System integration of polymer MEMS and organic semiconductors for the fabrication of sensors and actuators

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Polymers offer a lot of advantages for microsensors and microactuators and they are considered as one of the most promising materials for biochips, micro optics and microfluidic devices. Polymer based nano and micro devices are flexible, chemically and biologically compatible, available in many varieties and can be fabricated in really 3-D shapes. They are relatively low-cost materials and fabrication techniques are simple. There is no need for special clean-room and/or high temperature processes. Polymers can be deposited on various types of substrates, and there is a wide choice of molecular structures. This enables films to be produced with various physical and chemical properties including sensing and actuation behaviour. On another side, active devices such as, light emitting diodes (OLED), thin film transistors (OTFT), photodetectors and phototransistors can be build from organic semiconductors. Organic semiconductors can be then implemented in a variety of different applications in microelectronics and optoelectronics. To build fully functional microsystems, the necessary electronics have to be integrated. Even though polymer MEMS and organic semiconductors have several common features, and that important efforts were devoted in the past to independently develop each of those two technologies, up to now, little effort have been devoted to integrate them. Different approaches to build polymers MEMS will be studied. We will use parallel microfabrication techniques such as subtractive methods using lithography and sacrificial layers. We will also use micro imprint lithography and micromolding which are very promising techniques in the area of polymer MEMS. Direct writing methods which allow much more flexibility in prototype development will also be used. Among those techniques, microstereolithography and 3-D ink jet printing are particularly suitable for processing polymers and will be intensively explored. The organic semiconductors that we will use will be from both families, small molecules and polymers. Alternative methods for processing those materials in combination with the polymers used for building the MEMS structure will be developed.