Array of Organic Field-Effect Transistor for Advanced Sensing

摘要

Organic electronics, taking advantage of flexibility and environmental sensitivity, have been investigated for diverse applications including flexible displays, wearable electronic devices and solar cells. A compelling additional application of organic electronics is sensing, especially of chemicals, pressure and light. As the key materials of organic electronics, organic semiconductors have been intensively studied, and have achieved mobility and stability good enough to be applied in various electronic circuits and systems with moderate complexity. This article presents a brief review of the transistor array systems, focusing on using arrays of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) for advanced sensing applications. OFET-based sensors are able to transduce an environment changing event into an electric signal by utilizing the unique combination of electric and environmental sensitive properties of organic semiconductors. Additionally, designing the microstructure and introducing the interfacial interaction inside the OFETs are another approaches to provide increased sensing capability to the devices. By incorporating the OFET sensors into arrays, advanced sensing can be further realized, such as tactile sensing, pattern imaging, skin-like temperature detecting and electronic nose. It is expected that by reviewing these OFET sensor arrays, this article could provide an inspiration for advanced applications based on organic electronic circuits and systems.