The Future of Organic Electronics

Jaya Movva Ben Spearin

Jon Anderson Joshua Wrazen

Inorganic vs. Organic• Organic electronics, or plastic electronics, is the branch of

electronics that deals with conductive polymers, which are carbon based.

• Inorganic electronics, on the other hand, relies on inorganic conductors like copper or silicon.

Silicon sample

Carbon sample

Benefits and Obstacles

• Organic electronics are lighter, more flexible, and less expensive than their inorganic counterparts.

• They are also biodegradable (being made from carbon).• This opens the door to many exciting and advanced new

applications that would be impossible using copper or silicon.• However, conductive polymers have high resistance and

therefore are not good conductors of electricity.• In many cases they also have shorter lifetimes and are much

more dependant on stable environment conditions than inorganic electronics would be.

Cost

Fabrication Cost

Device Size

Material

Required Conditions

Process

Organic Electronic

$5 / ft2

Low Capital

10 ft x Roll to Roll

Flexible Plastic Substrate

Ambient Processing

Continuous Direct Printing

Silicon

$100 / ft2

$1-$10 billion

< 1m2

Rigid Glass or Metal

Ultra Cleanroom

Multi-step Photolithography

http://www.xeroxtechnology.com/ip1.nsf/sedan1?readform&unid=2D1FF1AC91C40AA985256D1A00616714

Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)

• An OLED is a thin film LED in which the emissive layer is an organic compound.

• When this layer is polymeric (or plastic), OLEDs can be deposited in rows and columns on a screen using simple printing methods that are much more efficient than those used in manufacturing traditional LEDs.

• A key benefit of OLEDs is that

they don’t need a backlight to

function.

How it Works• An electron and hole pair is generated inside the emissive

layer by a cathode and a transparent anode, respectively.• When the electron

and hole combine, a photon is produced, which will show up as a dot of light on the screen.

• Many OLEDs together on a screen make up a picture

• Less expensive to produce• Wide range of colors and viewing angle• Consumes much less energy than traditional LCDs.• Flexible and extremely thin• Limited lifetime of about 1,000 hours.• Susceptible to water

Organic transistors• INTRODUCTION Organic transistors are transistors that use organic molecules rather than silicon for their

active material. This active material can be composed of a wide variety of molecules.• Advantages of organic transistors:

– Compatibility with plastic substances– Lower temperature is used while manufacturing (60-120°C)– Lower cost and deposition processes such as spin-coating, printing and evaporation– Less need to worry about dangling bonds( simplifies the process)

• Disadvantages of organic transistors:– Lower mobility and switching speeds compared to Si wafers– Usually does not operate under invasion mode.

Example of an organic transistor (on the side)

Organic Thin film transistors(OTFTS)

• TFTs are transistors created using thin films, usually of silicon deposited on glass. The deposited silicon must be crystallized using laser pulses at high temperatures. OTFTs active layers can be theramlly evaporated and deposited on any organic substrate (a flexible piece of plastic) at much lower temperatures.

• Benefits of an OTFT:– Does not require glass substrate as amorphous Si does. It could be made on a piece of plastic.– Manufactured at lower temperatures– Deposition techniques could reduce costs dramatically.

• Challenges involved:– Workarounds for complications with photo resists.– To find organic semiconductors with high enough mobilities and switching times.

Picture of an OTFT made on a plastic substrate

• FUTURE– OTFT technology’s application is diverse. Organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) technology involves the use of organic semiconducting compounds in electronic components, notably computer displays. Such displays are bright, the colors are vivid, they provide fast response times (which need to be developed in OTFT), and they are easy to read in most ambient lighting environments.

– Organic substrates allow for displays to be fabricated on flexible surfaces, rather than on rigid materials as is necessary in traditional TFT displays. A piece of flexible plastic might be coated with OTFT material and made into a display that can be handled like a paper document. Sets of such displays might be bundled, producing magazines or newspapers whose page contents can be varied periodically, or even animated. This has far-reaching ramifications. For example, comic book characters might move around the pages and speak audible words. More likely, such displays will find use in portable computers and communications systems.

Organic Nano-Radio Frequency Identification Devices

Production and Applications

• Quicker Checkout• Inventory Control• Reduced Waste• Efficient flow of goods

from manufacturer to consumer

Production Specifications of Manufacturing a Nano-RFID

• > 96 bits• Four main communication Bands:

135KHz, 13.56MHz, 900MHz, 2.4 GHz

• Vacuum Sublimation

The Future of Organic Electronics

http://www.orgatronics.com/organic_electronics.html

Smart Textiles•Integrates electronic devices into textiles, like clothing•Made possible because of low fabrication temperatures•Has many potentialuses, including:Monitoring heart-rateand other vital signs,controlling embeddeddevices (mp3 players),keep the time…

The Future of Organic Electronics

http://www.orgatronics.com/smart_fabrics.html

Lab on a ChipThe Future of Organic Electronics

•A device that incorporates multiple laboratory functions in a single chip•Organic is replacing some Si fabrication methods: -Lower cost -Easier to manufacture -More flexible

http://www.orgatronics.com/lab_on_chip.html

Portable, Compact Screens•Screens that can roll up into small devices•Black and White prototype already made by Philips(the Readius™ at the bottom-left)•Color devices will be here eventually

The Future of Organic Electronics

http://www.polymervision.com/Technology/downloads/Index.html http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2005-04-05/gencer-plasticelectronics

References• http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci512140,00.html

• students.washington.edu/jetpeach/ EE341_Organic_Transistors_Presentation.ppt

• http://www.chem.uky.edu/research/anthony/tft.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLED

•www.tagsysrfid.com