SAGE (self-aligned gate electronics)

The transistor is the basic building block for electronics and has been key to the success of microelectronics. Increasingly there is global appetite for electronics built on plastic and other low-cost substrates such as paper and card as they can enable new products in high volume markets such as consumer packaging, anti-counterfeit labels and toys and games. These markets require low-cost printed logic and PragmatIC are developing high-throughput processes based on UV embossing (feature sizes down to 100nm) which can meet the needs of these markets and allow a variety of new form-factors (flexible, ultra-thin) beyond traditional silicon. The achievable feature sizes remove a major limiting problem of conventional transistors on plastics which have been predominant to date. To operate efficiently these device designs typically require process control at the submicron (and, ultimately, down to nanometre) scale and, as such, are not readily transferred to printing-based production techniques which typically produce features from 10s micron to mm scale. To overcome this problem PragmatIC has developed intellectual property for self-aligned devices, where features are automatically registered in the circuit design/template, using metal-oxide semiconductors which have recently emerged as highly-promising materials for printed logic. However, a major constraint is the need to thermally anneal devices (often >300 °C), making them incompatible with many plastics. PragmatIC, in conjunction with experts at Nottingham Trent University, has shown that laser annealing can be used to select the desired properties of metal-oxide thin-films and enable processing on low-cost plastics. This project will apply the technique to metal-oxide logic devices and embossing-based fabrication, creating a technology platform based on self-aligned gate electronics for licensing, offering both scalability and sustainability.