Materials and processing approaches for foundry-compatible transient electronics

Abstract

Foundry-based routes to transient silicon electronic devices have the potential to serve as the manufacturing basis for "green" electronic devices, biodegradable implants, hardware secure data storage systems, and unrecoverable remote devices. This article introduces materials and processing approaches that enable state-of-theart silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) foundries to be leveraged for high-performance, water-soluble forms of electronics. The key elements are (i) collections of biodegradable electronic materials (e.g., silicon, tungsten, silicon nitride, silicon dioxide) and device architectures that are compatible with manufacturing procedures currently used in the integrated circuit industry, (ii) release schemes and transfer printing methods for integration of multiple ultrathin components formed in this way onto biodegradable polymer substrates, and (iii) planarization and metallization techniques to yield interconnected and fully functional systems. Various CMOS devices and circuit elements created in this fashion and detailed measurements of their electrical characteristics highlight the capabilities. Accelerated dissolution studies in aqueous environments reveal the chemical kinetics associated with the underlying transient behaviors. The results demonstrate the technical feasibility for using foundry-based routes to sophisticated forms of transient electronic devices, with functional capabilities and cost structures that could support diverse applications in the biomedical, military, industrial, and consumer industries.soft electronics | biodegradable electronics | transfer printing | undercut etching | hydrolysis S emiconductor technology is increasingly essential to nearly all aspects of modern society, with projections of market sizes that will exceed $7 trillion in 2017, equivalent to 10% of the world's gross domestic product (1-4). The rapid and accelerating pace of innovation in this area leads to increases in the frequency with which consumers upgrade their devices, thereby contributing to the production of >50 million tons of electronic waste (e-waste) each year (5, 6). Furthermore, the anticipated emergence of electronics for internet-of-things applications, along with the continued proliferation of radio frequency (RF) identification tags and other high-volume electronic goods, create daunting challenges with the management of this e-waste (7, 8). These considerations motivate research into forms of electronics that can degrade naturally into the environment to harmless end products. Such technology is also of interest for other, unique classes of applications, ranging from biodegradable, temporary electronic implants to hardware secure data systems and unrecoverable, field-deployed devices (9-12). Sometimes referred to collectively as transient electronics, these types of devices can be constructed by using designer materials, such as specially formulated polymers or natural products (13-16), or clever combinations of established materials, well-aligned to existing ...

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“…Copyright 2013, John Wiley and Sons. c) Left: Sketch of the foundry‐compatible bioresorbable Si transistor . Right: Representative photographs during device dissolution in buffer at pH 7.4 and 70 °C.…”

“…Right: Representative photographs during device dissolution in buffer at pH 7.4 and 70 °C. Reproduced with permission . Copyright 2017, The Authors, Published by National Academy of Sciences.…”

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