Advances and challenges in active thin film electronics

Interest in thin film electronics is large and growing. A citation search for organic, zinc oxide, or GIZO transistors returns thousands of journal articles, including more than a thousand published in the last two years. A Google search for ¿printed electronics¿ brings >150,000 hits. Yet commercial applications of active thin film electronics are few. They include one outstanding success in active matrix liquid crystal displays (> $100 billion/year) and more limited, but significant, product areas in x-ray detectors and thin film photovoltaics, as well as smaller but possibly growing areas of OLED displays or e-book readers. The list of active devices used in commercial applications is similarly limited, perhaps starting and ending with transistors used as simple switches and diodes. Both the current applications and the current scope of devices and circuits appear disconnected from the level of research and business interest. What are the key enablers for ubiquitous thin film electronics? What application areas make the best use of developing thin film technology? This talk will consider some of the issues related to the widespread application of active thin film devices to real world applications. Aspects of organic thin film transistor technology and zinc oxide thin film transistor technology will be used to illustrate some of the challenges and potential for active thin film electronics progress.