor H. Goebel from Helmut Schmidt University,
and Hamburg.
共3兲
IDS
I0
C⬙ tD − tS
= − sc
⬙ tsc
Cins ⬙
Cins
冉
C⬙ t2 − t2 t3 − t3
2tsc 3tsc
冊
− 1 − sc D 2 S + D 3 S . 共7兲
1
2
3
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8
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11
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