IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 59, NO.

1, JANUARY 2012 221

The Effect of Magnetic Field on the Correlation
Between Current Gain and ON-to-OFF Current Ratio
in a Nonmagnetic Organic Transistor With
P36HCTPSi:FIrpic as Double Emitter
D. Schulz, E. Holz, Abd R. B. M. Yusoff, Y. Song, and S. A. Shuib
AbstractWe present nonmagnetic organic transistors with
wideband-gap polymer:bis[(4,6-diuorophenyl)pyridinato-N,C
2
]-
(picolinato)iridium(III) (P36HCTPSi:FIrpic) mixed heterojunc-
tions, achieving a high stable current gain of 73 and 14% organic
magnetocurrent effect over a wide range of collectoremitter volt-
ages and an external magnetic eld, respectively. We employed
a substrate heating treatment technique during deposition of the
mixed emitter layer to achieve low surface roughness and, conse-
quently, improved the ON-to-OFF current ratio of around 10
5
.
Index TermsBipolar transistor, metal-base transistor (MBT),
polymer blends.
I. INTRODUCTION
N
ONMAGNETIC organic transistors (NOTs) present a
potential for a low cost, easy fabrication, and high-speed
switching device. In the last few years, multilayered hetero-
junction NOTs, where stack of layers are arranged in one
structure, have become the widespread concept where current
gain , ON-to-OFF current ratio, and organic magnetocurrent
effect (OME) approaching 4400, 10
5
, and 400%, respectively,
have been reported [1][3]. In the emitterbase forward active
mode [see Fig. 1(a)], the electrons injected by the emitter get
into the base and arrive at the collector terminal. At the same
time, the holes back injected from the base get into the emitter
from the emitter current. Meanwhile, the basecollector diode
is reverse biased, meaning that the electrons that arrive at the
basecollector diode from the base are swept by the potential
bias in the depletion layer to the collector and form the electron
current. The base current is the difference between the collector
and emitter currents. is dened as the ratio of the collector
current over the base current. To maximize , minimize the
Manuscript received February 28, 2011; revised May 4, 2011 and October 5,
2011; accepted October 7, 2011. Date of publication November 14, 2011; date
of current version December 23, 2011. The review of this paper was arranged
by Editor A. C. Arias.
D. Schulz and E. Holz are with Komax Systems LCF SA, 2301 La Chaux-
de-Fonds, Switzerland.
A. R. B. M. Yusoff is with the Departamento de Fsica, Group of Organic
Optoelectronic Devices, Universidade Federal do Paran, 81531-990 Paran,
Brazil.
Y. Song and S. A. Shuib are with Komax Systems Malaysia, Penang 11900,
Malaysia (e-mail: s.saiful-anuar@live.com).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TED.2011.2171967
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic structure of the studied device. The electrons are
injected from the emitter into the base, and at the same time, the holes are
back injected from the base to the emitter. (b) Schematic of the MBT with the
structure of FZ-Si/PANI/P36HCTPSi:FIrpic/LiF/Al.
back-injected holes into the emitter and the recombination of
electron and hole in the base terminal.
The objective of this paper is to improve device perfor-
mance in terms of , ON-to-OFF current ratio, and OME. In
order to achieve this objective, we used the oat-zone silicon
(FZ-Si) that has already shown an exceptional high of up
to 4400 [1]. Among NOTs parameters, and the ON-to-
OFF current ratio are two important merits, and an OFF-state
current level should be as low as possible in order to min-
imize power consumption at the OFF-state. In this paper,
we fabricate an organic transistor using FZ-Si as a collec-
tor and a polymer:bis[(4,6-diuorophenyl)pyridinato-N,C
2
]-
(picolinato)iridium(III) (P36HCTPSi:Firpic) mixed layer as an
emitter, and we discuss the role of a different blending ratio in
such a device.
II. DEVICE FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION
Devices were fabricated on 200-m-thick FZ-Si with 111
orientation and 100 /m. To place the base layer with full
surface coverage, the chemical deposition method is used and
0018-9383/$26.00 2011 IEEE
222 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 59, NO. 1, JANUARY 2012
has been reported elsewhere [3]. The device structure of the
studied samples A, B, C, D, E, F, and Gis FZ-Si/PANI(100 nm)/
P36HCTPSi:FIrpic(60 nm)/LiF(0.5 nm)/Al(100 nm) [see
Fig. 1(b)]. In this paper, FZ-Si/PANI was subject to a x heating
treatment (T
FZSi/PANI
= 100

C). The temperature of 100

C
was chosen to remove water molecules fromthe polymer matrix
[4][7]. The blending ratio of P36HCTPSi:FIrpic is varied as
follows: 0:5, 1:5, 2:4, 3:3, 4:2, 3:4, and 4:4 for devices A, B, C,
D, E, F, and G, respectively.
