Megahertz Organic Thin-Film Transistors for Flexible Biomedical Systems

该项目旨在继续在DFG优先计划FFlexCom第一阶段开展的“用于灵活生物医疗系统的兆赫有机薄膜晶体管”项目中开展的工作。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)的了解，改进和稳定其器件参数，并设计和制造用于自给自足电路的关键构建块。我们一直致力于一种无线提供的多频段音频交叉，例如，由放大器、过滤器和电压调节器组成，即我们对基于OTFT的耳蜗植入物的愿景。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，但第二阶段的目标将相反，使外部单元能够访问身体信号。可能的应用场景是汗液传感器、淋巴传感贴片和一次性心电系统，所有这些都基于相似的电路，但需要不同的传感概念。因此，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，旨在实现可用低成本有机薄膜技术制造的自主闭环系统。其基本思想不是建立一个一次性功能演示器，而是旨在以可预测的产量和合格的规格进行批量处理的小系列生产。然而，这样的系统级开发不仅需要可靠的器件或合适的晶体管模型，还需要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相关模型，并开发复杂的EDA工具，以便为人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.