CAREER: The Interface is the Device: Elucidating the Role of the Contact/Organic Interface in Organic Electrochemical Transistors

While transistor performance is dominated by the contact/semiconductor interface, this critical interface is overlooked in organic electronic transistors (OECTs). Present state-of-knowledge is limited and contradictory. Limited knowledge is a problem because the contact/organic interface defines contact resistance, size, speed, power consumption and efficiency, in low-cost, solution- processible OECTs, whose ability to convert biological-to-electronic signals gave rise to organic bioelectronics. The Paterson team identified another problem, showing that the OECT contact/organic interface overestimates figures of merit used to guide the entire organic mixed ionic-electronic conductor (OMIEC) field. The effort described here combines unique, field-leading expertise in OECT device physics, with contact engineering in organic transistors, to establish an unprecedented understanding of the role of the contact/organic interface in OECTs. Addressing the knowledge gap on the contact/organic interface will revolutionize OECT use in sensing and diagnostic applications, by enhancing the sensitivity, speed, power consumption and reliability of biosensors, medical and drug delivery devices, body-machine interfaces, and adaptive healthcare technologies. The outcome of the research proposed is expected development community wide OECT fabrication standards. Finally, successful completion of the work outlined in this CAREER proposal research is expected to enable the development of accurate models and methods to accurately extract the figures of merit that inform/bridge the OMIEC ‘material-device-circuit-application’ research stack, guiding advanced electronic applications from artificial synapses for coupling neurons and controlling prosthetic devices, to neuromorphic hardware and computing, chemical sensing and agricultural applications.