Our research on transfer contact-printing of semiconductor nanowires for flexible electronics, developed at BEST Group and JWNC (University of Glasgow) supported by EPSRC, has been recently accepted for publication in Nature: Microsystems and Nanoengineering.
Article title: Heterogeneous Integration of Contact-printed Semiconductor Nanowires for High Performance Devices on Large Areas
In this work, we present a contact-printing system capable to print large-area electronic layers based on different kind of semiconductor nanowires, including silicon (Si) and zinc oxide (ZnO). The system allows to print not only on rigid substrates but also on non-conventional flexible substrates such as plastics. In this scenario, we have demonstrate a easy but accurate approach to print layers of different nanowires, controlling the printing location, nanowires density, and coverage area.
The contact-printing system reported in this work permits to print nanowires based electronic layers at specific locations along the surface of both rigid and flexible substrates.
The high control over parameters such as contact-printing pressure, speed, and length/area, allowed us to print nanowires on substrate with pre-patterned metallic layouts. In this regard, we have explored different configurations for a ultraviolet (UV) photodetector, including a simple load resistor and a Wheatstone-bridge. The later has demonstrated its significant validity to inhibit thermal effects.
Si and ZnO NWs have been contact-printed over large areas, resulting in a Wheatstone-bridge configuration for UV photo-detection.
