| NSF Org: |
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 11, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | October 4, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1636385 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Khershed Cooper
khcooper@nsf.gov (703)292-7017 CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,124,857.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,124,857.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1850 RESEARCH PARK DR STE 300 DAVIS CA US 95618-6153 (530)754-7700 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
CA US 95616-5270 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | SNM - Scalable NanoManufacturi |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
Organic semiconductors will enable technologies like displays, detectors, and biomedical sensors that are light weight, flexible, and low-cost. Manufacturing electronic devices requires the ability to pattern different materials in separate layers to define the design space for a device. A significant obstacle for the development of organic electronic devices is the lack of a patterning technology with the disruptive power that photolithography exerted in traditional microelectronics. There is therefore a critical need to develop scalable and rapid photopatterning methods capable of producing organic semiconductor structures with sub-micrometer resolution. Just as the three-dimensional 3D printer is an enabling tool for low cost part fabrication, this Scalable NanoManufacturing (SNM) award will enable development of solution processing steps for the fabrication of nanoscale multi-layer organic electronic devices. This research involves collaboration between science, engineering, and industry partners in chemistry, materials, optical processing, and chemical process development. The fundamental knowledge needed for nanomanufacturing will be integrated into university curricula and transferred to undergraduate students through research internships. Graduate students will experience hands-on industry partnerships through collaboration with Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The next generation of researchers, particularly minorities, will be engaged through involvement in 4-H projects in electronics.
Resolution on solution-printed organic electronics has been limited to 10's of µm due to the inherent limitations of solution printing or evaporation through a shadow mask. Photolithography has also been limited due to mutual solubility and miscibility of organic materials and material damage associated with photomask removal. In this research program we develop a new approach in which the solubility of the organic semiconductor itself is controlled by photo-reversible charge-transfer chemistry, enabling diffraction-limited patterning of organic electronic materials. This technical breakthrough enables the patterning of either the organic semiconductor or the doping level within the semiconductor using light exposure. The research team will explore chemical synthesis of new charge transfer dopants to enable the application of this technology to a broader array of semiconductors, optical processing to reduce write times and feature size, and chemical processing to make each sequential step consistent with high-throughput roll-to-roll processing, the ultimate focus of which is the development of all-organic transistor arrays with doped organic electrodes, patterned gates, and high switching speeds. The nanomanufacturing process will be scaled-up to large areas using student internships and equipment at PARC.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Electronic materials made from organic molecules (organic electronics) are a rapidly growing technology area. The most profitable real-world application has been displays for smart phones based or organic electronic materials. The organic molecules form the part of a light emitting diode (LED) that emits the red, green, and blue light for the display. Organic LED displays have brighter colors and use less power than LEDs made from traditional semiconductors.
The research funded in NSF award 1636385 was focused on developing patterning and doping of organic electronic polymers. A polymer is an organic molecule that is made from repeating units like the links on a chain. A dopant is a molecule that charges the polymer and increases its ability to carry electricity. The goal of the research was to develop a light activated technique to pattern organic electronic polymers down to length scales of less than one micrometer, which is 25 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair.
This project was highly successful because we achieved most of the goals. We developed a method to use light to pattern the electronically active polymers. Our method uses a focused laser to heat the polymer. Once the polymer?s temperature becomes higher than a threshold temperature, it dissolves into a solvent layer. The ability to pattern a large variety of different polymers is a huge advantage of our technique. It means that one patterning tool can be used for many different polymers.
Secondly, our project was successful in synthesizing new highly active dopant molecules. The dopant molecules increase the conductivity of the polymer many times by removing some of the negatively charged electrons. We showed that the dopant molecules that we designed are stronger than any other dopants that were previously synthesized.
During the last two years of the award (during the COVID pandemic) we focused on building an improved patterning tool. In the last month of the grant we filed a preliminary patent for the new polymer patterning tool.
The publications on this award are:
1) Jacobs, I. E., and A. J. Moule. "Controlling Molelcular Doping in Organic Semiconductors." Advanced Materials 29, no. 42 (2017): 1703063.
2) Jacobs, I. E., C. Cendra, T. F. Harrelson, Z. I. Bedolla Valdez, R. Faller, A. Salleo, and A. J. Moule. "Polymorphism Controls the Degree of Charge Transfer in a Molecularly Doped Semiconducting Polymer." Material Horizons 5, no. 4 (2018): 655-60.
3) Li, J., D. M. Holm, Shraviya Guda, Bedolla-Valdez Z. I., Gonel G., I. E. Jacobs, M. A. Dettmann, J. Saska, M. Mascal, and A. J. Moule. "Effect of Processing Conditions on Additive Disc Patterning of P3ht Films." Journal of Materials Chemistry C 7 (2019): 302-13.
4) Murrey, T. L., K. Guo, J. T. Mulvey, O. A. Lee, C. Cendra, J.-F. Moulin, K. Hong, A. Salleo, and A. J. Moule. "Additive Solution Deposition of Multi-Layered Semiconducting Polymer Films for Design of Sophisticated Device Architectures." Journal of Materials Chemistry C 7 (2019): 953-60.
5) Z. Su et al., High-Speed Photothermal Patterning of Doped Polymer Films. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 11, 41717-41725 (2019).
6) Jacobs, Ian E., Zaira I. Bedolla-Valdez, Brandon T. Rotondo, David J. Bilski, Ryan Lewis, Alejandra N. Ayala Oviedo, Goktug Gonel, John Armitage, Jun Li, and Adam J. Moule. "Super-Resolution Photothermal Patterning in Conductive Polymers Enabled by Thermally Activated Solubility." ACS Nano 15, no. 4 (2021): 7006-20.
7) Bedolla-Valdez, Z. I., R. Xiao, C. Cendra, A. S. Fergerson, Z. K. Chen, G. Gonel, A. Salleo, D. Yu, and A. J. Moule. "Reversible Doping and Photo Patterning of Polymer Nanowires." Advanced Electronic Materials 6, no. 10 (2020): 2000469
8) Synthesis and characterization of solution processable, high electron affinity molecular dopants J Saska, NE Shevchenko, G Gonel, ZI Bedolla-Valdez, RM Talbot, Adam J Moul?, Mark MascalJournal of Materials Chemistry C 9 (44), 15990-15997
9) Quantifying Polaron Mole Fractions and Interpreting Spectral Changes in Molecularly Doped Conjugated Polymers AJ Moul?, G Gonel, Tucker L Murrey, Raja Ghosh, Jan Saska, Nikolay E Shevchenko, Ilaria Denti, Alice S Fergerson, Rachel M Talbot, Nichole L Yacoub, Mark Mascal, Alberto Salleo, Frank C Spano Advanced Electronic Materials 8 (4), 2100888
10) Approaching Rapid, High‐Resolution, Large‐Area Patterning of Semiconducting Polymers Using Projection Photothermal Lithography TL Murrey, JT Mulvey, M Jha, AS Fergerson, D Vong, A Soika, J Lorek, Sarah E Dolan, Daniel R Tiffany‐Appleton, Adam J Moul? Advanced Materials Technologies, 2100812
The broader impacts of this award were focused on student training. A highly diverse group of twenty-nine undergraduates researchers research for this project, nineteen of which are authors on research articles. The doctoral students were taught grade school kids science during afterschool events. Professor Moule developed two new university courses in the areas of polymer physics and organic electronics. Professor Moule led 4H projects for local youths in the areas of chemistry, electronics, solar ovens, and 3D printing.
Last Modified: 07/15/2022
Modified by: Adam J Moule
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