Printing electronic circuits on sheets of plastic may offer a low-cost technique for manufacturing thin-film transistors for flexible displays. Researchers at the University of Illinois (Champaign, IL) have developed a process to fabricate single-crystal organic transistors. It allows scientists to probe charge transport within the crystals and to observe a strong anisotropy of the charge transport mobility within the crystal plane never before seen.
"We construct transistors simply by laminating a piece of silicone rubber that supports electrodes and dielectric layers for the transistor-an element that we refer to as a transistor stamp-against the surface of a single crystal," says John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering.