Communications of the ACM
Improving Organic Transistors That Drive Flexible and Conformable Electronics
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have completed an investigation into how micro-scale wrinkling affects electrical performance in carbon-based, single-crystal semiconductors.
Credit: University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) researchers recently completed an investigation of how micro-scale wrinkling affects electrical performance in carbon-based, single-crystal semiconductors.
The researchers applied inhomogeneous deformations to the conducting channel of an organic transistor and found that mechanical deformations only decrease performance under certain conditions, and actually can enhance or have no effect in other instances.
"What we've done is take advantage of the ordered structure of ultra-thin organic single crystals of rubrene to fabricate high-performance, thin-film transistors," says UMass Amherst doctoral student Marcos Reyes-Martinez.
The researchers found crystals ranging in thickness from about 150 nanometers to 1 micrometer were thin enough to be wrinkled and applied to any elastomer substrate. "Our experiments are especially important because they help scientists working on flexible electronic devices to determine performance limitations of new materials under extreme mechanical deformations, such as when electronic devices conform to skin," the researchers say.
They developed an analytical model based on plate-bending theory to measure the different local strains imposed on the transistor structure by the wrinkle deformations. Reyes-Martinez says the model was used to predict how different deformations modulate charge mobility, which had never been quantified before.
From University of Massachusetts Amherst
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