Samsung and its university research partners claim to have overcome two of the last hurdles to large-scale printable electronics on plastic substrates: an n-type organic semiconductor material and a patterning method for separately fabricating nano- and micro-wire transistor channels. Solutions to both problems, using self-aligning organic transistor channels with performance that rivals amorphous silicon, were demonstrated by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (Gyunggi-do, South Korea), Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Sungkyunkwan University (Suwon, South Korea). The researchers claimed their technique is amenable to printable plastic electronics applications such as large-scale displays, sensor arrays, smart merchandise tags, flexible solar panels and digital paper.
BOTTOM LINE: Printable electronics lowers the cost of devices by using room-temperature fluidic deposition on cheap plastic substrates. N-type transistors, however, have been difficult to fabricate, slowing progress toward large-scale printable electronics. Now Samsung appears to have solved the problem with a self-aligning technique, opening the door to applications within five years.
