Cheap, flexible printed cameras from organic materials
Within IPPIA (Inkjet-printed organic photodetectors for imaging applications), researchers developed the basic building blocks of a promising technology. They designed a photosensor element – a light-detecting pixel – that can be produced entirely using inkjet printing techniques. Arranging many such pixels in arrays allows building an entire large-area digital imager. Researchers demonstrated printed organic photodetectors (OPDs) suitable for integration in an image sensor array. Amongst project breakthroughs were printed OPDs with high quantum yield in the visible spectrum and OPDs based on narrow-bandgap molecules that were tuned to detect visible light. Moreover, the team demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate organic, semi-transparent detectors that can detect light from both sides of the device. Such semi-transparent OPDs ring in a new era for interactive 3D user interfaces, flexible displays and smart sensors for surveillance systems. Unlike other techniques, direct-write techniques such as inkjet printing describe processes capable of precisely depositing functional materials on a substrate over defined locations. Except for printing OPDs, researchers also used organic semiconductors and highly conducting metal inks to develop entirely inkjet-printed organic field-effect transistors that were semi-transparent. By successfully building small demonstrators – small arrays of organic pixels – IPPIA set the stage for realising novel applications. These notably include printed photosensors for security vision systems, conformable and lightweight digital scanners, and X-ray imaging technology.
Keywords
Photosensors, printed electronics, image sensor, inkjet, organic photodetectors, imaging
