New breakthrough in organic electronics transports electrons and holes with one layer
Plastics and other composites that can conduct electricity are known as organic electronics because they are made using carbon. The bulk of the electronic devices we take for granted today are built using silicon to conduct electricity inside.
Some of the devices available today do make use of organic electronics like OLED screens. The most recent gadget to use organic electronics is the Microsoft Zune HD unveiled officially last week. The problem keeping organic electronics out of more electronic devices is that circuits until now was that organic circuits were only able to allow one type of charge to move through them. Researchers at the University of Washington have made a breakthrough that allows flow in both directions in organic electronics.
"The organic semiconductors developed over the past 20 years have one important drawback. It's very difficult to get electrons to move through," said lead author Samson Jenekhe, a UW professor of chemical engineering. "By now having polymer semiconductors that can transmit both positive and negative charges, it broadens the available approaches. This would certainly change the way we do things."
The big problem with silicon today is that it is a somewhat costly method to create electronics and requires expensive manufacturing processes. The material is also ridged because of its crystal form and doesn't allow for devices that are flexible.
The big benefit of organic materials is that they are flexible, but the semiconductors created with organic materials so far were only able to conduct positive charges. These positive charges are known as holes because the areas that are positive are where an electron is missing. The researchers have developed a new process that allows organic materials to conduct both electrons and holes.
"What we have shown in this paper is that you don't have to use two separate organic semiconductors," Jenekhe said. "You can use one material to create electronic circuits."
The creation of organic circuits that could conduct holes and electrons before the team's breakthrough required a complex design with two patterns on top of each other. One pattern transported holes and the other transported electrons.
The new process creates a circuit that is able to transport holes and electrons is very fast. Electrons moved five to eight times faster in the new circuit and it produced a voltage gain two to five times greater than previously seen in a polymer circuit.
"We expect people to use this approach," Jenekhe said. "We've opened the way for people to know how to do it."
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