Temperature Performance of Doping‐Free Top‐Gate CNT Field‐Effect Transistors: Potential for Low‐ and High‐Temperature Electronics

High‐performance top‐gate carbon nanotube (CNT) field‐effect transistors (FETs) have been fabricated via a doping‐free fabrication process in which the polarity of the CNT FET is controlled by the injection of carriers from the electrodes, instead of using dopants. The performance of the doping‐free CNT FETs is systemically investigated over a wide temperature range, from very low temperatures of down to 4.3 K up to 573 K, and analyzed using several temperature‐dependent key device parameters including the ON/OFF state current and ratio, carrier mobility, and subthreshold swing. It is demonstrated that for ballistic and quasi‐ballistic CNT FETs, the operation of the CNT FETs is largely independent of the presence of dopant, thus avoiding detrimental effects due to dopant freeze‐out at low temperature and dopant diffusion at high temperature, and making it possible to use doping‐free CNT FETs in both low‐ and high‐temperature electronics. A new method is also proposed for extracting the band‐gap and diameter of a semiconducting CNT from the temperature dependent OFF‐state current and shown to yield results that are consistent with AFM measurements.     

Stretchable Twisted‐Pair Transmission Lines for Microwave Frequency Wearable Electronics

Stretchable electrical interconnects based on serpentines combined with elastic materials are utilized in various classes of wearable electronics. However, such interconnects are primarily for direct current or low‐frequency signals and incompatible with microwave electronics that enable wireless communication. In this paper, design and fabrication procedures are described for stretchable transmission line capable of delivering microwave signals. The stretchable transmission line has twisted‐pair design integrated into thin‐film serpentine microstructure to minimize electromagnetic interference, such that the line's performance is minimally affected by the environment in close proximity, allowing its use in thin‐film bioelectronics, such as the epidermal electronic system. Detailed analysis, simulations, and experimental results show that the stretchable transmission line has negligible changes in performance when stretched and is operable on skin through suppressed radiated emission achieved with the twisted‐pair geometry. Furthermore, stretchable microwave low‐pass filter and band‐stop filter are demonstrated using the twisted‐pair structure to show the feasibility of the transmission lines as stretchable passive components. These concepts form the basic elements used in the design of stretchable microwave components, circuits, and subsystems performing important radio frequency functionalities, which can apply to many types of stretchable bioelectronics for radio transmitters and receivers.     

Materials and Fabrication Processes for Transient and Bioresorbable High‐Performance Electronics

Materials and fabrication procedures are described for bioresorbable transistors and simple integrated circuits, in which the key processing steps occur on silicon wafer substrates, in schemes compatible with methods used in conventional microelectronics. The approach relies on an unusual type of silicon on insulator wafer to yield devices that exploit ultrathin sheets of monocrystalline silicon for the semiconductor, thin films of magnesium for the electrodes and interconnects, silicon dioxide and magnesium oxide for the dielectrics, and silk for the substrates. A range of component examples with detailed measurements of their electrical characteristics and dissolution properties illustrate the capabilities. In vivo toxicity tests demonstrate biocompatibility in sub‐dermal implants. The results have significance for broad classes of water‐soluble, “transient” electronic devices.     

Biodegradable Thin Metal Foils and Spin‐On Glass Materials for Transient Electronics

Biodegradable substrates and encapsulating materials play critical roles in the development of an emerging class of semiconductor technology, generally referred as “transient electronics”, whose key characteristic is an ability to dissolve completely, in a controlled manner, upon immersion in ground water or biofluids. The results presented here introduce the use of thin foils of Mo, Fe, W, or Zn as biodegradable substrates and silicate spin‐on‐glass (SOG) materials as insulating and encapsulating layers, with demonstrations of transient active (diode and transistor) and passive (capacitor and inductor) electronic components. Complete measurements of electrical characteristics demonstrate that the device performance can reach levels comparable to those possible with conventional, nontransient materials. Dissolution kinetics of the foils and cytotoxicity tests of the SOG yield information relevant to use in transient electronics for temporary biomedical implants, resorbable environmental monitors, and reduced waste consumer electronics.     

