Intrinsically Stretchable Organic Electrochemical Transistors with Rigid‐Device‐Benchmarkable Performance

Abstract

Intrinsically stretchable organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are being pursued as the next-generation tissue-like bioelectronic technologies to improve the interfacing with the soft human body. However, the performance of current intrinsically stretchable OECTs is far inferior to their rigid counterparts. In this work, for the first time, the authors report intrinsically stretchable OECTs with overall performance benchmarkable to conventional rigid devices. In particular, oxygen level in the stretchable substrate is revealed to have a significant impact on the on/off ratio. By employing stretchable substrates with low oxygen permeabilities, the on/off ratio is elevated from ≈10 to a record-high value of ≈10 4 , which is on par with a rigid OECT. The device remained functional after cyclic stretching tests. This work demonstrates that intrinsically stretchable OECTs have the potential to serve as a new building block for emerging soft bioelectronic applications such as electronic skin, soft implantables, and soft neuromorphic computing.

Carbon Nanotube Optoelectronic Synapse Transistor Arrays with Ultra‐Low Power Consumption for Stretchable Neuromorphic Vision Systems

“…The SSOSTFTs have good homogeneity, with mobility and subthreshold oscillations conforming to the characteristics of a normal distribution (Figure S7, Supporting Information). Compared with previous reports in the literature, [9,28,42,44,47] the device is capable of switching ratios up to 10 5 , low-operating voltage from −1 to 0.2 V, and high mobility (7.27 cm 2 V −1 s −1 ) (Table S1, Supporting Information).…”

“…[5] However, the previous reports demonstrate that the reported stretchable transistors show low switching ratios and mobility, high-operating voltages, and all of them exhibit depletion-type characteristics, which result in high power consumption and hinder their applications in wearable devices, human-computer interaction, and flexible robotics. [6][7][8][9] As Moore's law approaches its limit, and logical computing based on the von Neumann structure cannot meet the needs of Internet of Things, edge computing, etc. Its architecture of memory and processor separation has caused huge energy consumption, and the speed of processing information cannot be enhanced.…”

Organic Electrochemical Transistors functionalized with Protein Minibinders for Sensitive and Specific Detection of SARS‐CoV‐2

“…[34][35][36] Recent work has enabled stretchable and conformal OECTs that can be implemented for monitoring bioelectronic signals or detecting the presence of target biomarkers. [37][38][39][40][41] In combination with the work demonstrated here, this potentially enables wearable biomarker sensors with excellent sensitivity and specificity.…”

Tissue-like organic electrochemical transistors

“…23,24 For intrinsically stretchable OECTs, the stretchability comes from the inherent mechanical properties of the materials rather than device structures. 25 Even though intrinsic stretchability is a natural advantage of organic bioelectronics over other bioelectronic technologies, it remains challenging to assemble an intrinsically stretchable OECT, mainly because of the lack of mature materials systems that can show both suitable electrical properties and intrinsic stretchability, which are considered mutually exclusive.…”