Improvement of mechanical durability on organic TFT with printed electrodes prepared from nanoparticle ink

Abstract We investigated a mechanism of improving adhesiveness depending on sintering temperature for printed silver (Ag) electrodes prepared from nanoparticle ink on an insulating polymer layer as the under layer. The adhesion strength significantly improved by sintering the Ag electrodes at a temperature above the glass transition temperature ( T g ) of the polymer layer. In the sample with improved adhesiveness, the interfacial fusion between the printed Ag electrodes and polymer layer was observed in a cross sectional scanning electron microscope image. Based on this mechanism, we have successfully demonstrated the improvement in mechanical durability of organic thin-film transistors (TFTs) with printed Ag electrodes. The degradation of the organic TFTs after applying bending stress was significantly suppressed by interfacial fusion.