Flexible Transistor Arrays

摘要

Markets are now emerging for flexible transistor arrays and the state of the art is exciting, but there are challenges to be overcome before flexible arrays can enter the mainstream. Flexible switch-transistor arrays will be necessary for fabricating active-matrix flexi--ble displays as well as a variety of large-area electronics currently envisioned for plastic or flexible substrates. Transistors are currently used as switches, but with markets now emerging for flexible transistor arrays, it is time to provide definitions, examples, and technology options, and to suggest solutions to the known challenges. The "flexible transistor array" has several definitions. The simplest level of flexibility is found in a device that can be conformed once to a surface curved in one axis. This simplest level of flexibility requires films that do not reside at the neutral axis of the backplane to stretch or compress in one direction one time without failure. Deforming an array one time in two axes requires the array to be stretched in two axes, which yields a trapezoidal surface deformation and a second level of flexibility.