Metal Oxide Tunneling Barriers for Printed Polymer Tunnel Diodes

该项目的目的是合成和分析印刷有机隧道二极管中的金属氧化物隧道势垒。具有负差分电阻的印刷二极管是低功耗电子产品的关键部件，例如在高频，显示或存储技术中的应用。该项目的重点是可重复定义缺陷状态的足够密度以及界面特性，这导致负差分电阻。考虑到使用经济高效的技术，隧道阻挡层的合成将通过阳极氧化（AO）来完成。大多数有前途的方法都是从文献报道中得知的，而技术上的实现却相当简单。此外，AO与将用作印刷基材的塑料箔兼容。AO的过程必须以这样一种方式进行调整，即可以重复地合成金属氧化物材料的薄层，同时实现负差分电阻行为。作为一种印刷技术，凹版印刷是特别合适的，因为可以在高通量下沉积均匀的高质量层。将隧道势垒层的性质（及其合成）与印刷二极管结构相匹配是最重要的。同样，表征必须在匹配的隧道势垒上进行。只有这个程序才能考虑到印刷过程对材料及其各自特性的影响。

The aim of the project is to synthesize and analyze metal oxide tunnel barriers in printed organic tunnel diodes. Printed diodes exhibiting negative differential resistance are key components for low-power electronics, for example with applications in high frequency-, display- or memory technology. The project is focused on the reproducible definition of an adequate density of defect states as well as of interface properties, which cause a negative differential resistance. Considering the use of cost-effective and efficient techniques, the synthesis of the tunnel barrier layers will be done by anodic oxidation (AO). Most promising approaches concerning AO are known from reports in literature, whereas the technical realization is rather simple. Furthermore, AO is compatible to the plastic foil, which will be used as printing substrates. The process of the AO has to be adjusted in such a way that thin layers of a metal oxide material can reproducibly be synthesized, while a negative differential resistance behavior is achieved. As a printing technique for diodes, gravure printing is particularly suitable, because uniform layers of high quality can be deposited at high throughput. It is most essential to match the properties of the tunnel barrier layer (and hence its synthesis) to the printed diode structures. Likewise, the characterization has to be performed on the matched tunnel barrier. Only this procedure allows to account for the impact of the printing process on the materials and their respective properties.