Journal Article

Fully inkjet-printed two-dimensional material field-effect heterojunctions for wearable and textile electronics

Divitini, Giorgio, Wang, Chaoxia, Sordan, Roman, Ren, Jiesheng, Mansouri, Aida, Kim, Jong M., Cacovich, Stefania, Torrisi, Felice, Ducati, Caterina, Carey, Tian

2017

Overview

Fully printed wearable electronics based on two-dimensional (2D) material heterojunction structures also known as heterostructures, such as field-effect transistors, require robust and reproducible printed multi-layer stacks consisting of active channel, dielectric and conductive contact layers. Solution processing of graphite and other layered materials provides low-cost inks enabling printed electronic devices, for example by inkjet printing. However, the limited quality of the 2D-material inks, the complexity of the layered arrangement, and the lack of a dielectric 2D-material ink able to operate at room temperature, under strain and after several washing cycles has impeded the fabrication of electronic devices on textile with fully printed 2D heterostructures. Here we demonstrate fully inkjet-printed 2D-material active heterostructures with graphene and hexagonal-boron nitride (h-BN) inks, and use them to fabricate all inkjet-printed flexible and washable field-effect transistors on textile, reaching a field-effect mobility of ~91 cm 2  V −1  s −1 , at low voltage (<5 V). This enables fully inkjet-printed electronic circuits, such as reprogrammable volatile memory cells, complementary inverters and OR logic gates. Heterojunction structures based on 2D materials show promise for wearable and textile electronics. Here, the authors demonstrate fully inkjet-printed hetero junctions of graphene and h-BN as a platform for FET-based smart electronics on wearable and washable textile substrates.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 639/166/987 / 639/925/357/1018 / 639/925/927/1007 / Boron / Boron nitride / Electronic circuits / Electronic devices / Electronic equipment / Electronics / Fabrication / Field effect transistors / Graphene / Heterojunctions / Heterostructures / Humanities and Social Sciences / Ink jet printers / Inkjet printing / Inks / Layered materials / Logic circuits / Low voltage / Memory cells / multidisciplinary / Multilayers / Printing / Room temperature / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Semiconductor devices / Transistors / Two dimensional materials / Wearable technology