Japan researchers develop high-performance thin-film semiconductor technology

A Japanese research group has developed the world's first technology to produce high-performance semiconductors only a single crystal thick that could be used for flexible touch panel displays.

The performance of the thin films produced with the new technology -- which uses a "double-shot" inkjet printing method -- is more than 100 times better than thin film transistors produced by conventional printing methods, the joint National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)-High Energy Accelerator Research Organization team said.

Because the films are produced at normal temperatures and pressure, plastic platforms can be used. They said the films could be used for industrial purposes immediately because they could be used to produce flexible displays if other printing techniques developed by the AIST and other organizations are applied simultaneously.

The method developed by the team combines anti-solvent crystallization with inkjet printing to produce organic, highly crystalline thin-film semiconductors, the researchers said.

This printing technique constitutes a major step towards the use of high-performance single-crystal semiconductor devices for flexible electronics applications, they said. The finding was carried by the online edition of the British science magazine Nature.

[The Mainichi Daily News]