Digital Electrochemistry for On‐Chip Heterogeneous Material Integration

Abstract

Many modern electronic applications rely on functional units arranged in an active‐matrix integrated on a single chip. The active‐matrix allows numerous identical device pixels to be addressed within a single system. However, next‐generation electronics requires heterogeneous integration of dissimilar devices, where sensors, actuators, and display pixels sense and interact with the local environment. Heterogeneous material integration allows the reduction of size, increase of functionality, and enhancement of performance; however, it is challenging since front‐end fabrication technologies in microelectronics put extremely high demands on materials, fabrication protocols, and processing environments. To overcome the obstacle in heterogeneous material integration, digital electrochemistry is explored here, which site‐selectively carries out electrochemical processes to deposit and address electroactive materials within the pixel array. More specifically, an amorphous indium‐gallium‐zinc oxide (a‐IGZO) thin‐film‐transistor (TFT) active‐matrix is used to address pixels within the matrix and locally control electrochemical reactions for material growth and actuation. The digital electrochemistry procedure is studied in‐depth by using polypyrrole (PPy) as a model material. Active‐matrix‐driven multicolored electrochromic patterns and actuator arrays are fabricated to demonstrate the capabilities of this approach for material integration. The approach can be extended to a broad range of materials and structures, opening up a new path for advanced heterogeneous microsystem integration.

A new dimension for magnetosensitive e-skins: active matrix integrated micro-origami sensor arrays

“…In our device a-IGZO TFTs are used to construct the active matrix backplane due to their high mobility, large-area uniformity and low processing temperature 44 – 46 . Only one geometry of a-IGZO TFTs ( L = 3 µm, W = 200 µm) is used to simplify the design of the backplane.…”

“…3g ), thus maintaining high sensitivity of the AMR sensors. Meanwhile, a high-k dielectric layer stack of (HfO 2 2.5 nm /Al 2 O 3 2.3 nm ) 3 /HfO 2 2.5 nm with an areal dielectric constant of 4.9 × 10 −7 F/cm 2 is used to decrease the operation voltage down to 3.3 V 46 . Typical transfer and output characteristics show that our n-type a-IGZO TFTs work in the enhancement mode with an on/off ratio up to 10 8 (Fig.…”

Video Speed Switching of Plasmonic Structural Colors with High Contrast and Superior Lifetime

“…The next step is to implement the nanostructures on thin film transistor arrays for individual pixel addressing and polymer switching. [ 44 ]…”

Application of Hybrid Electrically Conductive Hydrogels Promotes Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

“…PPy is synthesized by electrochemical or chemical oxidation polymerization of pyrrole monomers [ 69 ]. PPy has good electrical conductivity and excellent chemical stability, so it is widely used in the field of biomedicine [ 49 ].…”