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This story is from the category Computing Power
Date posted: 24/08/2009 Organic circuits are cheap, flexible and printable. But unlike inorganic circuits, which require only silicon, high-performance organic circuits are usually made out of two different materials that must be carefully patterned. Now researchers have made a polymer that performs the function of both materials. By eliminating the need for two materials, they've made these circuits easier to fabricate. The researchers have used the new polymer to make some of the fastest organic circuits yet reported, and the process might be useful for solar cells, too. To perform the logic operations that run computers, cell phones and other electronics without consuming too much power, transistors need to have alternating regions that conduct negative and positive charges. But until recently, chemists had only made polymers that conducted either positive or negative charges. To make circuits from them, these polymers have to be carefully aligned with each other. "When you have two materials requiring complex patterning processes, you lose or reduce the cost advantage and simplicity" of organic electronics, says Samson Jenekhe, professor of chemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle. "The ultimate [goal] is to have one material that can transport electrons and holes," or positive charges, says Jenekhe. He and others have been working on making such a material, called an ambipolar polymer, for a few years. "In the past, it was largely trial and error," says Jenekhe. Now he and Mark Watson, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, have determined what sort of structures work well in such polymers. The new material and its performance are described in the journal Advanced Materials. The new polymer is made up of two alternating units, one that conducts electrons and another that conducts holes. It's not the first polymer to be able to do this. But electrons and holes move much faster through the new material than through those that have been made in the past. This is important, because the rate at which charges move through a semiconductor determines circuit speed. See the full Story via external site: www.technologyreview.com Most recent stories in this category (Computing Power): 19/06/2013: Scientists Reach Milestone for Quantum Networks |
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