NIST Studies Spray-On Manufacturing of Transistors

Clipped from: National Institute of Standards and Technology Tests Spray-On Transistors, Finds Them Promising | Popular Science

National Institute of Standards and Technology Tests Spray-On Transistors, Finds Them Promising

In a discovery sure to help the development of solar panel and display technology, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have engineered transistors that they can airbrush onto a surface like spray paint.

Unlike most computer chips, which use transistors made of silicon, the NIST spray-on computer chip utilizes an organic semiconductor, called poly(3-hexylthiophene), or P3HT. By spraying the P3HT over a deposited circuit architecture of gold and silicon, the NIST team can lay down vast swaths of electronics quickly and cheaply.

Clipped from: NIST Tech Beat - March 30, 2010

Paintable Electronics? NIST Studies Spray-On Manufacturing of Transistors

A multidisciplinary research team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has found* that an organic semiconductor may be a viable candidate for creating large-area electronics, such as solar cells and displays that can be sprayed onto a surface as easily as paint.

While the electronics will not be ready for market anytime soon, the research team says the material they studied could overcome one of the main cost hurdles blocking the large-scale manufacture of organic thin-film transistors, the development of which also could lead to a host of devices inexpensive enough to be disposable.

[...]

“At this stage, there is no established best material or manufacturing process for creating low-cost, large-area electronics,” says Calvin Chan, an electrical engineer at NIST. “What our team has done is to translate a classic material deposition method, spray painting, to a way of manufacturing cheap electronic devices.”

Clipped from: High performance airbrushed organic thin film transistors | Issue 13 - Applied Physics Letters

Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 133304 (2010); doi:10.1063/1.3360230 (3 pages)

High performance airbrushed organic thin film transistors

Calvin K. Chan, Lee J. Richter, Brad Dinardo, Cherno Jaye, Brad R. Conrad, Hyun Wook Ro, David S. Germack, Daniel A. Fischer, Dean M. DeLongchamp, and David J. Gundlach
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-8120, USA 

Sources:

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology Tests Spray-On Transistors, Finds Them Promising | Popular Science
2. NIST Tech Beat - March 30, 2010
3. High performance airbrushed organic thin film transistors | Issue 13 - Applied Physics Letters

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