Monitoring the structural health of composite materials such as fiber-laminates is essential for the safe use of these materials e.g. in the aviation or building sector. Thin and flexible sensors as well as signal processing circuits based on organic-electrochemical transistors (OECTs) can potentially be embedded into composite materials, providing a means of sensing and data processing inside the material, which can be used to monitor for potential damage. In the current work, OECTs are investigated for their potential to be integrated into composite panels. Specifically, we investigate the stability of OECTs inside fber laminates and the influence of processing conditions (temperature, pressure) on the device performance. During processing of composite plates, the devices will be exposed to high temperatures and high pressures, which can lead to a change in the properties of the OECTs, potentially damaging the devices. Besides investigating the integration and technological challenges, simulation of OECT devices using Verilog-A models and the Spice3 simulator as well as a composition of a small signal processing circuit are studied. The parametrizable simulation model is fitted to experimental OECT output curves. The goal is to integrate the entire information and communication technology in analog electronics providing advantages in power consumption and component density compared to digital and microcontroller circuits commonly used in sensor nodes. We investigate the behavior of real devices as well as electronic simulation using Verilog-A device models based on physical models and experimental data. A simple OECT difference amplifier circuit is analyzed. In this work we outline the roadmap to fully integrated smart sensors and sensor networks using additive technologies and in-sensor analog signal and information processing.
Bornemann et al. (Thu,) studied this question.