Design, analysis, and test of low-power and reliable flexible electronics

Abstract

Flexible electronics are emerging as an alternative to conventional Si electronics for large-area low-cost applications such as e-paper, smart sensors, and disposable RFID tags. By utilizing inexpensive manufacturing methods such as ink-jet printing and roll-to-roll imprinting, flexible electronics can be made on low-cost plastics just like printing newspapers. However, the key elements of flexible electronics, thin-film transistors (TFTs), have a much slower operating speed and are less reliable than their Si electronics counterparts. Furthermore, depending on the material properties, TFTs are usually mono-type (either p- or n-type) devices - making air-stable complementary TFT circuits is very challenging and not feasible for most TFT technologies. Existing design and test technologies for Si electronics, therefore, cannot be applied to flexible electronics. Other limiting factors such as high supply voltage, large process variation, and lack of trustworthy device modeling also make designing larger-scale, robust TFT circuits a significant challenge.