Printed electronics for low-cost electronic systems: Technology status and application development

• Published in: ESSDERC 2008 - 38th European Solid-State Device Research Conference pp. 17 - 24
• Main Authors: Subramanian, Vivek, Soltman, Daniel, Volkman, Steven K., Zhang, Qintao, Chang, Josephine B., de la Fuente Vornbrock, Alejandro, Huang, Daniel C., Jagannathan, Lakshmi, Liao, Frank, Mattis, Brian, Molesa, Steven, Redinger, David R.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.09.2008
• Subjects: Additives; Costs; Flat panel displays; Nanoparticles; Nonhomogeneous media; Organic materials; Plastics; Printing; RFID tags; Sensor systems
• ISBN: 1424423635; 9781424423637
• ISSN: 1930-8876
• DOI: 10.1109/ESSDERC.2008.4681691

In recent years, printing has received substantial interest as a technique for realizing low cost, large area electronic systems. Printing allows the use of purely additive processing, thus lowering process complexity and material usage. Coupled with the use of low-cost substrates such as plastic, metal foils, etc., it is expected that printed electronics will enable the realization of a wide range of easily deployable electronic systems, including displays, sensors, and RFID tags. We review our work on the development of technologies and applications for printed electronics. By combining synthetically derived inorganic nanoparticles and organic materials, we have realized a range of printable electronic "inks", and used these to demonstrate printed passive components, multilayer interconnection, diodes, transistors, memories, batteries, and various types of gas and biosensors. By exploiting the ability of printing to cheaply allow for the integration of diverse functionalities and materials onto the same substrate, therefore, it is possible to realize printed systems that exploit the advantages of printing while working around the disadvantages of the same.