High‐Yield Synthesis of Multifunctional Tellurium Nanorods to Achieve Simultaneous Chemo‐Photothermal Combination Cancer Therapy

Tellurium (Te) is an important semiconductor material with low band‐gap energy, which has attracted considerable attention in recent years, due to its special chemical and physical properties and wide potential in electrochemistry, optoelectronics, and biological fields. This study demonstrates a facile and high‐yield synthesis strategy of Te nanorods (PTW‐TeNRs) decorated by polysaccharide–protein complex, which can achieve simultaneous chemo‐photothermal combination therapy against cancers. PTW‐TeNRs alone possess high stability under physiological conditions, potent anticancer activities through induction of reactive oxygen species overproduction, and high selectivity among tumor and normal cells. More importantly, they exhibit strong near‐infrared (NIR) absorbance and good photothermal conversion ability from NIR light to heat energy. Furthermore, in combination with NIR laser irradiation, PTW‐TeNRs exhibit excellent chemo‐photothermal efficiency and low toxicity as evidenced by highly efficient tumor ablation ability, but show no obvious histological damage to the major organs. Taken together, this study provides a valid tactic for facile synthesis of multifunctional tellurium nanorods for efficient and combinational cancer therapy.     

Layer‐Controlled and Wafer‐Scale Synthesis of Uniform and High‐Quality Graphene Films on a Polycrystalline Nickel Catalyst

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) provides a synthesis route for large‐area and high‐quality graphene films. However, layer‐controlled synthesis remains a great challenge on polycrystalline metallic films. Here, a facile and viable synthesis of layer‐controlled and high‐quality graphene films on wafer‐scale Ni surface by the sequentially separated steps of gas carburization, hydrogen exposure, and segregation is developed. The layer numbers of graphene films with large domain sizes are controlled precisely at ambient pressure by modulating the simplified CVD process conditions and hydrogen exposure. The hydrogen exposure assisted with a Ni catalyst plays a critical role in promoting the preferential segregation through removing the carbon layers on the Ni surface and reducing carbon content in the Ni. Excellent electrical and transparent conductive performance, with a room‐temperature mobility of ≈3000 cm² V^?1 s^?1 and a sheet resistance as low as ≈100 Ω per square at ≈90% transmittance, of the twisted few‐layer grapheme films grown on the Ni catalyst is demonstrated.     

Hybrid Paper–Plastic Microchip for Flexible and High‐Performance Point‐of‐Care Diagnostics

A low‐cost and easy‐to‐fabricate microchip remains a key challenge for the development of true point‐of‐care (POC) diagnostics. Cellulose paper and plastic are thin, light, flexible, and abundant raw materials, which make them excellent substrates for mass production of POC devices. Herein, a hybrid paper–plastic microchip (PPMC) is developed, which can be used for both single and multiplexed detection of different targets, providing flexibility in the design and fabrication of the microchip. The developed PPMC with printed electronics is evaluated for sensitive and reliable detection of a broad range of targets, such as liver and colon cancer protein biomarkers, intact Zika virus, and human papillomavirus nucleic acid amplicons. The presented approach allows a highly specific detection of the tested targets with detection limits as low as 10² ng mL^?1 for protein biomarkers, 10³ particle per milliliter for virus particles, and 10² copies per microliter for a target nucleic acid. This approach can potentially be considered for the development of inexpensive and stable POC microchip diagnostics and is suitable for the detection of a wide range of microbial infections and cancer biomarkers.     

