Megahertz Organic Thin-Film Transistors for Flexible Biomedical Systems

该项目旨在延续DFG优先计划FFlexCom第1阶段期间在项目“用于灵活生物医学系统的兆赫兹有机薄膜晶体管”中进行的工作。对于该项目的第二阶段，我们的贡献范围仍然是加深对低压有机薄膜晶体管（OTFT）的理解，改善和稳定其器件参数，并设计和制造自给自足电路的关键构建模块。我们一直致力于实现无线供电的多频段音频分频器，例如，由放大器、滤波器和稳压器组成，即我们对基于OTFT的人工耳蜗的愿景。虽然该项目的第一阶段专注于将信息从外部站传输到生物系统所需的组件，阶段2将瞄准相反的方向，并使身体信号可被外部单元访问。可能的应用场景包括汗液传感器、淋巴传感贴片和一次性心电图（ECG）系统，所有这些都基于类似的电路，但需要不同的传感概念。第一阶段和第二阶段的共同努力将为双向生物医学接口奠定基础，目标是实现自主闭环系统，可在低成本有机薄膜技术中制造。其基本思想不是建立一个一次性的功能演示器，而是以可预测的产量和合格的规格为目标进行批量处理的小批量生产。然而，这种系统级开发不仅需要可靠的器件或适配良好的晶体管模型，还需要符合行业标准的电子设计自动化（EDA）工具。因此，我们的联盟致力于改进和增强我们的OTFT技术，推导基于物理的频率依赖模型，并开发复杂的EDA工具，以便为身体传感器应用创建可预测和可靠的有机薄膜晶体管系统。

This project aims at a continuation of the work conducted in the project “Megahertz Organic Thin-Film Transistors for Flexible Biomedical Systems” during phase 1 of the DFG Priority Program FFlexCom. For phase 2 of this project, the scope of our contribution is still to develop a deeper understanding of low-voltage organic thin-film transistors (OTFT), to improve and stabilize their device parameters and to design and fabricate critical building blocks for self-sufficient circuits. We are continuously working towards a wirelessly supplied multi-band audio crossover consisting, for instance, of amplifiers, filters, and voltage regulators, i.e. our vision of an OTFT-based cochlea implant.While phase 1 of this project focused on the components required to transmit information from an external station to a biological system, phase 2 will aim in the opposite direction and make bodily signals accessible to an external unit. Possible application scenarios are sweat sensors, lymph-sensing patches, and disposable electrocardiogram (ECG) systems, all of which are based on similar circuitry but require different sensing concepts. The combined efforts of phases 1 and 2 will thus lay the foundation for bidirectional biomedical interfaces aiming towards autonomous closed-loop systems, manufacturable in low-cost organic thin-film technologies.The underlying idea is not to build a one-time-functional demonstrator, but to aim for batch-processed small-series production with predictable yield and qualified specifications. However, such system level development requires not only reliable devices or well-fitted transistor models, but also industry standard electronic design automation (EDA) tools. Our consortium therefore strives to improve and augment our OTFT technology, derive physics-based frequency-dependent models, and develop sophisticated EDA tools in order to create predictable and reliable organic thin-film-transistor systems for body sensor applications.