Organic Semiconductors - Processing

Processing

There are significant differences between the processing of small molecule organic semiconductors and semiconducting polymers. Thin films of soluble conjugated polymers can be prepared by solution processing methods. On the other hand, small molecules are quite often insoluble and typically require deposition via vacuum sublimation. Both approaches yield amorphous or polycrystalline films with variable degree of disorder. “Wet” coating techniques require polymers to be dissolved in a volatile solvent, filtered and deposited onto a substrate. Common examples of solvent-based coating techniques include drop casting, spin-coating, doctor-blading, inkjet printing and screen printing. Spin-coating is a widely used technique for small area thin film production. It may result in a high material loss. The doctor-blade technique has a minimal material loss and was primarily developed for large area thin film production. Vacuum based thermal deposition of small molecules requires evaporation of molecules from a hot source. The molecules are then transported through vacuum onto a substrate. Condensation of these molecules on the substrate surface results in thin film formation. Wet coating techniques can be applied to small molecules but to a lesser extent depending on material solubility.