Stretchy electronics with sandwiched semiconductor
Researchers sandwiched the n-type semiconductor between two rubbery materials known as elastomers, which are polymers that can stretch and snap back to their original shape
According to principal investigator Cunjiang Yu, who is the Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and of Biomedical Engineering at Penn State, fully elastic electronic systems require flexibility and stretchability in every component. Researchers have achieved this characteristic in most of the components, except for one type of semiconductor that is notoriously brittle. Now, Yu and his international team developed an approach to compensate for the frail and breakable semiconductor to advance the field closer to fully flexible systems.
“Such technology requires stretchy elastic semiconductors, the core material needed to enable integrated circuits that are critical to the technology enabling our computers, phones and so much more, but these semiconductors are mainly p-type,” said Yu, referring to a material that conducts electricity primarily through positively charged movable holes. “However, complementary integrated electronics, optoelectronics, p-n junction devices and many others — also require an n-type semiconductor.”
N-type semiconductors conduct electricity primarily through negative electrons carrying the charge, and in combination with p-type semiconductors, they can act as a switch, with current flowing in one direction. They are often rigid, and certain strategies to make them more mechanically stretchy are needed to achieve completely stretchable transistors and circuits with n-type semiconductors, according to Yu.
To address this issue, the researchers sandwiched the n-type semiconductor between two rubbery materials known as elastomers, which are polymers that can stretch and snap back to their original shape.
“The elastic transistors retained high device performance even when stretched 50% in either direction,” Yu said. “The devices also exhibited long-term stable operation for over 100 days in an ambient environment.”
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