Fatigue behaviors of silicon nanowire field-effect transistors on bendable substrate

In this study, we fabricated an island-structured silicon nanowire (SiNW) field-effect transistor (FET) on an Ecoflex substrate and analyzed the device reliability against the bending fatigue. A SiNW-FET was fabricated on a plastic substrate and this FET on the plastic substrate was transferred onto the Ecoflex substrate. Compared to a SiNW-FET on a plastic substrate, the SiNW-FET with the island plastic structure on the Ecoflex substrate showed the stable electrical characteristics under various bending strain. Variations less than 10% of the threshold voltage and transconductance were observed under the bending strain of 15%. Moreover, the electrical characteristics were maintained even after 2000 bending cycles.