Abstract
Flexible and printed electronics offers unprecedented levels of functionality exploiting diverse materials and device technologies. Extensive R&D efforts are focused on the development of a wide range of discrete and integrated printed electronic devices, such as thin film transistors, organic light emitting diode (OLED) lighting, solar cells, radio-frequency identification (RFID), antennas, inductors, capacitors, interconnects, sensors, and displays. Additive manufacturing techniques in combination with the inkjet printing technology are enabling unique circuit and device integration schemes on 2D/3D platforms to achieve a high degree of coordination among functionality, cost/performance ratio, and custom-integration. Printing technology needs to be developed for diverse metal, dielectric, and semiconductor materials to accommodate passive and active components (antenna, transistors, sensors, battery) on a single substrate to realize wearable technologies and the Internet of Things. Low-cost, low power, and low bandwidth sensors and controls have the potential to impact smart buildings technology by reducing the energy consumption by 20-40%. Large area, efficient thermal processing techniques are required for roll-to-roll manufacturing of high performance devices on low temperature substrates such as fabric, paper, plastic, and glass. The present talk highlights the low thermal budget integration of thin film sensors, energy harvesting components, and TFT devices using roll-to-toll photonic curing technique enabling high throughput processing on a timescale of a few milliseconds. The main focus of the present research is to develop a multifunctional sensor platform with specific focus on operational and functional requirements of environmental sensors, and printed RF antennas for monitoring in smart buildings. Overall, the combination of tunable antenna design, printed conductor performance, and integration on plastic and paper substrates is showing promise for low cost, multifunctional wireless sensor platform development.