2020 journal article

Facile Approach to Fabricating Stretchable Organic Transistors with Laser-Patterned Ag Nanowire Electrodes

ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES, 12(45), 50675–50683.

By: R. Song n, S. Yao n, Y. Liu n, H. Wang n, J. Dong n , Y. Zhu n, . Brendan T. O'Connor

co-author countries: United States of America πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
author keywords: stretchable electronics; Ag nanowires; laser patterning; organic electronics; organic thin-film transistors
Source: Web Of Science
Added: February 1, 2021

Stretchable electronics are poised to revolutionize personal healthcare and robotics, where they enable distributed and conformal sensors. Transistors are fundamental building blocks of electronics, and there is a need to produce stretchable transistors using low-cost and scalable fabrication techniques. Here, we introduce a facile fabrication approach using laser patterning and transfer printing to achieve high-performance, solution-processed intrinsically stretchable organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). The device consists of Ag nanowire (NW) electrodes, where the source and drain electrodes are patterned using laser ablation. The Ag NWs are then partially embedded in a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) matrix. The electrodes are combined with a PDMS dielectric and polymer semiconductor, where the layers are individually transfer printed to complete the OTFT. Two polymer semiconductors, DPP-DTT and DPP-4T, are considered and show stable operation under the cyclic strain of 20 and 40%, respectively. The OTFTs maintain electrical performance by adopting a buckled structure after the first stretch-release cycle. The conformability and stretchability of the OTFT is also demonstrated by operating the transistor while adhered to a finger being flexed. The ability to pattern highly conductive Ag NW networks using laser ablation to pattern electrodes as well as interconnects provides a simple strategy to produce complex stretchable OTFT-based circuits.