Stretchable electronics are poised to revolutionize personal healthcare and robotics, where they enable distributed and conformal sensors. Transistors are fundamental building blocks of electronics, and there is a need to produce stretchable transistors using low-cost and scalable fabrication techniques. Here, we introduce a facile fabrication approach using laser patterning and transfer printing to achieve high-performance, solution-processed intrinsically stretchable organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). The device consists of Ag nanowire (NW) electrodes, where the source and drain electrodes are patterned using laser ablation. The Ag NWs are then partially embedded in a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) matrix. The electrodes are combined with a PDMS dielectric and polymer semiconductor, where the layers are individually transfer printed to complete the OTFT. Two polymer semiconductors, DPP-DTT and DPP-4T, are considered and show stable operation under the cyclic strain of 20 and 40%, respectively. The OTFTs maintain electrical performance by adopting a buckled structure after the first stretch-release cycle. The conformability and stretchability of the OTFT is also demonstrated by operating the transistor while adhered to a finger being flexed. The ability to pattern highly conductive Ag NW networks using laser ablation to pattern electrodes as well as interconnects provides a simple strategy to produce complex stretchable OTFT-based circuits.
Keywords: Ag nanowires; laser patterning; organic electronics; organic thin-film transistors; stretchable electronics.