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Electronics Go Organic

engineering
+
technology

by Colin Reese

I
magine rolling your PDA out of a pen, having a sheet of
paper containing all the information within the Library
of Congress, or tucking your laptop under your arm like a
newspaper. Sound impossible? According to researchers in
Stanford’s advanced materials laboratories, these technologies
may be closer than you think. A rapidly developing class of
‘organic’ technologies promises to enable a host of applications
never before thought possible. While the field is in its infancy, the
demonstration of cutting-edge devices, such as flexible circuits
and displays, using simple production methods have transformed
it into a showcase for materials research. The potential for
incorporation into a variety of high-profile devices – including
photovoltaic cells, light-emitting diodes, RFID tags, sensors and
non-volatile memory – has many seeing green.

Pesticide-free processors?
What differentiates “organic” technologies from their
traditional “inorganic” counterparts are the active electronic
materials that make them work. Compared to traditional
semiconductors, such as silicon and gallium-arsenide, organic
materials are very different in terms of chemical makeup and
solid-state nanostructure. Elemental semiconductors such
as silicon are crystalline, possessing a well-ordered structure
held together by strong, covalent bonds. Organic materials, on
the other hand, are comprised of collections of atoms grouped
into molecules, which are held together loosely by weak, long-
Single crystals of organic electronic materials grown in the lab of Zhenan Bao in
range van der Waals forces. The organic solids can vary from Chemical Engineering. These crystals offer the ultimate in performance, and are
crystalline to completely amorphous, depending on both chemical an ideal tool for the study of intrinsic transport in organic materials.
composition and preparation. Their distinguishing feature – and
for which they bear the name “organic” – is that they generally key reasons device and material designers have set their sights on
contain hydrocarbons. While most are a far cry from Webster’s “of exploiting organic materials for electronics:
animal or plant origin,” organic building blocks are much closer • Easier Processing
to biology than the materials in current solid-state electronics, Current solid-state circuitry requires high temperatures,
such as boron, gallium and arsenic. pressures, and otherwise harsh processing conditions. Organic
materials, however, can be processed from solution, which
We don’t eat electronics. Who cares? offers the possibility of deposition on unconventional substrates,
Integrated circuits, computer processors, memory and such as flexible plastics that cannot tolerate the rigors of silicon
solid-state electronics launched the information age. These processing. Solution-based fabrication methods, such as inkjet
components are all built atop silicon technologies, which have printing, are envisioned as a high-throughput solution for roll-
been incredibly well-developed and characterized. The next to-roll fabrication of organic circuits, displays and photovoltaic
technology node allows patterning features in silicon as small cells.
as 45 nanometers, enabling billions of logic elements to be • Lower Cost
crammed onto each processor chip. So why develop a whole new Processing advantages are not only desirable for their
set of organic technologies if silicon meets the industry’s needs? simplicity and flexibility, but also for their associated low cost.
The answer depends on who you ask, but the following are a few High throughput and the elimination of complex vacuum

Organic electronics are not meant to compete with silicon devices in


the same applications. They will likely be used for niche applications
where low cost, flexibility and light weight are desirable.
layout design:Jason Shen volume iv 43
engineering
+
technology Seeing Green at the Farm
Research in organic electronics is highly interdisciplinary.
From material design and synthesis to device design, application
integration and optimization, experts from the fields of chemistry,
chemical engineering, electrical engineering, applied physics and
material science are all on board to make organic technologies
viable. Stanford, with its emphasis on such collaboration and
large number of shared resources and research centers, is in a
unique position to capitalize on this rapidly growing field.
Professor Zhenan Bao, Department of Chemical Engineering,
hosts a number of projects aimed at developing high-performance
organic semiconductors and incorporating them into basic
devices such as transistors and inverters. Many of her students
and researchers are devoted to chemical synthesis of the next
class of engineered materials for circuits, photovoltaics, and
optics. The development of novel materials will not only boost
device performance but also develop the fundamental material/
property relationships necessary for optimized design.
Single crystals of these materials allow researchers to explore
the upper limit for material performance and to uncover the
underlying transport mechanisms. These single crystals are
characterized using the transistor, a key logic unit that serves as a
metric for material performance. The physics of devices are also
equipment targets the most costly steps of silicon processing. In studied to optimize their integration.
addition, while the source material for silicon – sand – is hardly Bao’s group is also working on various patterning
a scarcity, the wafers used to make processor chips must be techniques. The goal is to allow large-area solution deposition of
extensively purified, implanted with ions, oxidized and polished semiconductors, nanowires and other circuitry elements, which

