Printed Electronics and Circuits

We develop printed electronic devices and circuits, from ink formulation and device physics to circuit design. Current work centers on printed transistors and memristive devices for sensing and computing, plus IC design on advanced CMOS nodes.

Keeping materials, devices, and circuits in one group means changes at the ink level can be evaluated against circuit performance directly, rather than assumed. Current projects range from electrolyte-gated transistors and printed memristors to crossbar arrays for neuromorphic computing and IC design on advanced CMOS nodes.

Research

EGT integrated in ring oscillator. C. Grupe
Printed Circuits Based on EGTs

We develop printed electrolyte-gated transistors that operate at around 1 V, addressing device variability and switching speed.

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Memristive Devices

Under construction

Neuromorphic computing

Under construction

News

March 21nd,
2022

We are introducing in a tutorial, together with BASF, Cadence, and Innovation Lab, our joint work on developing a process design kit for organic transistors at the Date 2022 Conference.

 

Recent Work

EGT_doping
Optimizing the Performance of Printed Indium Oxide Thin-Film Transistors through Gallium Incorporation

Water-based indium gallium oxide nanoparticle inks cure at just 100 °C, opening the door to flexible substrates. Adding gallium shifts the threshold voltage of printed electrolyte-gated transistors to 0.35 V and cuts off-currents by three orders of magnitude, enabling low-power inverters in both TRL and TTL topologies.

Physica Status Solidi (a)
PassLogicGate
Pass Logic-Gates Based on Electrolyte-Gated Field-Effect Transistors with Metal Oxide Channels

Pass logic-gates built from inkjet-printed electrolyte-gated transistors with indium oxide channels, operating at 1 V. Compared to conventional designs, the approach cuts transistor count by up to 60% and reduces propagation delay in printed digital circuits.

2024 IEEE International Flexible Electronics Technology Conference (IFETC)
Presure Sensor
Active Matrix-Based Pressure Sensor System With a 4 × 16 Printed Decoder Designed With a Flexible Hybrid Organic Process Design Kit

A process design kit for hybrid organic transistors, integrated into a commercial EDA tool, enables a full schematic-to-layout design flow for printed electronics. Using it, we built a 16 × 16 active-matrix pressure sensor with two printed 4 × 16 decoders on flexible foil, cutting wiring to the silicon periphery by a factor of four.

Flexible and Printed Electronics
Tungsten Oxide Memristor
Inkjet-Printed Tungsten Oxide Memristor Displaying Non-Volatile Memory and Neuromorphic Properties

An inkjet-printed tungsten oxide memristor that serves as either non-volatile digital memory or an artificial synapse, selected by the presence or absence of an electroforming step. It shows record endurance for a printed memristor alongside plasticity and signal filtering on biological timescales.

Advanced Functional Materials
3D Transistor
Fully Printed Electrolyte-Gated Transistor Formed in a 3D Polymer Reservoir with Laser Printed Drain/Source Electrodes

Printing resolution normally sets the floor on how short a printed transistor channel can be. We get around it by laser-writing a 3D polymer reservoir whose platinum-coated inner walls act as the drain and source electrodes, confining the printed indium oxide channel to a 3 µm gap and forming a vertical contact that improves the electrode-semiconductor interface.

Advanced Materials Technologies
ZnO Memristor
A Fully Inkjet-Printed Unipolar Metal Oxide Memristor for Nonvolatile Memory in Printed Electronics

A fully inkjet-printed Ag/ZnO/Ag memristor that switches with a single voltage polarity, unlike every other printed metal oxide memristor reported so far. The unipolar behaviour simplifies the peripheral circuitry needed for crossbar integration, and the device holds an ROFF/RON ratio of 10⁷ over 100 pulsed cycles with retention beyond 10⁴ s.

IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices