Intelligent Soft Semiconductors Lab
RESEARCH
Printed and Flexible Electronics
For at least the past ten years printed electronics has promised to revolutionize our daily life by making cost-effective electronic circuits and sensors available through mass production techniques, for their ubiquitous applications in wearable components, rollable and conformable devices, and point-of-care applications.
While passive components, such as conductors, resistors and capacitors, had already been fabricated by
printing techniques at industrial scale, printing processes have been struggling to meet the requirements for mass-produced electronics and optoelectronics applications despite their great potential.
In the case of logic integrated circuits (ICs), which constitute the focus of this Progress Report, the main limitations have been represented by the need of suitable functional inks, mainly high-mobility printable semiconductors and low sintering temperature conducting inks, and evoluted printing tools capable of higher resolution, registration and uniformity than needed in the conventional graphic arts printing sector.
- High-performance organic field-effect transistors (OFETs)
- High speed organic integrated circuits via printing process
- Printed and flexible logic gates
- Ambipolar OFETs and complementary-like circuits
- Interface and contact engineering for high speed CMOS circuits
Multi-Functional OFETs
Multi-functional organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), an emerging focus of organic electronics and optoelectronic devices, hold great potential for a variety of applications, such as integrated circuits (ICs), display backplanes, wearable sensors, light-emitting transistors, and non-volatile memory.
Our wearable device research lab is studying and developing for key strategies towards multi-functional integration of OFETs, which involves the exploration of functional materials, interfaces modifications, modulation of condensed structures, optimization of device geometry, and device integration.
- Printed and flexible phototransistors for wearable sensors
- Organic non-volatile memory based on OFETs
- Charge storage elements, electrets and ferroelectrics
- Printed organic NAND flash memory
- Light-emitting transistors for high-definition displays and organic lasers
Textile Wearable Devices
In the near future, textile products including what one wears will transform from their present to multi-functional, adaptive and responsive systems. The functions may include communication, computation and
entertainment, as well as health care. Textiles used in nonapparel applications may perform surveillance and detection functions.
Our wearable device LAB is developing a variety of textile-based wearable smart devices.
- Fiber transistors and memory for woven electronic systems.
- Textile-antenna for energy harvesting and communication
- Passive electronic circuitry, resistor, capacitors and inductors for RLC circuits
- Light-emitting diodes and electrochemical cells for information displays and signage
- Knitted sensors using nano-carbon based conducting fibers.
