We have fabricated bottom contact pentacene TFTs on flexible polyimide substrate and silicon substrate using different passivation layers in order to reduce the electrical instability of pentacene devices, induced by water diffusion in the film, as evidenced by electrical measurements under different environments. Experimental data show that parylene passivation layer does not introduce appreciable degradation of device characteristics and allows standard lithographic process, but it is not an effective barrier for water diffusion. The encapsulation of pentacene TFTs with an additional acryl layer does not reduce the device sensitivity to the water, whereas devices encapsulated by a parylene/acryl/aluminum triple layer do not show increase of transfer characteristics hysteresis when measured in air. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.