The fabricated metal-base transistor (MBT) was then trans-
ferred into a glovebox and was placed on a homebuilt sample
holder. This sample holder was placed between the poles of
an electromagnet with the magnetic eld perpendicular to the
direction of current ow in the device. The magnetic eld was
varied from 0 to 2 T with the scan speed (s = H/t) [8]
of 3 mTs
1
. The currentvoltage IV measurements were per-
formed using the Keithley 4200 semiconductor characterization
system. All measurements were performed in total darkness and
sequentially performed for two times: 1) without a magnetic
eld applied to the device; and 2) with a magnetic eld applied
to the device.
III. MAGNETIC COMMONEMITTER MODULATION AT
ROOM TEMPERATURE
The magnetic collector current versus collectoremitter volt-
age (I
C
V
CE
) characteristics of a representative FZ-Si NOT are
shown in Fig. 2(a). The measurements have been conducted in
total darkness at room temperature with the presence of the
magnetic eld. The magnetic collector current refers to the
measurements with the presence of the magnetic eld. This
device exhibits an excellent evidence of saturation of I
C
in
the investigated potential bias range and exhibits a I
ON
value
of about 73.3 A for the device with 3:3 blending ratio at
V
CE
= 5 V and I
B
= 1 A, respectively. The base current is
increased in steps of 0.14 nA. A possible mechanism for an
ideal I
C
V
CE
curve at high base currents might be ascribed to
an extremely low leakage; in fact, the measured leakage current
is only at 118.11 pA at 5 V, indicating a negligible leakage
current through the base. In order to allow direct comparison
to other devices A, B, C, E, F, and G, the I
ON
values are 55,
61, 69, 71, 70, and 67, respectively. The magnetic I
C
V
CE
characteristics of the device operated at I
B
= 0 and 1 A are
shown in Fig. 2(b). The device demonstrates a high ON-to-OFF
current ratio of 6.2 10
5
, where the ON-to-OFF current ratio is
dened as I
C
(at I
B
= 1 A)/I
C
(at I
B
= 0 A) at V
CE
= 5 V.
To enhance the ON-to-OFF current ratio, a reduction in the
basecollector Schottky diode leakage current under reverse
bias is necessary in the future. As we remove the magnetic eld
away from the device, the ON-to-OFF current ratio for device D
dropped by 13.9% to 5.4 10
5
.
IV. MAGNETIC CURRENT GAIN VERSUS
COLLECTOREMITTER VOLTAGE
The dependence of the magnetic on the V
CE
at base
current from 0.14 nA to 1 A is demonstrated in Fig. 3. Based
on the extremely low leakage current in the commonemitter
Fig. 2. (a) Magnetic collector current versus collectoremitter voltage
(I
C
V
CE
) characteristics for various values of I
B
(01 A in 0.14-nA steps).
(b) I
C
V
CE
characteristics of the NOT operated at I
B
= 0 and 1 A.
Fig. 3. Magnetic commonemitter current gain versus collectoremitter volt-
age (V
CE
) characteristics.
characteristics, high is observed at a low current level.
Apart from the extremely low leakage current, large can be
attributed to an optimal base thickness, which minimized the
carrier recombination in the base region and the presence of the
magnetic eld. In Fig. 3, an observed curve can be divided into
three different distinct regions. In region A (V
CE
< 0.05 V),
for I
B
0.14 nA to 1 A is in the range of about 06. In
intermediate region B, as V
CE
increased to 0.1 V, abruptly
increased from 6 to 32. Finally, in third region C, from V
CE
0.15 to 5 V, sharply arose to 73. In Fig. 3 (see the inset),
in region C tends to increase with V
CE
. In this device,
SCHULZ et al.: EFFECT OF MAGNETIC FIELD ON GAIN AND RATIO CORRELATION IN A NOT 223
TABLE I
DEPENDENCE OF CURRENT GAIN ON DIFFERENT BLENDING RATIOS.
DATA TAKEN AT V
CE
= 5 V AND I
B
= 1 A MEASURED
AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
Fig. 4. Magnetic collector current versus device with different blending ratios.
did not suffer any degradation or fall-off at a high V
CE
.
