Organic Bendable and Stretchable Field Effect Devices for Sensing Applications

Abstract

In this paper we propose a detailed investigation on the electrical response to mechanical deformations of organic field effect transistors assembled on flexible plastic substrates. We demonstrate that through applying a surface deformation by an external mechanical stimulus we induce morphological and structural changes in the organic semiconductor giving rise to a marked, reproducible and reversible variation of the device output current. We show how the intrinsic properties of the employed active layers play a crucial role in determining the final sensitivity to the mechanical deformation. Finally we also demonstrate that the fabricated flexible system can be successfully employed for different applications that go from the detection of bio-mechanical parameters (e.g., joint motion, breath rate, etc.) in the wearable electronics field to tactile transduction for the realization of artificial robot skin.