Low-voltage-operating complementary-like circuits using ambipolar organic-inorganic hybrid thin-film transistors with solid-state-electrolyte gate insulator

Many soft-electronic applications, such as internet of things (IoTs) and wearable smart devices, must be operated at extremely low power because of their limited power sources. Here, we report the fabrication and performance of ultralow operating-voltage organic-inorganic hybrid thin-film transistors (TFTs) and their complementary-like circuits using solid-state-electrolyte gate insulators (SEGIs). The high specific capacitance of SEGIs, which is of the order of a few μF·cm−2, enables the supply of enough power to fully turn on TFT devices with operating voltages below ±2 V. For low-cost printable electronic circuitries, n-type amorphous metal-oxide semiconductors and p-type polythiophene-based π-conjugated organic molecules are sequentially deposited via solution processes, and their corresponding p- and n-channel TFT performances exhibit relatively well-balanced ambipolar charge-transport, with high hole and electron mobilities of more than 1 cm2 V−1 s−1. The ambipolar hybrid TFTs based on bi-layered organic and inorganic hetero-interfaces are then used to construct complementary-like inverters with very low operation bias (