Combinatorial Optimization and Large-Scale Integration of Organic, Low-Energy, and Fully-Printed Flexible Ribbon Photosensors

Abstract

The development and optimization of flexible electronics has allowed technology to be better integrated in applications and environments where the physically rigid nature of electronics is previously a limiting factor. Printing techniques contribute to lowering the fabrication costs and making manufacturing-on-demand viable. The use of flexible electronics in the user interface domain has been previously explored with solution-processed optical photodetectors created and the feasibility of using flexible sensors demonstrated in augmented paper applications. In this work, low-cost photodetectors are developed using scalable printing techniques, their electrical performance is analyzed, and their stability over time is studied both in air and in vacuum, the structure is optimized through a combinatorial optimization experiment, and a scalable integration method is demonstrated for creating larger, addressable arrays of detectors. This is a demonstration of how printing methods allow for easy, cost-effective, and low-energy manufacturing of uniform and stable photosensors.