Patent ID: 7566899

Claim:
A thin-film transistor backplane circuit comprising: a substrate; a dielectric layer formed on the upper surface of the substrate; a plurality of thin-film transistors formed on the dielectric layer, each of the thin-film transistors including a drain contact structure, a source contact structure, and an organic semiconductor region disposed between the source and drain contact structures; a plurality of readout amplifiers disposed adjacent to said plurality of thin-film transistors; and a plurality of address lines formed on the dielectric layer, each address line connecting the drain contact structures of a column of said plurality of thin-film transistors with an associated readout amplifier of said plurality of readout amplifiers, wherein each of the plurality of address lines extending from said column of said plurality of thin-film transistors to said associated read-out amplifier and the source and drain contact structures of each of the plurality of transistors respectively comprise a multi-layer structure including a base portion and a contact layer, wherein the base portion comprises a first material and includes a lower surface, an upper surface extending parallel to the lower surface, and opposing side surfaces extending between the lower and upper surfaces, and wherein the contact layer comprises a second material that is different from the first material, and the contact layer includes: a first portion that is disposed between the base portion and a side surface of the organic semiconductor region, and extends from the dielectric layer to the upper surface of the base portion, and a second portion formed opposite to at least one of the upper surface, the lower surface of the base portion, and at least one of the opposing side surfaces, wherein the second portion extends along said each of the plurality of address lines to an associated one of said source and drain contact structures, wherein the first material of the base portion consists essentially of one of aluminum and copper, and wherein the second material of the contact layer comprises one of nickel, gold, palladium, platinum and a conductive polymer.