Article ID: JIEP-D-25-00007
This study evaluated the impact of contact resistance on changes in the electronic characteristics of pentacene organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) under a tensile bending load. The contact resistances at the interface between the electrode and semiconductor layer of the OTFTs were estimated by means of the transfer line method (TLM) using specimens with different channel lengths. In this evaluation, the load direction dependence (parallel or perpendicular to the current direction of the OTFTs) in the electronic characteristic changes induced by the bending load was also evaluated. The results demonstrated that, in all cases, both the contact resistance and the channel resistance increased due to the tensile bending load. In addition, it was found that the rate of increase in the contact resistance for the parallel load was greater than that for the perpendicular load. It was also observed that the channel resistance had a higher stress sensitivity to the tensile bending load than the contact resistance.