10. Other- Researchers achieve major breakthrough in flexible electronics


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SUMMARY:

A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore, have developed “conducting polymer films that can provide unprecedented ohmic contacts to give superior performance in plastic electronics, including organic light-emitting diodes, solar cells and transistors”. The key in this project was to design polymer films with the desired work function needed to make ohmic contacts. ‘Work function’ is the minimum amount of energy needed to move an electron from a film surface vacuum (space void of matter). The researchers demonstrated that “work functions as high as 5.8 electron-volts and as low as 3.0 electron- volts can now be attained for films that can be processed from solutions at low cost”. To make such materials, they developed the “concept of doped conducting polymers with bonding ionic groups”, said Dr. Png Rui-Qi, a senior researcher at the NUS who led the research. "As a result, these conducting polymers can remain stable despite their extreme work functions and provide the desired ohmic contacts,” he said. The group believes that the lack of approach to make ohmic contacts has been a key component in making flexible electronics. The group is now working with industrial partners to further develop this technology.

Discussion:

I find this topic very interesting because I have never heard of flexible electronics before, and this article is basically about new technology in the field of plastic electronics. I am surrounded by electronics at all times in the form of LEDs, and plastic electronics, and this article is about new technology that enhances the performance of them.  After more research, I discovered that plastic electronics are made from carbon-based semiconductors that may provide “flexible, lightweight large area and additively-manufactured devices”,(Baker-Jackson). The films that these researchers developed provide unrivalled ohmic contacts which makes them superior to other technology available because they used the concept of doped conducting polymers with bonding ionic groups. After reading this article I would like to learn more about flexible electronics and the costs of creating them with polymer films.

WORKS CITED:

“Vacuum.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Jan. 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum. Accessed 20 Jan. 2017

Baker-Jackson, Carlisle. “Breakthrough Achieved in Flexible Electronics.” Chemical Engineering, Laboratory News, 18 Jan. 2017, http://www.labnews.co.uk/news/breakthrough-achieved-flexible-electronics-18-01-2017/. Accessed 20 Jan. 2017.

National University of Singapore. "Researchers achieve major breakthrough in flexible electronics." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 January 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170113090448.htm>.