Download Polymer Electronics

Part 1
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Background
What are polymer electronics?
What makes polymer so suited for
electronic applications?
Polymer Devices
Applications and Areas of Research
Printable Electronics
Advantages and Disadvantages
Summary
M. Rosado
EECE 487 Spring 2009
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• In the early 1970s, Alan J. Heeger, Alan G.
MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa collaborated and
discovered that the electrical conductivity of
conjugated polymers could be controlled by doping
• Polyactelene and iodine
• The conductivity of this doped material approaches the
conductivity of the best available conductor
• This was one of the first known examples of a conductive
organic polymer
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Researchers were granted a Nobel Prize in 2001
Paved the way for organic/polymer electronics
M. Rosado
EECE 487 Spring 2009
3

A polymer is a compound consisting of a long
chain of repeating monomers
 Typical polymers - plastic, rubber
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Polymer
Polymers electronics are often grouped under
organic electronics because they are carbon
based
Polytronics – polymer + electronics
M. Rosado
EECE 487 Spring 2009
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
Polymers can be very easily processed from
solution
 Number of low cost application techniques can be
applied
 Mass production
 Enhanced flexibility allows for more applications
M. Rosado
EECE 487 Spring 2009
5
TRANSISTORS - organic field
effect transistor to control
current and voltage
 OFET-The transistor is the basic
building block for integrated
circuits. A typical polymer
transistor contains 4 layers:
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On the substrate, there is a first
contact layer, which is structured
to form the base of a transistor
with two contacts: source and
drain.
▪ These contacts are covered by the
polymer semiconductor.

The next layer is the polymer
insulator, which separates the
gate contact layer form the
semiconductor.
 The top layer is the gate contact
layer.
M. Rosado
EECE 487 Spring 2009
6

Polymer Diode
 In organic diodes, the
rectifying contact (so called
Schottky contact) between
the organic semiconductor
and specific metals is used.
 The charge carriers can pass
this metal-semiconductor
contact only in one direction.
 Diode allows current flow
only in forward direction,
whereas in the reverse
direction the current flow is
blocked.

Polymer Capacitor
 The capacitor consists of two
electrodes which are
separated by a dielectric
(insulator)
M. Rosado
EECE 487 Spring 2009
7

Polymer Inverter
 A polymer inverter
consists of two organic
transistors
 Basic circuits for the
implementation of logical
functions like NAND,
NOR, NOT

Polymer Ring Oscillator
 The ring oscillator is a
relatively simple circuit
consisting of a series of
several inverters
 Can be used in ICs to
generate a clock signal
M. Rosado
EECE 487 Spring 2009
8