Solution‐Processable,High‐Performance Flexible Electroluminescent Devices Based on High‐k Nanodielectrics

Flexible alternating‐current electroluminescent (ACEL) devices have attracted considerable attention for their ability to produce uniform light emission under bent conditions and have enormous potential for applications in back lighting panels, decorative lighting in automobiles, and panel displays. Nevertheless, flexible ACEL devices generally require a high operating bias, which precludes their implementation in low power devices. Herein, solution‐processed La‐doped barium titanate (BTO:La) nanocuboids (≈150 nm) are presented as high dielectric constant (high‐k) nanodielectrics, which can enhance the dielectric constant of an ACEL device from 2.6 to 21 (at 1 kHz), enabling the fabrication of high‐performance flexible ACEL devices with a lower operating voltage as well as higher brightness (≈57.54 cd m^?2 at 240 V, 1 kHz) than devices using undoped BTO nanodielectrics (≈14.3 cd m^?2 at 240 V, 1 kHz). Furthermore, a uniform brightness across the whole panel surface of the flexible ACEL devices and excellent device reliability are achieved via the use of uniform networks of crossaligned silver nanowires as highly conductive and flexible electrodes. The results offer experimental validation of high‐brightness flexible ACELs using solution‐processed BTO:La nanodielectrics, which constitutes an important milestone toward the implementation of high‐k nanodielectrics in flexible displays.     

Highly Uniform Trilayer Molybdenum Disulfide for Wafer‐Scale Device Fabrication

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) is a layered semiconducting material with a tunable bandgap that is promising for the next generation nanoelectronics as a substitute for graphene or silicon. Despite recent progress, the synthesis of high‐quality and highly uniform MoS₂ on a large scale is still a challenge. In this work, a temperature‐dependent synthesis study of large‐area MoS₂ by direct sulfurization of evaporated Mo thin films on SiO₂ is presented. A variety of physical characterization techniques is employed to investigate the structural quality of the material. The film quality is shown to be similar to geological MoS₂, if synthesized at sufficiently high temperatures (1050 °C). In addition, a highly uniform growth of trilayer MoS₂ with an unprecedented uniformity of ±0.07 nm over a large area (> 10 cm²) is achieved. These films are used to fabricate field‐effect transistors following a straightforward wafer‐scale UV lithography process. The intrinsic field‐effect mobility is estimated to be about cm² V^–1 s^–1 and compared to previous studies. These results represent a significant step towards application of MoS₂ in nanoelectronics and sensing.     

A Facile,High‐Yield,and Freeze‐and‐Thaw‐Assisted Approach to Fabricate MXene with Plentiful Wrinkles and Its Application in On‐Chip Micro‐Supercapacitors

MXene, as a new member of the two‐dimensional (2D) material family, has been widely studied. However, people often pay close attention to the versatility of MXene while ignoring its low exfoliation yield. In this work, a simplified and effective strategy to exfoliate multilayer‐MXene via the gentle water freezing‐and‐thawing (FAT) approach is proposed. The volume expansion of intercalated water can promote the exfoliation of MXene nanosheets. The yield of large FAT‐MXene flakes with special wrinkles can reach 39% after four cycles of the FAT process. Moreover, combining with sonication treatment can boost the yield of small MXene to a record high value of 81.4%. With the help of a commercial interdigital mask, an on‐chip all‐MXene micro‐supercapacitor (MSC) assembled by large FAT‐MXene is fabricated, exhibiting high areal and volumetric capacitance of 23.6 mF cm^?2 and 591 F cm^?3, respectively. This remarkable electrochemical performance of MXene‐MSC also confirms the high quality of MXene through this FAT strategy. This study may open up a new method to simultaneously boost the yield of MXene with small or large flake sizes, facilitating large‐scale and size‐dependent research on MXene.     