One of the most exciting prospects of organic electronics is the


rational design of materials for specific applications.
before they are suitable for fabrication. Organic materials, on the would be a significant step toward large-scale production of these
other hand, are generally products of chemical synthesis from devices. The basic concept of these techniques is the harnessing
much smaller, cheaper, commercially available building blocks. of chemical and morphological selectivity to effect preferential
Furthermore, while silicon needs to be extremely pure (and is the deposition of organic materials. These projects offer a look
purest material available at 99.999999999%), organic materials toward hands-free nanoscale circuit assembly.
are not anticipated to require a similar level of purity for efficient
device operation.
• Functionality By Design Organic circuit material, such as nanowires and semiconductors, may be patterned
Elemental semiconductors possess particular electronic using chemical and morphological selectivity. These optical micrographs of
crystalline organics deposited by various means display the potential of these
properties, which can then be altered by “doping” them with techniques, and suggest that the self-assembly of nanocircuits is indeed possible
ions such as boron and arsenic. While doping changes properties
important for device operation, it does not change characteristics,
such as optical properties, which are specific to a given material.
There is, therefore, a fundamental limitation on their use in many
types of devices, such as light-emitting diodes and photovoltaic
cells, where differences in these properties are crucial to
operation. In other words, inorganic semiconductors are limited
by how elements arrange themselves into the solid phase.
Organics, on the other hand, are limited only by a chemist’s
imagination and the synthetic techniques available. As illustrated
by the recent explosion in organic semiconductor development,
both of these aspects are vast. One of the most exciting prospects
of organic electronics is the rational design of materials for specific
applications. Although the engineering of specific characteristics
and the development of structure/property relationships is still
primitive, a large toolbox of organic materials is already being
employed in organic devices.

44 stanford scientific
engineering
These images showcase a few of the many exciting applications that organic electronics have to offer: a. +
Professor Mike McGehee, Flexible, microscale transistors patterned on a plastic substrate. b. The first organic SRAM module, capable technology
Department of Materials Science, of storing 16kb in a small, plastic package, produced by Epson. c. A low-cost black and white display
technology, pioneered by E-Ink, seeks to capitalize on markets for flexible newspapers and books, where high
focuses on the development of high- frame rate is not required. d. A flexible display developed in joint collaboration between the Army and Universal
performance organic solar cells. Display Corporation showcases one of the most exciting applications envisioned for organic circuits -- roll-up displays.
Employing solution-processible
organic materials, his students are
exploring new fabrication techniques
and device architectures in order to
produce high-efficiency cells that
would offer a cost-effective alternative
energy source. Organics have already
surpassed the performance of
amorphous silicon and are rapidly
improving.
Professor Peter Peumans,
DepartmentofElectricalEngineering,
is exploring two cutting-edge areas
for organics: light-emitting diodes
(LEDs) and molecular electronics.
LEDs harness the tunable properties
of organic materials to produce high-
intensity light, and are anticipated
to replace conventional household
lighting in the near future. Molecular
electronics embody the ultimate
scaling of functional materials. As
technology advancements drive
device size toward the nanometer
regime, the critical dimensions will
approach that of single molecules.
The concept of molecular electronics
is realized as a device – a transistor,
for example – that consists of a
single, semiconducting molecule.

Outlook on Organics
Organics outshine their inorganic Colin Reese is a third-year graduate student in the group of Zhenan
counterparts in simple deposition techniques, low cost and Bao in the Department of Chemical Engineering, performing
tunable properties. Despite all of these advantages, experts in the research in the area of organic single crystals and charge transport.
field agree that organics will supplement, not supplant, inorganic He enjoys mountain biking, playing guitar, and gardening.
materials and technologies. While the increases in performance
are dramatic, organics are not yet on the same playing field as To Learn More:
silicon as far as absolute speed is concerned. “Organic electronics More information on current research at Stanford in the area of organic
are not meant to compete with silicon devices in the same electronics may be found at the Bao group website: http://baogroup.
applications. They will likely be used for niche applications where stanford.edu, Peumans group website and home of the Stanford
low cost, flexibility and light weight are desirable,” Bao says. Organic Electronics Lab: http://peumans-pc.stanford.edu/people/peter-
Organic electronics therefore offer the prospect of improving peumans, and at the McGehee group web site: http://mse.stanford.edu/
current technologies, as well as the development of those that faculty/mcgehee.html.
were previously impossible. In the future, Bao expects to see
dramatic improvement in device performance with organic There are many excellent reviews on the exciting prospects of organic
materials. She also expects more demonstrations of new products electronics:
with organic electronics. “Last year, Samsung Electronics already C.D. Dimitrakopoulos and P.R.L. Malenfant. “Organic Thin Film Transistors
demonstrated a 17” SXGA LCD display with OTFT backplane,” for Large Area Electronics” Adv. Mater., 14, No. 2, (January 16 2002)
she says. “In the next few years, I expect to see such displays “The path to ubiquitous and low-cost organic electronic appliances on
demonstrated on plastic substrates.” While you may not expect plastic.” Stephen R. Forrest. Nature 428, 911-918 (29 April 2004)
the next AMD CPU to be named the Orgon, flexible displays “Organic thin film transistors.” Reese, C; Roberts, M; Ling, M-M; Bao, Z
driven by organics may be just around the corner. S Materials Today. Vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 20-27. (Sept. 2004)

layout design: volume iv 45

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