Smart Devices Based on Soft Materials

传统的有源电子器件是基于晶体半导体材料，主要是硅。尽管硅的主导地位仍在继续，其极限也在不断扩大，但其他即将出现的技术在补充功能和不适合硅的应用方面有着重要的前景。活性“软材料”，如导电聚合物、有机/无机复合材料和生物材料具有有趣的特性，可用于提供独特的功能。这些材料还具有与柔性基材和用于制造设备的简单印刷技术兼容的优点。使用软材料的组合，如导电聚合物、凝胶电解质和合适的接触材料，可以制造电子/离子/光子器件。这些装置不仅可以响应电信号，还可以利用离子的运动和可用性来工作。由于其本质是电致变色的，这意味着它们的电子操作状态可以从它们的颜色中看出，因此光学审讯可以用作读出机制。到目前为止，我们已经使用电子/离子/光子器件来实现晶体管，s型传递函数，以及短期和长期存储元件，并研究了几种实现光控制的光敏器件技术。提出的计划是进一步这项工作，允许将这些活性元件的阵列与兼容的并行输入技术相结合，例如可打印的光活性阵列，允许形成二维和三维系统，模拟类似于生物系统中使用神经元通常完成的功能（神经形态）。从长远来看，这将使制造复杂的细胞结构成为可能，以实现类似视网膜的图像处理功能。增加更多的层和其他功能，如光学门控和/或多重选择离子传输，将允许更复杂的智能处理系统。在神经形态硬件中实现一些“智能”功能是一个重要的研究领域，最近由于记忆阻器类型技术的兴起而变得非常流行，这是这一努力的一部分。这项工作已经并将继续扩大这一领域的知识，并推动加拿大技术的商业化，为加拿大已经处于最前沿的基于软件的人工智能提供补充。

Conventional active electronic devices are based on crystalline semiconducting materials,predominately silicon. Although the dominance of silicon continues with its limits being continuallyexpanded, other technologies on the horizon have significant promise for complementary functionsand applications unsuitable to silicon. Active “soft materials” such as conducting polymers,organic/inorganic composites and biological materials have interesting properties that can be used toprovide unique functionality. These materials can also have the advantage of being compatible withflexible substrates and simple printing techniques for the fabrication of devices. Using a combinationof soft materials, such as a conducting polymer, a gel electrolyte, and a suitable contact material,electronic/ionic/photonic devices can be fabricated. These devices can be made to operate not onlyin response to electrical signals but also using the movement and availability of ions. Being inherentlyelectrochromic, meaning that their state of electronic operation is evident from their colour, allowsoptical interrogation to be used as a readout mechanism. To date we have used electronic/ionic/photonic devices to implement transistors,sigmoid transfer functions, and both short andlong term memory elements as well as investigating several photoactive device technologies for implementing optical control. The proposed program is to further this work to allow combining arrays of these active elements with a compatible parallel input technology, such as printable photoactive arrays, permitting the formation of 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional systems that emulate functionssimilar to those normally accomplished using neurons in biological systems (neuromorphic). In the long term this will make possible the fabrication of complex cellular structures for the implementation of retina-likeimage processing functions. Adding more layers and other functionalities, like optical gating and/ormultiple selective ion transport, will allow for even more complex intelligent processing systems.The implementation of some "intelligent" functions in neuromorphic hardware is an important area of research that has recently become very popular due to the rise of work on memristor-type technologies, which are a part of this effort. This work has and will continue to expand the knowledge in this area and and push toward commercialization of the technologies in Canada adding a complementary effort to software-based AI, in which Canada is already at the forefront.