Advance Nanotech Reports New Developments in Organic Semiconductor Technology

Advance Nanotech, Inc., (New York, NY) announced significant progress in the development of new organic semiconductors. The Advance Nanotech research team, in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE) at the University of Cambridge, UK, has developed novel composites comprised of organic polymers and nanostructured materials that provide "printable" semiconductors for low-cost inkjet print manufacturing.
"We're very optimistic about the demand for printed electronics. IDTechEx estimates that printed electronics will grow to $30 billion in 2015 and reach $250 billion by 2025," said Peter Gammel, chief technology officer at Advance Nanotech. "This simplification in the manufacturing of semiconductors will open up a world of new uses for electronics. We will be able to incorporate intelligent circuits into a variety of objects, from clothing to packaging. Dupont, PlasticLogic, Cambridge Display Technology and e-Ink are just a few of the companies who are participating in the printable electronics bandwagon."
In the future, a full range of electronic and optoelectronic components could be printed -- from transistor circuits to photovoltaic films, from RF ID tags to OLEDs and displays, from logic and memory components to wireless interfaces and RF shields. Electronic and optoelectronic fabrication plants will resemble printing presses and enormous markets could be created where conventional silicon chips cannot go today because they are too costly and rigid. Enabling this revolution will require polymer materials that can be inkjet printed while exhibiting carrier mobility and current transport characteristics that make them suitable for electronic device applications.
"A one nanometer gap between the molecules of an organic polymer is sufficient to prevent effective charge transport. Today even the best polymer materials exhibit a conductivity that is two to three orders of magnitude lower than silicon," says Dr. Paul Beecher, a CAPE researcher working on the project. "Our technology explores an alternative approach to overcoming the poor electrical properties of most organic semiconductors by exploiting the enhanced conductivity brought about by selected nanomaterials. Our most recent results suggest the potential of our technique for addressing this crucial market need."
More than a year of intense R&D efforts has allowed the AVNA/CAPE team to optimize the chemical treatment of nanostructured materials and effectively disperse them in a range of polymers. Selected nanomaterials have been successfully incorporated in organic polymers, thus turning insulating materials into composites that show promising transistor characteristics. These composites have also proven quite stable, with no tendency to quickly form aggregates in solution, and are therefore suitable for inkjet print manufacturing.
The investment in a new conductive polymer technology was made in partnership with CAPE, the Center for Advanced Photonics and Electronics at the University of Cambridge. CAPE is an integrated research facility within the Electrical with a staff of 20 academics, 70 post-doctoral researchers and 170 research students. CAPE is funded by Advance Nanotech, Alps Electric Company Limited, Dow Corning Corporation and Marconi Corporation plc, and is designed to encourage research activities to proceed to development and exploitation in close collaboration with industry. The program enables designers and engineers within academia and industry to benefit from the burgeoning developments in advanced photonics and electronics. In the past five years numerous patents have been filed and ten spinout companies have been formed from projects that began in the Electrical Division within Cambridge's Department of Engineering.
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