Printed electronics is a revolutionary technology aimed at unconventional electronic device manufacture on plastic foils, and will probably rely on polymeric semiconductors for organic thin- film transistor (OTFT) fabrication. In addition to having excellent charge- transport characteristics in ambient conditions, such materials must meet other key requirements, such as chemical stability, large solubility in common solvents, and inexpensive solution and/or low- temperature processing. Furthermore, compatibility of both p- channel (hole- transporting) and n- channel (electron- transporting) semiconductors with a single combination of gate dielectric and contact materials is highly desirable to enable powerful complementary circuit technologies, where p- and n- channel OTFTs operate in concert. Polymeric complementary circuits operating in ambient conditions are currently difficult to realize: although excellent p- channel polymers are widely available, the achievement of high- performance n- channel polymers is more challenging. Here we report a highly soluble (similar to 60 g l(-1)) and printable n- channel polymer exhibiting unprecedented OTFT characteristics ( electron mobilities up to similar to 0.45 - 0.85 cm(2) V-1 s(-1)) under ambient conditions in combination with Au contacts and various polymeric dielectrics. Several top- gate OTFTs on plastic substrates were fabricated with the semiconductor- dielectric layers deposited by spin- coating as well as by gravure, flexographic and inkjet printing, demonstrating great processing versatility. Finally, all- printed polymeric complementary inverters ( with gain 25-65) have been demonstrated.
