Biomimetic Microelectronics for Regenerative Neuronal Cuff Implants

Metal oxide semiconductor thin-film transistors for flexible electronics

“…To this aim, Cr and Ti show good results, whereas Cr often suffers from a high built-in strain. 90 Multi-layer metals offer, in general, a compromise between good adhesion and high conductivity, especially in the case of Ti/Au, 23,96,181 Ti/Cu, 135 Cr/Au, 174 or Ti/Au/Ti gate stacks. 162 Besides metals and metal alloys, ITO, 29,69,78,80,135,139,165,177,180,184,188,205 IZO, 77,79,133,160,208 In 2 O 3 , 171 and aluminum zinc oxide (AZO) have been used to fabricate transparent gate contacts.…”

“…Emerging new applications like smart labels 1 and intelligent packaging, 2 wearable 1-4 and textile integrated systems, [5][6][7] seamless and embedded patch-like electronics, 8,9 epidermal devices, [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] artificial skins for robots, [17][18][19] imperceptible [20][21][22] biomimetic 23 and transient [24][25][26] medical implants, as well as advanced surgical tools 13,15,27,28 promise to revolutionize our daily life. To enable all these applications, electronic devices have to become flexible, lightweight, transparent, conformable, stretchable, and even biocompatible and biodegradable.…”

“…Among the state-of-the-art flexible TFT technologies, metal oxide semiconductors are especially suitable, owing to their high optical transparency, 29 good electrical performance [electron carrier mobility of !10 cm 2 V À1 s À1 even if processed at room temperature (RT)], 29 as well as excellent mechanical properties (large bendability down to 25 lm radii and good insensitivity to strain). 23,30 Table I provides a summary and a comparison of the most important device properties for the established flexible TFT technologies: amorphous silicon (a-Si), 31,32 organic semiconductors, 14,33 low temperature poly-crystalline silicon (LTPS), 34,35 and metal oxide semiconductors. As evident from Table I, metal oxide semiconducting technology presents several advantages typical of a-Si and organic materials, such as low cost, low process complexity and temperature, and large-area scalability, but at the same time yields a larger carrier mobility.…”

“…76 From 2008, tremendous advances were made in the field of flexible devices, from IGZO TFTs on cellulose fiber-based paper, 77 stretchable and transparent ZnO TFTs, 78 complementary inverters based on n-type IGZO and ptype SnO TFTs with and on paper, 79 ultraflexible and transparent IGZO TFTs, 80 three-dimensionally (3D) conformable IGZO TFTs and circuits, 81 water soluble IGZO TFTs, 82 to mechanically active biomimetic IGZO TFTs. 23 Nowadays, the state-of-the-art flexible IGZO TFTs yield excellent electrical performance with carrier mobility values up to 84 cm 2 V À1 s…”

Shapeable magnetoelectronics

“…11,12 Compliant designs of inorganic semiconductor 5,13,14,192 and metal-based [15][16][17][18] electronics, however, combine the advantages of being soft with the high speed and low power consumption capabilities of conventional semiconductor-based electronics. 19 A large variety of compliant organic and inorganic electronic elements with various functions have been realized in the last years ( Figure 1), including light emitting diodes (LEDs), 20,21 heaters, 12 actuators, 22 and supercapacitors.…”