| From a NU press release: The potential applications for flexible plastic electronics are enormous — from electronic books to radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to electronics for cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and laptop computers — but certain technological hurdles must be overcome before we see such widespread use. Now a Northwestern University team of materials chemists report a breakthrough in the race to find the right materials for producing cost-effective, high-performance plastic electronics. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). |
The team, led by Tobin J. Marks, Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Chemistry and professor of materials science and engineering, has designed organic molecules that self assemble into an ultra-thin layer (less than six nanometers thick) for use in the dielectric, or nonconducting, component of a transistor. Their tailored molecular components reduce both operating voltage and power consumption in organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) structures, making low-power consumption OTFTs a reality. In their paper, Marks and fellow authors Antonio Facchetti, research professor of chemistry, and Myung-Han Yoon, a graduate student in chemistry, showed that their new nanodielectric multilayers have very high capacitances (the ability to store an electrical charge) and excellent insulating properties and are compatible with a variety of organic semiconductors and substrate materials, the other key components of a transistor.
“This means having plastic electronics the size of a pen battery — rather than an automobile battery — power your cell phone,” said Marks. “And, instead of being carved out of silicon, transistor structures would be printed in a fashion similar to that of newspapers, but with organic molecules as the ink and plastic as the paper. Much as the New York Times prints a different edition of the newspaper every day, we could flexibly print a wide variety of electronic devices quickly, easily and cheaply.”
Examples include RFID tags for labeling items in a store or tracking them in a factory. “You could walk up to a cash register at the grocery store,” said Marks, “and it would automatically sense what each item costs and whether or not it has passed its expiration date — all in one step.”
Insert your ATM card and you’re on your way – and only the goon with the taser to avoid if you try to skip out without paying.