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New Materials for the Formation of Polymer Junction Diodes

UCLA Researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering have developed polymer p-i-n junction diodes. Compared to conventional semiconductor devices, polymer semiconductor devices are particularly attractive for applications in which flexibility, light weight, large-area thin film, low-cost, and/or environmentally safe characteristics are important. However, despite these potential advantages, devices made from neutral conjugated polymers have found limited applications due to their low carrier mobility and charge injection barrier at the polymer/electrode interfaces. Polymer devices that could overcome these limitations and offer the advantages listed above would be of great benefit. The p-i-n junction diodes disclosed here do exactly that: they overcome the noted limitations while exhibiting many of the benefits associated with polymer devices.

The innovative polymer p-i-n junction diodes are formed by simple solution processing at ambient conditions. The diodes are particularly useful for applications requiring electroluminescence with high quantum or power efficiency, photodetection at high sensitivity, solar energy conversion at high efficiency, and large area thin film transistors capable of carrying high current densities.
 

Applications

 
Electroluminescence with high quantum or power efficiency
Solid state lighting
Photodetection at high sensitivity
Solar cells
Large area thin film transistors capable of carrying high current densities
 

Advantages

 
Low-cost, high-volume production is possible
Large-area devices can be fabricated easily
Thin, flexible, and/or conformable devices are possible
High solar energy conversion efficiency
 

Inventors

 
Pei, Qibing