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Crystalline order offers access to high speeds for organic transistors

A transistor fabricated from the crystalline phase of an organic semiconductor material could provide a path to improved switching speeds — rivalling those of devices built from inorganic materials such as silicon.
  1. Julie Euvrard

    1. Julie Euvrard is in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.

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  2. Barry P. Rand

    1. Barry P. Rand is in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.

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Transistors are the building blocks of digital circuits — they can be used to amplify a signal, or to switch between ‘on’ and ‘off’ states, through control of a current of charge carriers, which are either electrons or their positive counterpart (holes), or both. The bipolar junction transistor is a specific type of transistor that uses both types of carrier, and is particularly appropriate for high-power and high-frequency applications. Such devices are typically made from inorganic materials, but switching to organic semiconductors would grant access to a wide library of materials, opening the door to flexible and transparent electronics. Writing in Nature, Wang et al.1 report the fabrication of an organic bipolar junction transistor that could help the semiconductor industry to make that switch.

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Nature 606, 661-662 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01635-w

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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