Researchers worked to make an astoundingly thin and transparent semiconductor that could play a role in the future of electronics.
Research teams from two universities worked together to create the "world's fastest thin-film organic transistors," a Stanford School of Engineering news release reported. They proved the technology would be effective in applications such as T.V. screens and similar electronics. Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln also worked on the project.
The team also demonstrated their ability to create electronics made from this material that are "90 percent invisible to the naked eye."
Researchers have been working to create an organic semiconductor of this speed out of carbon-rich molecules and plastic for years. This new project produced "thin-film organic transistors" that operated five times faster than anything that had been seen before.
"Organic" compounds used to only refer to those that were produced by living organisms, but the definition has been extended to include carbon-based substances and plastics.
When creating these types of semiconductors researchers usually place a solution composed of "carbon-rich molecules and a complementary plastic" onto a glass spinning platter; the movement deposited the solution across the surface.
In this new process the researchers spun the plate faster than the norm and only coated a portion of the surface that was about the size of a postage stamp. This technique allowed the team to deposit a "denser concentration of the organic molecules into a more regular alignment," the news release reported.
The team found electricity flowed through the transistors much more quickly when this process was used. They called their new method "off-center spin coating." The technique still needs work in order to better-control alignment of the organic materials.
"Even at this stage, off-center spin coating produced transistors with a range of speeds much faster than those of previous organic semiconductors and comparable to the performance of the polysilicon materials used in today's high-end electronics," the news release reported.
The finding brought researchers a step closer to creating inexpensive and high-functioning electronics.
