Self Assembling Organic Circuits
Think of all the electronic devices you see in your every day life. They are everywhere. Your cell phone, your TV, your computer, your GPS system, and on your little IPod. For most of us (in the U.S.)it would be close to impossible to get through an average day without seeing them. This is simply a sign of the times. Each one of those devices you see everyday has to be built using a verity of machines and workers, which ends up costing a far amount of money. As a consumer you see this cost of manufacturing when you buy your new cell phone or MP3 player. What if you the manufacturing costs for all the circuits in these devices was cut by a huge percentage(-couldn't find an exact number) because the number of machines and workers needed to construct them was dropped by 90% and the material needed was changed to a much cheaper one. Obviously then the prices for electronics would dramatically fall and you could and probably would upgrade your electronic to a more advanced model that is still even cheaper then your original.. Undoubtedly the price for that product would dramatically drop. Well, a group of Researchers from Philips Research Laboratories have found a new simple way to make high-performance electronic circuits at a much lower price. The researchers from Philips Research Laboratories have found a way to grow self-assembling organic semiconductors that can be used instead of the rigid silicon currently used. This allows for much more flexibility and a huge reduction in cost. "Many researchers believe that self-assembly--a technique that relies on molecules arranging themselves into complex structures--could be the most practical way to produce cheap plastic electronics." (-Prachi Patel-Predd, Technology Review)
- From www.technologyreview.com Friday, October 17, 2008 -
A research team
led by Dago de Leeuw at the Philips Research Laboratories, in
Eindhoven, the Netherlands, developed semiconductor molecules that
automatically arrange themselves on a surface in a layer just a few
nanometers thick. These "self-assembling" molecules could make it
much easier to fabricate organic transistors, the essential building
blocks of plastic electronics. In experiments, the researchers used
the technique to make hundreds of transistors and arranged them into
complex circuits.
In the past, others have used similar self-assembly tricks to make
organic transistors, but the new method is much simpler. Moreover,
researchers have been unable to accurately and reliably replicate
self-assembled devices until now. "You need every transistor to be
working in order for the circuit to work," says
John
Kymissis, an electrical-engineering professor at Columbia
University. "Here, there are hundreds of transistors, all of which
work. The yield is extremely good for complicated circuits."
The ultimate goal for self-assembled circuits "is to be able to throw
molecules in a beaker and let them organize into desired
structures," says Edsger Smits, a researcher at the Philips Research
Laboratories, who was involved in the work. Pulling circuits out of
a beaker is still some ways away, but the present work is a step
toward that goal. The researchers deposited gold source and drain
electrodes with a silicon-dioxide insulator in between using
traditional lithography and surface etching. Then they dipped this
transistor circuit in a solution containing the organic
semiconductor.
This emerging technology will some day allow companies to build every electronic device from PDAs to supercomputer components by organically growing them. And because organic semiconductors are cheaper than silicon. The price of producing electronics will dramatically drop, which will allow for much more complex, advanced technologies to enter the consumer's hands at a faster rate then ever before. This will create more of a demand for more, and more advanced technologies. This is another amazing example of how technology is progressing at an exponential rate.
Self-made circuit:
This logic circuit features more than 300 organic transistors made
using a new self-assembly trick. The semiconducting layer in each
device is formed from molecules that arrange themselves on the
circuit surface.
Credit: Philips Research Laboratories