Collaborative Research: DMREF: Accelerating the Commercial Readiness of Organic Semiconductor Systems (ACROSS)

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Non-technical Description: The future of electronics, displays and lighting, large-area power generation and storage, and sensors for medical and national security applications requires the continued development of new materials to meet the ever more complex scientific and engineering challenges presented by these technologies. Carbon-based (organic) semiconductors offer opportunities to meet and even exceed the performance metrics required for these applications. However, many questions remain as to which organic semiconductors best fit each of these applications and how best to make them, as they themselves can be complex. To tackle these challenges and accelerate the commercial readiness of organic semiconductors, the ACROSS (Accelerating the Commercial Readiness of Organic Semiconductor Systems) team brings together expertise from chemistry, physics, device engineering, materials science, and modeling and data science to speed up applications-specific materials design. Notably, ACROSS provides a distinct, multidisciplinary environment to train the next generation of diverse and inquisitive scientists and engineers, where computers and machines will be vital to drive discovery. Technical Description: The multi-scale and multi-parameter natures of electronic and optical processes in carbon-based organic semiconductors are critical features that determine successful function of these materials in a diverse array of technologies. These characteristics, coupled with the need for material uniformity over large areas and environmental and operational stability when incorporated in devices, inhibit the widespread adoption of organic semiconductors in commercial applications. To confront this challenge, the ACROSS (Accelerating the Commercial Readiness of Organic Semiconductor Systems) team brings together expertise, in the context of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI), in materials synthesis and characterization, machine-informed and data-driven materials design, theory, and device development and deployment to accelerate the commercial readiness of organic semiconductors. The ACROSS research objectives are to: 1) Expand machine-informed organic semiconductor-design tools and access through extension of an already-comprehensive data infrastructure and associated machine-learning (ML) infrastructure; 2) Co-design molecular and crystal/material structures and processing parameters to facilitate the development of organic semiconductors spreadable over large areas with uniform and stable prescribed properties; and, 3) Apply optimized organic semiconductor and process conditions to create X-ray detectors and thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays across large areas. Key outcomes of ACROSS will be: 1) An expanded data infrastructure and tools for materials discovery with a focus on democratizing global data and tool access; 2) Software developed to capture organic semiconductor characterization and device data into structured formats to enable the creation of ML models for organic semiconductor property prediction; 3) Organic semiconductors optimized for high charge-carrier mobility, radiation sensitivity, and environmental and operational stability; and, 4) Co-designed molecular and processing parameters to produce organic semiconductors for large-area applications that span prototype TFTs and radiation dosimeters (mm scale) to TFT arrays and high-resolution radiation imagers (cm to m scale). Further, ACROSS will build on and establish pipelines to recruit and mentor undergraduate and graduate researchers who are underrepresented in STEM from our nearby communities and institutions to equip them with the technical skills required to enter a broad, interdisciplinary technical and data-driven workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.