High‐Toughness and High‐Ductility Gold Electrodes for High‐Performance Deformable Organic Transistor Arrays

Abstract Electrodes with good electrical conductivity and mechanical stability are key to achieving high‐performance deformable electronic devices. The Au electrode offers high conductivity, a work function matched to P ‐type semiconductors, and compatibility with lithography processes. However, the Young's modulus of Au electrode does not match that of commonly used flexible substrates, limiting their application in deformable electronics. Here, a micropatterned Au electrode with high robustness and high ductility is prepared using a photopolymer substrate. Based on this strategy, a high performance deformable active‐matrix organic thin‐film transistor (OTFT) array is fabricated. The transistor array exhibits a maximum mobility of 2.7 cm 2 V −1 s −1 and its performance remains essentially unchanged after 500 bending cycles. The active‐matrix OTFT array achieves a density of up to 10,000 units cm −2 , with gate lead widths as narrow as 10 µm. These results demonstrate that Au electrodes prepared with this strategy hold strong potential for future deformable and wearable electronics.