. 24/7 Space News .
CHIP TECH
Irish researchers make major breakthrough in smart printed electronics
by Staff Writers
Dublin, Ireland (SPX) Apr 10, 2017


Prof Jonathan Coleman and team have fabricated printed transistors consisting entirely of 2-dimensional nanomaterials for the first time. Image courtesy AMBER, Trinity College Dublin.

Researchers in AMBER, the Science Foundation Ireland-funded materials science research centre hosted in Trinity College Dublin, have fabricated printed transistors consisting entirely of 2-dimensional nanomaterials for the first time. These 2D materials combine exciting electronic properties with the potential for low-cost production.

This breakthrough could unlock the potential for applications such as food packaging that displays a digital countdown to warn you of spoiling, wine labels that alert you when your white wine is at its optimum temperature, or even a window pane that shows the day's forecast. The AMBER team's findings have been published today in the leading journal Science*.

This discovery opens the path for industry, such as ICT and pharmaceutical, to cheaply print a host of electronic devices from solar cells to LEDs with applications from interactive smart food and drug labels to next-generation banknote security and e-passports.

Prof Jonathan Coleman, who is an investigator in AMBER and Trinity's School of Physics, said, "In the future, printed devices will be incorporated into even the most mundane objects such as labels, posters and packaging. Printed electronic circuitry (constructed from the devices we have created) will allow consumer products to gather, process, display and transmit information: for example, milk cartons could send messages to your phone warning that the milk is about to go out-of-date.

We believe that 2D nanomaterials can compete with the materials currently used for printed electronics. Compared to other materials employed in this field, our 2D nanomaterials have the capability to yield more cost effective and higher performance printed devices.

However, while the last decade has underlined the potential of 2D materials for a range of electronic applications, only the first steps have been taken to demonstrate their worth in printed electronics.

This publication is important because it shows that conducting, semiconducting and insulating 2D nanomaterials can be combined together in complex devices. We felt that it was critically important to focus on printing transistors as they are the electric switches at the heart of modern computing. We believe this work opens the way to print a whole host of devices solely from 2D nanosheets."

Led by Prof Coleman, in collaboration with the groups of Prof Georg Duesberg (AMBER) and Prof. Laurens Siebbeles (TU Delft, Netherlands), the team used standard printing techniques to combine graphene nanosheets as the electrodes with two other nanomaterials, tungsten diselenide and boron nitride as the channel and separator (two important parts of a transistor) to form an all-printed, all-nanosheet, working transistor.

Printable electronics have developed over the last thirty years based mainly on printable carbon-based molecules. While these molecules can easily be turned into printable inks, such materials are somewhat unstable and have well-known performance limitations.

There have been many attempts to surpass these obstacles using alternative materials, such as carbon nanotubes or inorganic nanoparticles, but these materials have also shown limitations in either performance or in manufacturability.

While the performance of printed 2D devices cannot yet compare with advanced transistors, the team believe there is a wide scope to improve performance beyond the current state-of-the-art for printed transistors.

The ability to print 2D nanomaterials is based on Prof. Coleman's scalable method of producing 2D nanomaterials, including graphene, boron nitride, and tungsten diselenide nanosheets, in liquids, a method he has licensed to Samsung and Thomas Swan.

These nanosheets are flat nanoparticles that are a few nanometres thick but hundreds of nanometres wide. Critically, nanosheets made from different materials have electronic properties that can be conducting, insulating or semiconducting and so include all the building blocks of electronics.

Liquid processing is especially advantageous in that it yields large quantities of high quality 2D materials in a form that is easy to process into inks. Prof. Coleman's publication provides the potential to print circuitry at extremely low cost which will facilitate a range of applications from animated posters to smart labels.

Research paper

CHIP TECH
Semiconducting properties of Si-III might lead to unpredictable technological advancement
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 10, 2017
It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of silicon when it comes to computing, solar energy, and other technological applications. (Not to mention the fact that it makes up an awful lot of the Earth's crust.) Yet there is still so much to learn about how to harness the capabilities of element number fourteen. The most-common form of silicon crystallizes in the same structure a ... read more

Related Links
AMBER Centre
Computer Chip Architecture, Technology and Manufacture
Nano Technology News From SpaceMart.com


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


Comment using your Disqus, Facebook, Google or Twitter login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

CHIP TECH
You Say Tomato, I Say Tomatosphere: ISS Science to the Classroom

NASA Invests in 22 Visionary Exploration Concepts

No Roscosmos plans to send space tourists to ISS before 2020

US, Russian Astronauts Prepare for April Crew Swap on Space Station

CHIP TECH
Dream Chaser to use Europe's next-generation docking system

Europe's largest sounding rocket launched from Esrange

Bezos sells $1 bn in Amazon stock yearly to pay for rocket firm

US-Russia Venture Hopes to Sell More RD-180 Rocket Engines to US

CHIP TECH
Chile desert combed for clues to life on Mars

Russia critcal to ExoMars Project says Italian Space Agency Head

New MAVEN findings reveal how Mars' atmosphere was lost to space

Potential Mars Airplane Resumes Flight

CHIP TECH
Yuanwang fleet to carry out 19 space tracking tasks in 2017

China Develops Spaceship Capable of Moon Landing

Long March-7 Y2 ready for launch of China's first cargo spacecraft

China Seeks Space Rockets Launched from Airplanes

CHIP TECH
Ukraine in talks with ESA to become member

BRICS States Want to Expand Cooperation to Space Science

Mitsubishi Electric to Build New Satellite Production Facility

Horizon 2020 European funded DEMOCRITOS project concludes work with some key outcomes

CHIP TECH
Despite EU fines, Greece struggling to promote recycling

New method for 3-D printing extraterrestrial materials

Ultra-thin multilayer film for next-generation data storage and processing

USC Viterbi researchers develop new class of optoelectronic materials

CHIP TECH
'Smart' cephalopods trade off genome evolution for prolific RNA editing

Exoplanet mission gets ticket to ride

Atmosphere around super-earth detected

Possible Venus twin discovered around dim star

CHIP TECH
When Jovian Light and Dark Collide

Neptune's journey during early planet formation was 'smooth and calm'

Hubble takes close-up portrait of Jupiter

Neptune's movement from the inner to the outer solar system was smooth and calm









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.