Printable and flexible photodetectors via scalable fabrication for reading applications

• Published in: Communications engineering Vol. 1; no. 1
• Main Authors: Bairaktaris, Georgios, Khan, Fasihullah, Jayawardena, K. D. J. Imalka, Frohlich, David M., Sporea, Radu A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.12.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: 639/166/987; 639/301/930; Circuits; Complexity; Design; Electronic components; Electronic systems; Electronics; Engineering; Flexibility; Light; Low cost; Multimedia; Photometers; Polyethylene; Robustness; Sensors; User interface; User interfaces
• ISSN: 2731-3395; 2731-3395
• DOI: 10.1038/s44172-022-00041-4

Printing techniques have been widely adopted in the fabrication of flexible electronic components. However, its application is still limited in complex control and communication circuitry due to the low performance and low fabrication uniformity amongst printed devices, compared to conventional electronics. Thus, the electronic systems in real-world applications are hybrid integrations of printed and conventional electronics. Here we demonstrate a low-cost, low-complexity, fully-printable flexible photodetector that can withstand over 100 1 mm-radius bending cycles using a simple and scalable two-step fabrication process. The prototypes are implemented in an augmented book system to automatically detect the ambient light through optical apertures on paper of a printed book, and then transmit the information to an adjunct device. This technique demonstrates the utility of low-cost materials and processes for robust large area sensing applications and could act as a gateway to pertinent multimedia information. Bairaktaris and colleagues developed a printable flexible photodetector using a simple, scalable fabrication process. The photodetectors were demonstrated in practice in an augmented paper system. This low-cost technique could be also applied in robust and large-scale user interfaces.