This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a revolutionary new high-performance thin-film-on-plastic technology that will provide single-crystal silicon, thin film transistor (TFT) performance. This technology is based on a novel thin-film semiconductor on plastic composed of a dense film of parallel nanowires with electronic properties comparable to single-crystal silicon that can be deposited at low temperatures. In Phase I, the feasibility of this innovative technology was successfully demonstrated and key device design and material processing parameters to address underlying device performance were identified. Specific developments included (1) nanomaterial deposition (2) contact technology (3) doping processes and (4) device architecture. Phase II research will build on the knowledge gained in Phase I, and focus on further optimization of device performance and the development of roll-to-roll manufacturing processes. The output of Phase II will be a prototype array of transistors on plastic. In addition, this fundamental concept can be applied to nanowire materials other than silicon, allowing the production of thin films of material that presently are impossible to produce over large areas on any substrate, including semiconductors relevant to communications (GaAs, InAs), optically active materials (GaN, InP), piezoelectric or ferroelectric materials (SrTiO3), or materials of mixed composition with newly engineered properties.
Commercially, this research will impact greatly the development of high performance TFT devices on plastic for commercial, military, and homeland security markets. These high-performance, flexible semiconducting films have the potential to replace amorphous and polycrystalline silicon in important large-area electronics applications such as displays and also radio frequency identification tags (RFID'S).
