Arrays of TFTs and circuits were fabricated on precleaned, 5cm×5cm, 125μm thick polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates (Dupont-Teijin). Full details of our vacuum-fabrication procedures have been given in previous publications [17–19,23]. Briefly, aluminium gate electrodes and associated tracks were vacuum evaporated onto the substrates through shadow masks. Subsequently, the substrates were attached to a cooled web-coater drum (Aerre Machines). With the drum rotating at a linear speed of 25m/min under vacuum, flash-evaporated TPGDA monomer vapour which condensed onto the substrates was cross-linked by exposure, in situ, to a plasma. The resulting smooth, pinhole-free films were typically 500nm to 1μm thick with a measured dielectric constant varying in the range 4–5. For circuit fabrication, the insulator was patterned using shadow masks to define rectangular areas separated by 1mm gaps to act as vias for inter-layer metallic connections. The substrates were then transferred into an evaporator (Minispectros, Kurt Lesker) integrated into a nitrogen glovebox for the vacuum-deposition (2.4nm/min) of DNTT onto the insulator. Without exposing the substrates to ambient air, the gold source/drain metallisation layer was deposited through a shadow mask in the same evaporator.
