Soft Materials for Flexible, Stretchable Hybrid Electronics
Abstract
Printed electronics based on mechanically agile thin-film transistors (TFTs) and circuitry is a revolutionary new technology of great DoD relevance for fabricating unconventional optoelectronics using high-throughput, inexpensive solution processing/printing on flexible/stretchable substrates. The enabling materials objectives are to understand/implement the science underlying the design of: 1) flexible/stretchable printable semiconductors, dielectrics, and contacts; 2) mechanically flexible, stretchable, lightweight circuits for displays, sensors, medical diagnostics, and energy harvesting/storage, integrated with inexpensive plastics and textiles; 3) bio-electronics with soft/biocompatible/bio-degradable circuitry for tissues and organs. Combining these new materials will yield key circuit elements such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, and combinations thereof, where new functionalities will require mechanical agility, bio-compatibility, and electronics on unconventional substrates, and new processing methodologies for device fabrication. This proposal outlines a program to build on previous achievements, and to design and realize new solution-processable, printable, electronic and passive materials, and to integrate them into flexible and stretchable electronics. We will achieve these objectives through the three interconnected tasks. Task 1. Active/Passive Materials. Here we will design, synthesize, characterize, and implement for this program semiconductors, dielectrics, and conductors which are solution-processable at low temperatures using solvents compatible with “soft” substrates. Task 2. Materials Integration on Soft Substrates. Once acceptable TFT solution processability and charge transport metrics are achieved, the next task will be integration into building block circuits on substrates such as elastomers, sacrificial transfer films, and tissues. Task 3. Stretchable Device Fabrication.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 30, 2018
- Source ID
- FA95501810320
Entities
People
- Tobin J. Marks
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Northwestern University
- United States Air Force