Carbon Nanotube Flexible Electronics

Being mechanically flexible with superior electrical properties, thin-films of single-wall carbon nanotubes are proven to be one of the most promising material platforms for high performance flexible electronics. In this talk, I will discuss our solution-based platform for wafer-scale assembly of high-purity semiconducting carbon nanotube networks, which leads to low-cost fabrication of large quantity of thin-film transistors (TFTs) with excellent yield, uniformity, and respectable performance on flexible substrates. Based on the semiconducting carbon nanotube TFTs, a wide range of macro-scale system-level electronics have been demonstrated including flexible integrated circuits, flexible active-matrix organic light-emitting diode displays, and a user-interactive electronic skin that can simultaneously map and respond to various forms of stimuli. With emphasis on large-area systems where nm-scale accuracy in the assembly of nanotubes is not required, our demonstrations present a unique niche for nanotube electronics by taking full advantage of their superior electrical and physical properties. Our work shows carbon nanotubes’ immense promise as a low-cost and scalable TFT technology for nonconventional electronic systems with excellent performance.