Imec and Holst Centre develop thin-film electronic devices on flexible plastic foil. These transistors are the building blocks for flexible plastic displays and computing devices. These can be used for a wide range of applications, think of rollable displays for tablet computers or phones, electronics printed on toys, intelligent food packaging, or paper with integrated electronics.

In our research, we want to improve the performance of the transistors that we can process on foil. We make those transistors using state-of-the-art semiconductor materials that can be processed at low temperatures. Secondly, we look into techniques to integrate the transistors into increasingly complex circuitry.

The active materials for the plastic electronics are organic molecules and oxide semiconductors. Wherever possible, we use low-cost patterning techniques, to make sure this technology is commercially viable.
The research program has 5 modules: technology for oxide transistors on foil, technology for organic transistors on foil, technology for flexible display backplanes, non-volatile memory on foil and finally, thin-film circuits on foil.

We carry out this research in collaboration with Holst Centre. This allows us to leverage other research programs for technologies on plastic foils carried out at Holst Centre, in particular the research on patterning technologies on foil, on moisture barriers, and on OLEDs.

Contact: Jan Genoe
Phone: +32 16 28 87 05
Mail: Jan.Genoe@imec.be