Fully stretchable active-matrix organic light-emitting electrochemical cell array

Jia Liu,Ting Lei,Jiechen Wang,Yi-Xuan Wang,Xuzhou Yan,Reinhold Dauskardt,Ging-Ji Nathan Wang,Yang Lu,Helen Tran,Yitian Zeng,Bob C Schroeder,Oliver Zhao,Jeffrey B.-H Tok,Youngjun Yun,Zhitao Zhang,Francisco Molina-Lopez,Jong Won Chung,Zhenan Bao

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-17084-w

Abstract

Intrinsically and fully stretchable active-matrix-driven displays are an important element to skin electronics that can be applied to many emerging fields, such as wearable electronics, consumer electronics and biomedical devices. Here, we show for the first time a fully stretchable active-matrix-driven organic light-emitting electrochemical cell array. Briefly, it is comprised of a stretchable light-emitting electrochemical cell array driven by a solution-processed, vertically integrated stretchable organic thin-film transistor active-matrix, which is enabled by the development of chemically-orthogonal and intrinsically stretchable dielectric materials. Our resulting active-matrix-driven organic light-emitting electrochemical cell array can be readily bent, twisted and stretched without affecting its device performance. When mounted on skin, the array can tolerate to repeated cycles at 30% strain. This work demonstrates the feasibility of skin-applicable displays and lays the foundation for further materials development.

Highlights

And fully stretchable active-matrix-driven displays are an important element to skin electronics that can be applied to many emerging fields, such as wearable electronics, consumer electronics and biomedical devices
Even though the commercial AMOLED display active matrix consists of two transistors and a capacitor, previous demonstrations of new types of thin-film transistor (TFT) for driving displays have typically started with one switching TFT16,25,26
While there are several reported stretchable OTFTs, their drain currents were observed to be mostly

Summary

Introduction

And fully stretchable active-matrix-driven displays are an important element to skin electronics that can be applied to many emerging fields, such as wearable electronics, consumer electronics and biomedical devices. Using intrinsically stretchable materials to mimic and extend the mechanical properties and functionalities of skin, a variety of fully stretchable electronic components have been demonstrated, such as pressure sensors[11,12], temperature sensors[13] and analogy circuits[14,15] Despite these advancements, fully stretchable skin displays have not yet been reported. To enable a fully stretchable skin-like display, two important components are needed: intrinsically stretchable light-emitting device array and intrinsically stretchable thin-film transistor (TFT)-driven active matrix. We present robust materials and processes that afford a fully stretchable skin-like display This was accomplished by integrating fully stretchable TFT array and stretchable organic light-emitting electrochemical cells (OLECs) to yield a fully stretchable transistor-driven active-matrix OLEC array (AMOLEC) array. Even though the commercial AMOLED display active matrix consists of two transistors and a capacitor, previous demonstrations of new types of TFTs for driving displays have typically started with one switching TFT16,25,26

Methods

Results

Conclusion