Surface and electrical properties of organic–inorganic hybrid structure as gate insulator to organic thin film transistor

Abstract Carbon-based OTFT devices were fabricated using a plasma process for the gate electrode and gate insulators. A nanocrystalline carbon (nc-C) film was used as the gate electrode, and three different layers, cyclohexene, diamond-like carbon (DLC), and cyclohexene/DLC (hybrid insulator), were used as the gate insulator. The surface and electrical properties of the three different gate insulators on the nc-C gate electrode were investigated using the SPM method, and the leakage current density and dielectric constant of the metal–insulator–metal (MIM) structures with three different insulator layers were evaluated. The hybrid insulator layer had a very smooth surface, approximately 0.2 nm, a uniform surface without defects, and good adhesion between the layers. Overall, it is believed that the hybrid insulator lead to a decrease in the electrical leakage current and an improvement in the device performance.