Organic complementary ring oscillators using a functional polymer interfacial layer for highly improved oscillation frequency

We report the improved oscillation frequency of the organic complementary ring oscillators by balancing mobilities of p- and n-type organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with a functional polymer interfacial layer. By employing poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as the interfacial layer, the balanced performance of the p- and n-type OFETs was achieved, which resulted in the improved performance of the complementary inverters. With the PMMA interfacial layer, the noise margin was increased from 35 % to 80 % of 1/2 supply voltage, and the maximum gain was 1.5 times higher than the one of the complementary inverter without the interfacial layer. The oscillation frequency of the organic complementary ring oscillators was remarkably improved from 106.7 Hz to 1.4 kHz. The polymer interfacial layer to balance the performance of p- and n-type OFETs is found to be a simple and efficient way to facilitate the operation of the organic complementary ring oscillators.