High‐Temperature Large‐Scale Self‐Assembly of Highly Faceted Monocrystalline Au Metasurfaces

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) devices based on resonant metallic metasurfaces have shown disruptive potential for many applications including biosensing and photocatalysis. Despite significant progress, highly performing Au plasmonic nanotextures often suffer of suboptimal electric field enhancement, due to damping effects in multicrystalline domains. Fabricating well‐defined Au nanocrystals over large surfaces is very challenging, and usually requires time‐intensive multi‐step processes. Here, presented are first insights on the large‐scale self‐assembly of monocrystalline Au nano‐islands with tunable size and separation, and their application as efficient LSPR surfaces. Highly homogeneous centimeter‐sized Au metasurfaces are fabricated by one‐step deposition and in situ coalescence of hot nanoparticle aerosols into a discontinuous monolayer of highly faceted monocrystals. First insights on the mechanisms driving the high‐temperature synthesis of these highly faceted Au nanotextures are obtained by molecular dynamic and detailed experimental investigation of their growth kinetics. Notably, these metasurfaces demonstrat high‐quality and tunable LSPR, enabling the fabrication of highly performing optical gas molecule sensors detecting down to 3 × 10^?6 variations in refractive index at room temperature. It is believed that these findings provide a rapid, low‐cost nanofabrication tool for the engineering of highly homogenous Au metasurfaces for large‐scale LSPR devices with application ranging from ultrasensitive optical gas sensors to photocatalytic macroreactors.     

Synchronous Growth of High‐Quality Bilayer Bernal Graphene: From Hexagonal Single‐Crystal Domains to Wafer‐Scale Homogeneous Films

The precise control of the domain structure, layer thickness, and stacking order of graphene has attracted intense interest because of its great potential for nanoelectronics applications. Much effort has been devoted to synthesize semiconducting Bernal (AB)‐stacked bilayer graphene because of its tunable band structure and electronic properties that are unavailable to single‐layer graphene. However, fast growth of large‐scale bilayer graphene sheets with a high AB‐stacking ratio and high mobility on copper poses a tremendous challenge, which has to overcome the self‐limiting effect. This study reports a low‐cost but facile method to rapidly synthesize bilayer Bernal graphene by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition using polystyrene as the feedstock. The bilayer graphene grains and continuous film obtained are of high quality and exhibit field‐effect hole mobilities as high as 5700 and 2200 cm² V^?1 s^?1 at room temperature, respectively. In addition, a synchronous growth mechanism of bilayer graphene is revealed by monitoring the growth process, resulting in a high surface coverage of nearly 100% for a near‐perfect AB‐stacking order. This new synthesis route is significant for industrial application of bilayer graphene and investigation of the growth mechanism of graphene by the chemical vapor deposition process.     

Highly Conductive,Flexible, Polyurethane‐Based Adhesives for Flexible and Printed Electronics

Flexible interconnects are one of the key elements in realizing next‐generation flexible electronics. While wire bonding interconnection materials are being deployed and discussed widely, adhesives to support flip‐chip and surface‐mount interconnections are less commonly used and reported. A polyurethane (PU)‐based electrically conductive adhesive (ECA) is developed to meet all the requirements of flexible interconnects, including an ultralow bulk resistivity of ≈1.0 × 10^?5 Ω cm that is maintained during bending, rolling, and compressing, good adhesion to various flexible substrates, and facile processing. The PU‐ECA enables various interconnection techniques in flexible and printed electronics: it can serve as a die‐attach material for flip‐chip, as vertical interconnect access (VIA)‐filling and polymer bump materials for 3D integration, and as a conductive paste for wearable radio‐frequency devices.     

Direct Writing of Gallium‐Indium Alloy for Stretchable Electronics

In this paper, a direct writing method for gallium‐indium alloys is presented. The relationships between nozzle inner diameter, standoff distance, flow rate, and the resulting trace geometry are demonstrated. The interaction between the gallium oxide layer and the substrate is critically important in understanding the printing behavior of the liquid metal. The difference between receding and advancing contact angles demonstrates that the adhesion of the oxide layer to the substrate surface is stronger than the wetting of the surface by the gallium‐indium alloy. This further demonstrates why free‐standing structures such as the traces described herein can be realized. In addition to the basic characterization of the direct writing process, a design algorithm that is generalizable to a range of trace geometries is developed. This method is applied to the fabrication of an elastomer‐encapsulated strain gauge that displays an approximately linear behavior through 50% strain with a gauge factor of 1.5.     

