Project description
Fast and flexible phototransistor for bioelectronic devices
Organic electronics seems to be ideally suited as an interface with biology. Their soft mechanical properties can simulate biological structures, while their ability to conduct ions in addition to electrons and holes opens up a new communication channel with biology. Transistors, the devices that amplify or switch electronic signals on circuits, are key components of these systems. To date, researchers have not been able to build transistors that are fast enough for data processing. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska Curie programme, the LEAPh project will develop a novel phototransistor designed for high-speed switching applications. Project advances will promote the development and implementation of highly reliable noise-free organic bioelectronics devices.
Objective
Organic bioelectronics has emerged as a disruptive technology, introducing devices with unprecedented features of biocompatibility and functionality. The potential of organic materials resides not only in their favorable mechanical properties, which comply to those of biological tissues, but also on their ability to enable mixed electronic and ionic transport and on the possibility to finely tune their optoelectronic properties, such as optical absorption, charge photogeneration and transport. In addition, the synthesis of organic compounds can be tuned to further improve biocompatibility and to allow for chemical or biochemical functionalization, as well as to enable cost-effective and scalable processability of materials. For these reasons, a plethora of biocompatible, mechanically compliant, large area, multipoint biosensing and stimulating devices are now available, generating novel interaction routes between biological systems, bioelectronics devices, and consumer electronics, such as smartphones and portable devices.
Because of the general involvement of ionic transport in biological environments, organic bioelectronic devices are inherently slow, i.e. characterized by slow switching capabilities, limited to few kHz. This fundamental aspect brings along some limitations, such as low-frequency operation and fluctuations of the operating parameters. The goal of the LEAPh project is to develop a novel bioelectronic device specifically devised to address in an unprecedented way the low-operating frequency of current bioelectronics, as well as providing a noise-free measurement of biochemical and biological interactions. Moreover, the same technology could pave the way towards a new class of low-voltage organic electro-optical systems.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental biotechnologybiosensing
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistry
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological behavioural sciencesethologybiological interactions
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsmobile phones
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
16163 Genova
Italy