Organic Reprogrammable Circuits Based on Electrochemically Formed Diodes

Abstract

We report a method to construct reprogrammable circuits based on organic electrochemical (EC) p-n junction diodes. The diodes are built up from the combination of the organic conjugated polymer poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] and a polymer electrolyte. The p-n diodes are defined by EC doping performed at 70 °C, and then stabilized at -30 °C. The reversible EC reaction allows for in-situ reprogramming of the polarity of the organic p-n junction, thus enabling us to reconfigure diode circuits. By combining diodes of specific polarities dedicated circuits have been created, such as various logic gates, a voltage limiter and an AC/DC converter. Reversing the EC reaction allows in-situ reprogramming of the p-n junction polarity, thus enabling reconfiguration of diode circuits, for example, from an AND gate to an OR gate. The reprogrammable circuits are based on p-n diodes defined from only two layers, the electrodes and then the active semiconductor:electrolyte composite material. Such simple device structures are promising for large-area and fully-printed reconfigurable circuits manufactured using common printing tools. The structure of the reported p-n diodes mimics the architecture of, and is based on identical materials used to construct light emitting 2 electrochemical cells (LEC). Our findings thus provide a robust signal routing technology that is easily integrated with traditional LECs.

Time-Resolved Chemical Mapping in Light-Emitting Electrochemical Cells

“…Under an applied bias, the anions and cations are transported through the active layer and accumulate at the electrode interfaces. Injection of charges into the semiconducting polymer and the charge compensation provided by the ions form p- and n-doped regions at the anode and cathode sides, respectively. − Compared to conventional OLEDs, LECs are single-layer devices with low turn-on voltage and insensitivity to the film thickness and the work function of the electrode materials. − These features make LECs flexible and low-cost artificial sources of lighting. ,− …”