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Effect of Bending on the Electrical Characteristics of Flexible Organic Single Crystal-based Field-effect Transistors
Published on: November 7, 2016
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Ultrathin Ion-Sensitive Field-Effect Transistor Chips with Bending-Induced Performance Enhancement
Anastasios Vilouras1, Adamos Christou1, Libu Manjakkal1
1Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (BEST) Group, James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, U.K.
ACS Applied Electronic Materials
|September 9, 2020
Summary
Controlled bending enhances flexible ion-sensitive field-effect transistors (ISFETs) on ultrathin chips. This breakthrough improves sensor stability and performance for wearable health devices, overcoming previous limitations.
Area of Science:
- Flexible electronics
- Nanotechnology
- Biomedical engineering
Background:
- Flexible sensors are key for next-generation noninvasive healthcare devices.
- Ion-sensitive field-effect transistors (ISFETs) on ultrathin complementary metal oxide semiconductor chips offer bendable sensor potential.
- Bending-induced stress/strain has been a challenge for ultrathin chip devices in wearables.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of controlled bending on the performance of flexible ISFETs.
- To demonstrate that bending can enhance, not just hinder, the performance of ultrathin chip devices.
- To develop a model for bending-induced improvements in flexible ISFETs.
Main Methods:
- Mechanically flexible Ruthenium dioxide (RuO2)-based ISFETs on ultrathin chips (44.76 μm thickness) were fabricated.
- Controlled bending with micrometer-scale radius was applied to the ISFETs.
- Performance was evaluated over 1000 bending cycles under varying pH conditions, with stability assessed by drift rate.
Main Results:
- Controlled bending reproducibly enhanced the performance of flexible ISFETs.
- Stability improved by 1.3 orders of magnitude (drift rate changed from -557 nA/min to -28 ± 0.16 nA/min) after 1000 bending cycles.
- A compact macromodel was developed to explain bending-induced improvements.
Conclusions:
- Bending can enhance the performance and stability of flexible ISFETs on ultrathin chips.
- This finding challenges the notion that bending is solely detrimental to such devices.
- Controlled bending offers a new strategy to benefit the field of flexible electronics for applications like wearables.
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