SOFT HYBRID MATERIALS FOR FLEXIBLE, STRETCHABLE, PATTERNABLE ELECTRONICS
Abstract
Future electronic device functionalities will require unconventional materials and building-blocks amenable to novel fabrication methods, architectures, and operational modes. This technology is of great DoD relevance for developing electronics via high-throughput, inexpensive solution processing/printing on flexible/stretchable substrates. Addressing this challenge requires understanding/implementing the science-based design of: 1) flexible/stretchable, printable semiconductors, dielectrics, and contacts; 2) mechanically flexible/stretchable, bio-integrable lightweight circuits for displays, sensors, and medical diagnostics, integrated with inexpensive plastics, tissues, and textiles. Combining these new materials will yield key circuit elements such as transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, where new functionalities will require mechanical agility, bio-compatibility, and electronics on unconventional substrates, and new processing fabrication methodologies. This proposal outlines a coordinated program to realize and understand such materials and to integrate them with “soft” substrates and devices. Three interconnected tasks will be pursued. Task 1. Materials Development. Design, synthesize, characterize, and integrate solution-processable active and corollary electronic materials using benign solvents compatible with soft/stretchable substrates. Objectives: i) New transistor semiconductors; ii) High performance polymer-metal oxide semiconductors; iii) New gate dielectrics and electrolytes. iv) Define chemical/physical properties. Task 2. Materials Characterization and Integration. Evaluate device performance on rigid substrates and then integrate them on soft elastomers, transfer films, textiles, and tissues. Objectives: i) Bendable/stretchable thin-film transistors and electrochemical transistors with exceptional performance (mobility, transconductance); ii) Fundamentally understand stretchability and interfacial adhesion effects on devices; iii) Achieve Young’s modulus < 0.5 GPa; strain-to-break > 20% (transistors), > 100% (electrochemical transistors). Task 3. Patterned, Flexible/Stretchable Device Realization. Print prototype circuits on foils, textiles, and tissues. Objectives: i) Inverters, ring oscillators, rectifiers, comparators, modulators, amplifiers; ii) Monolithically integrated sensors; iii) Understand how environment/mechanical stress affect device performance. Tasks 1-3 will provide the understanding needed to achieve versatile sets of innovative electronic active and passive materials as well as processes enabling ultra-flexible/stretchable/bio-integrable DoD-relevant electronic device fabrication.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 20, 2023
- Source ID
- FA95502210423
Entities
People
- Tobin J. Marks
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Northwestern University
- United States Air Force