Flexible Electronics and Materials for Synchronized Stimulation and Monitoring in Multi‐Encephalic Regions

Simultaneous neuron stimulation and biophysiological sensing in multi‐encephalic regions can lead to profound understanding of neural pathways, neurotransmitter transportation, and nutrient metabolism. Here, a flexible electronic device with tentacle‐like channels radiating from a central wireless circuit is presented. The device is constructed by different organic and inorganic materials that have been made into thin‐film or nanoparticle formats. All channels have been equipped with flexible components for distributed and synchronized opto‐electrical stimulation, biopotential sensing, and ion concentration monitoring. They can be implanted into different brain regions through adaptive bending and individually addressed to follow programmable working sequences. Experimental results conducted in vitro and in vivo have demonstrated the capability in generating optical or electrical stimulation, while sensing 16‐channels biopotential and concentration of Ca²⁺, Na⁺, and K⁺ ions in distributed regions. Behavior and immunohistochemistry studies suggest potential applications in regulating brain functions for freely moving animals. In combination with various functional materials, the device can serve as a comprehensive research platform that can be modularized to accommodate different needs for brain studies, offering numerous possibilities and combinations to yield sophisticated neuromodulation and behavior regulation.     

Walking the Route to GHz Solution‐Processed Organic Electronics: A HEROIC Exploration

Limited charge carrier mobility of organic semiconductors, especially for solution‐processed polymer thin films, has typically relegated organic electronics to low‐frequency operation. Nevertheless, thanks to a steady increase in electronic properties of organics, much higher operation frequencies are feasible, suggesting a possible and appealing scenario where lightweight, cost‐effective, and conformable electronics can integrate both sensing and radio‐frequency transmitting functionalities, which are the key to unlock pervasive networks of distributed sensors revolutionizing human–environment interaction. Few years ago, it was suggested that gigahertz (GHz) field‐effect transistors could be achievable even with solution‐based processes. This was the basis for the European Research Council project high‐frequency printed and direct‐written organic‐hybrid integrated circuits (HEROIC), which in the last few years investigated such unexplored path. Here, the authors report their vision toward the achievement of radio‐frequency organic electronics mainly with solution‐based and scalable processes, with reference to the experience of the HEROIC project and to some of the most notable literature examples. The authors show that the achievement of solution‐processable organic field‐effect transistors with GHz operation is indeed feasible, but requires considering a carefully revised scenario in which the main role is played by charge injection, together with the geometric overlap, the capacitive parasitism associated to fringing and some constraints on the dielectric layer thickness.     

Anhydride‐Assisted Spontaneous Room Temperature Sintering of Printed Bioresorbable Electronics

Bioresorbable electronic devices are promising replacements for conventional build‐to‐last electronics in implantable biomedical systems and consumer electronics. However, bioresorbable devices are typically achieved by complex complementary metal oxide semiconductor fabrication processes that minimize exposure to humidity. Emerging printable techniques for bioresorbable electronics demand further improvement in electrical conductivity and mechanical robustness. This paper presents a room‐temperature spontaneous sintering method of bioresorbable inks that contain zinc nanoparticles and anhydride. The entire process can be conducted in atmosphere environment under 90% humidity within 300 min. It has minimum requirement for external heating and special ambient conditions, allowing humidity to trigger the surface chemistry of zinc nanoparticles and spontaneous welding between neighboring nanoparticles. The resulting bioresorbable patterns are highly conductive (σ = 72 400 S m^?1) and mechanically robust (>1500 bending cycles) to enable practical applications. A radio circuit achieved through the above method can operate stably over 14 days in air and disappear in water for less than 30 min. The spontaneous room‐temperature sintering represents a rapid and energy‐efficient approach to achieve high‐performance bioresorbable electronics with improved mechanical robustness and electrical performance, leading to broader impacts in the areas of healthcare, information security, and consumer electronics.