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

聚合物为微传感器和微执行器提供了许多优点，被认为是最有前途的生物芯片、微光学和微流体器件材料之一。基于聚合物的纳米和微型设备灵活、化学和生物兼容，有许多种类可供选择，并且可以制造成真正的3-D形状。它们是相对低成本的材料，制造技术简单。不需要特殊的洁净室和/或高温工艺。聚合物可以沉积在各种类型的衬底上，并且有广泛的分子结构可供选择。这使得能够生产具有各种物理和化学特性的薄膜，包括传感和致动行为。另一方面，发光二极管(OLED)、薄膜晶体管(OTFT)、光电探测器和光电晶体管等有源器件可以由有机半导体制成。然后，有机半导体可以在微电子学和光电子学的各种不同的应用中实现。为了建立功能齐全的微系统，必须集成必要的电子设备。尽管聚合物MEMS和有机半导体有几个共同的特点，而且过去人们致力于独立开发这两种技术，但到目前为止，很少有人致力于将它们整合在一起。将研究构建聚合物微机械的不同方法。我们将使用并行微制造技术，例如使用光刻和牺牲层的减法。我们还将使用微压印光刻和微模塑技术，这是聚合物微机械领域非常有前途的技术。还将使用允许原型开发更灵活的直接编写方法。在这些技术中，微立体光刻和三维喷墨打印特别适合于加工聚合物，并将得到深入的探索。我们将使用的有机半导体将来自两个家族，小分子和聚合物。将开发与用于构建MEMS结构的聚合物相结合来处理这些材料的替代方法。

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.