Fully Printed Stretchable Thin-Film Transistors and Integrated Logic Circuits

This paper reports intrinsically stretchable thin-film transistors (TFTs) and integrated logic circuits directly printed on elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates. The printed devices utilize carbon nanotubes and a type of hybrid gate dielectric comprising PDMS and barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles. The BaTiO3/PDMS composite simultaneously provides high dielectric constant, superior stretchability, low leakage, as well as good printability and compatibility with the elastomeric substrate. Both TFTs and logic circuits can be stretched beyond 50% strain along either channel length or channel width directions for thousands of cycles while showing no significant degradation in electrical performance. This work may offer an entry into more sophisticated stretchable electronic systems with monolithically integrated sensors, actuators, and displays, fabricated by scalable and low-cost methods for real life applications.