Organic and printed process design kits: review, analysis and comparison

Abstract

Organic and printed electronics (OE) is a promising technology for reducing the waste and the price of electronic systems for new devices. OE offers technological advantages not available in conventional silicon processes such as physical flexibility, large area fabrication, mask-less deposition, low process temperatures and fully additive manufacturing-processes that all enable low-cost and low-waste fabrication techniques. Despite these advantages, important difficulties remain for developing compact models for transistors due to intrinsic variability in the manufacturing process and the behaviour of organic materials, which make it difficult to match the model and the experimental data. Due to disparity in the fabrication methodologies and the different topologies of transistors used, the diversity in compact models is noticeable. These different models provide specific solutions for particular devices and require various process design kits (PDKs) for each manufacturing process. This review covers the different PDKs developed in the OE field and compares them with the electric models used for simulation purposes. Both simulated and fabricated systems are included with the aim of providing the reader with a clear state-of-the-art of the OE situation.

Active matrix-based pressure sensor system with a 4 × 16 printed decoder designed with a flexible hybrid organic process design kit

“…Significant progress has been made in developing PDKs for printed electronics [21][22][23][24][25][26]. As an example, the organic PDK (OPDK) [21] is a design flows based on ion gel gated organic transistor.…”

Image Analysis Based Evaluation of Print Quality for Inkjet Printed Structures

“…Droplet positions were converted into a binary mask for further algorithmic evaluation. An alternative technique to improve the printing quality for complex layouts (layouts containing multi-lines, crossings, junctions or multilayer systems) is the implementation of design kits by optical evaluation [14][15][16], showing the problems of such layouts and using pattern compensation as a possible solution for the specific ink/substrate combinations. A method to create a design kit for inkjet printing of a 4-layer (metal, dielectric, metal, and organic semiconductor) design is displayed in [17].…”

“…With the implementation of complex machine and image processing methods, a system for simple hybrid electronics was created. All of the above-mentioned references [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] used image processing and analysis tools to gain data for an adjustment of the printing process in order to increase the printing quality. Most of them require technically complex printers and special tools, which are not applicable for printing complex layouts with multiple nozzles.…”

Printed 3D Gesture Recognition Thermoformed Half Sphere Compatible with In‐Mold Electronic Applications

“…Printed electronics can be one of the most revolutionary technologies of the 21st century. [ 1,2 ] Its technological maturity, as it enters a phase of industrial growth, is evidenced by an increasing range of applications such as 3D touch surfaces, vehicle interiors, human–machine interface (HMI), and industrial control HMI [ 1,3,4 ] that take advantage of many functional possibilities. Extremely miniaturized and increasingly efficient electronics and functional materials with tailored performance enable progress in terms of integration, flexibility, dimension, and autonomy.…”