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Material
To design printed electronics, one needs a number of different materials that have completely different features, but need to be adjusted to each other. The most important materials are:
- the substrate: flexible polyester film, on which the electronic is printed
- the conductor: electrical conducting polymers for structures of electrodes
- the semiconductor: electrical semi conducting polymers for transistors and diodes
- the dielectric: electrical insulating polymers to divide between semi-conducting and conducting polymer layers
Polymer electronics is based on soluble polymers that become fluid in special dissolvent and can be transformed into printable ink, also called formulations. Polymer materials can have insulating, semi conducting or conducting properties. To be able to print a functioning RFID tag, one needs material that is conducting. Furthermore, those materials must be modifiable in their state of conductivity, e.g. by applying a voltage. In classical electronics, these tasks are performed by semiconductors such as silicon. PolyIC has changed polymers in a way that they show these properties in the favoured level in the printing process.
Together with insulating polymers, electronic circuits can be build on the basis of soluble polymers. These electronic circuits are the root for an RFID tag. |
