Recent advancements in achieving high dielectric constant polymer dielectrics for low-power-consumption organic field-effect transistors

While efforts have been made to optimize organic semiconducting materials to achieve low-power-consumption organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), it is important to note that the choice of gate dielectric materials is equally critical. In general, a high-k polymer dielectric material is highly preferred for low-power-consumption OFETs. In this perspective, we highlight several newly emerged strategies for high dielectric constant polymer dielectrics. By exploiting the recent advances in molecular modulation and morphology control, these new strategies enable remarkably high dielectric constant up to 25–30 for polymer dielectrics, while still maintaining dielectric losses below 0.01 at 1 kHz. We further analyze the advantages and disadvantages of these strategies and propose four design principles—side-chain dipole, rigid free volume, self-assembly, and thermosets—for future polymer gate dielectrics in OFETs.