Record breaking TFTs

A pair of

researchers have developed a method of making flexible, thin-film transistors (TFTs) that are inexpensive to produce and capable of high speeds.

Assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma and graduate student Hao-Chih Yuan recently demonstrated flexible TFTs capable of operating at a world-record speed of 7.8GHz.

TFTs are transistors that are widely used in electronics such as liquid crystal displays (LCD) and electronic and radio-frequency tags. In an LCD screen, TFTs control individual pixels for high-quality images. TFTs made on flexible substrates could have a variety of applications, said Ma, including flexible and wearable electronics, flexible sensors, large-area surveillance radar, embedded signatures and more.

Until now, flexible TFTs have been relatively slow, operating in the 0.5GHz range, said Yuan. This is fine for applications such as LCD, but not for applications such as military surveillance antennas that require high-performance but flexible circuitry for easy storage. ‘The application of current low-speed TFTs is very limited,’ said Ma. ‘Fast TFTs offer significant advantages in terms of power consumption and operation frequency, beside their flexibility and robustness against breakage.’