Low-voltage, n-channel Hybrid Transistors

Unmet Need
Printed electronics is the field of electronics where printing methods are used to create electronic devices. The advantage of printed electronics over the traditional methods is that the former are much simpler and cost-effective. The ability to integrate new or improved functionalities also adds to the advantage of printed electronics. An issue with printed electronics is high leakage currents which override the switching action of the gate of a transistor when high-capacitance gate dielectrics are used. Currently, thick dielectric gates with low capacitance are used because they have minimal leakage currents, but to use these gates, much higher voltages (10-100V) must be used which is unsustainable in situations where power is limited such as with small batteries or radiofrequency power sources. There is a lack of a method that allows for high capacitance gates to be used, to save power, while lowering the leakage current, and to not override the transistor.
 
Technology Overview
The proposed technology uses a sol-gel processed ion conductor as a gate. The combination of sol-gel processed gate dielectrics and electron-accruing semiconductors operate at a range of 0.1-10V which is much lower than the alternative with thick dielectric gates. This technology uses n-channel transistors instead of the traditionally used p-channel resistors. Another advantage of this technology is that the procedures used to create it are not high-tech deposition methods such as organometallic chemical vapor deposition or atomic layer deposition.

Stage of Development
The technology has already been developed and tested. Tests showed that the voltage required for this technology was between 0.1 and 10 volts which is much lower than the currently used voltages which are between 10 and 100 volts. 
 
Publications
Pal BN, et al. Advanced Functional Materials 18, 2008 See KC, et al. Chemistry of Materials 20, 3609-3616, 2008

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