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Vertical electrochemical transistors push wearable electronics forward


Vertical electrochemical transistors push wearable electronics forward

The vertical electrochemical transistor is based on a new type of electronic polymer and a vertical, rather than flat, structure. Credit: Northwestern University

An interdisciplinary team from Northwestern University has developed a revolutionary transistor that is expected to be ideal for light, flexible, high-performance bioelectronics.

The electrochemical transistor is compatible with blood and water and can amplify important signals, making it particularly useful for biomedical sensing. Such a transistor could allow wearables to process signals in situ, right at the biodevice interface. Potential applications include measuring heart rate, blood sodium and potassium levels, and eye movements to study sleep disorders.

“All of modern electronic devices “Here we use chemistry to enhance the conversion. Our electrochemical transistors take performance to the next level. You have it all,” said Tobin J. Marks, co-author of the study. the characteristics of an ordinary transistor but much higher conductivity (a measure of the gain it can give), extremely stable period of switching characteristics, a small footprint can enables high-density integration and easy, low-cost fabrication.”

Marks is a global leader in materials science and organic electronics. He is the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, as well as a professor of materials science and engineering and chemistry and Bioengineering in the McCormick School of Engineering.

The vertical electrochemical transistor is based on a new type of electronic polymer and a vertical, rather than flat, structure. It conducts both electricity and ions and is stable in the air. The design and synthesis of new materials, as well as the fabrication and characterization of transistors, require the collaborative expertise of chemists, materials scientists, and biomedical engineers.

Marks led the research team with Antonio Facchetti, research professor of chemistry at Weinberg; Wei Huang, now a professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China; and Jonathan Rivnay, professor of biomedical engineering at the McCormick School.

“This exciting new type of transistor allows us to speak the language of both biological systems, which normally communicate via ionic signals and electronic systemcommunicate with electrons,” says Rivnay. “The ability of transistors to act very effectively as ‘mixed conductors’ makes them attractive for bioelectronic diagnostics and therapies. ”

This study details efficient electrochemical transistors and an accompanying News & Views article was published this week. Nature.

“With the vertical structure, our electrochemical transistors can be stacked,” says Facchetti. “So we can create very dense electrochemical addition circuits, which is not possible with conventional planar electrochemical transistors.”

To create more powerful and reliable electronic circuits, two types of transistors are needed: a p-type transistor with a positive charge and an n-type transistor with a negative charge. These types of circuits are called complementary circuits. The challenge that researchers have faced in the past is that n-type transistors are difficult to fabricate and often unstable.

This is the first work to demonstrate that electrochemical transistors have similar and very high efficiency for both types of electrochemical (p+n) transistors. This leads to the fabrication of very efficient electrochemical add-on circuits.

More information:
Wei Huang et al, Vertical Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Complementary Circuits, Nature (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05592-2

quote: Vertical electrochemical transistor pushing wearable electronics forward (2023, Jan 19) retrieved Jan 19, 2023 from https://techxplore.com/news/2023-01-vertical-electrochemical -transistor-wearable-electronics.html

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