This behavior is practically good for practical application since
it shows that the device has a good saturation behavior and
low leakage current. Table I describes for all other devices
taken at V
CE
= 5 V and I
B
= 1 A. In addition to the high
purity and longer carrier lifetime of FZ-SI, high can be
also attributed to the inuence of the magnetic eld. From the
I
C
V
CE
characteristics in the case of magnetic eld applied to
the device, both ON-to-OFF current ratio and have increased
around 14%. Following this rationale, the electron injection
efciency from the P36HCTPSi:FIrpic emitter layer has also
increased with the inuence of the magnetic eld. We conclude
that the magnetic eld has a strong inuence on the electron
injection from the emitter layer to the base layer.
V. MAGNETIC COLLECTOR CURRENT VERSUS
BLENDING RATIO
Fig. 4 illustrates magnetic I
C
as a function of blending
ratio for all devices operated at room temperature taken at
V
CE
= 5 V and I
B
= 1 A with magnetic eld applied to the
device. The maximum I
C
occurred at the balance blending
ratio of P36HCTPSi:FIrpic is 73 A. The lowest ON-to-OFF
current ratio can be observed in device A, with 0:5 ratio of
P36HCTPSi:FIrpic with I
C
, is about 42 A. Although I
C
for
the device with an equal blending ratio has reached a maximum
value of 73, it is still low, as compared to other NOTs [1], [2],
[9][16]. Therefore, optimizing the blending ratio is necessary
and should be helpful for the enhancement of I
C
.
Fig. 5. (a) Magnetic ON-to-OFF current ratio versus device with different
blending ratios. (b) Magnetic ON-to-OFF current ratio as a function of the ON-
current for device D, which stays above 6 10
5
to 80 A.
VI. MAGNETIC ON-TO-OFF CURRENT RATIO VERSUS
BLENDING RATIO
Fig. 5(a) displays the magnetic ON-to-OFF current ratio
versus blending ratio for all devices at V
CE
= 5 V and I
B
=
1 A. The utmost ON-to-OFF current ratio obtained in device
D is 6.21 10
5
, whereas the worst ON-to-OFF current ratio
is 8 10
4
in device A. A signicant reduction in the OFF-
state is mainly an important factor in this device. The recorded
leakage current in device D is about 10
10
A and, consequently,
increases the ON-to-OFF current ratio. From these observations,
the ratio between these two polymers in the emitter also con-
tributes a signicant role in determining the ON-to-OFF current
ratio in addition to the low leakage current. Fig. 5(b) plots the
magnetic ON-to-OFF current ratio (device D, for I
B
= 1 A ON,
divided by I
B
= 0 A OFF) as a function of the ON-current as
V
CE
was varied from 0 to 5 V. The ON-to-OFF current ratio of
the device remains > 10
5
to 40 A and is still above > 10
5
to
beyond 70 A.
VII. OME VERSUS MAGNETIC FIELD
To further investigate the inuence of the magnetic eld
toward the device, we performed a simple measurement by
varying the magnetic eld from 0 to 2 T in total darkness.
Fig. 6 shows the magnitude of OME in a NOT device at room
224 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 59, NO. 1, JANUARY 2012
Fig. 6. OME% versus external magnetic eld measured at room temperature
at different driving voltages.
temperature for different constant applied voltages. The ob-
served curves exhibit nonlinear responses of the device toward
the external magnetic eld. As shown in these plots, the mag-
nitude of OME generally increases as voltage increases. As the
voltage increased to 1.5 V, the highest recorded OME that can
be observed in our device is 14%. A complete analysis of the
OME as a function of a different P36HCTPSi:FIrpic blending
ratio could be conducted for future studies.
VIII. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we have established the fabrication of NOTs
operated in the excellent saturation region by using FZ-Si
combined with the substrate heating method. To improve the
electron injection from the emitter to the collector and keep
the devices operating in the saturation region, we adopted a
100-nm PANI base terminal and a 0.5-nm LiF carrier injection
enhancement layer at the emitter terminal. With a balance
blending ratio of the emitter terminal, the NOT exhibited a
high output current of 73 A and high of up to 73 in the
saturation region at a high voltage of V
CE
= 5 V and I
B
of
1 A. While operated under commonemitter characteristics,
the ON-to-OFF current ratio of the device can achieve up to 10
5
at I
B
= 0 and 1 A and V
CE
= 5 V. In addition, an OME as
high as 14% is obtained at room temperature.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Komax Research and Devel-
opment Division for helpful discussion.
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D. Schulz, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
E. Holz, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
Abd R. B. M. Yusoff, photograph and biography not available at the time of
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Y. Song, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.
S. A. Shuib, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.