Carbon Nanotube Based Transistors and Opto-Electronic Devices

Luna Innovations addresses the US Air Force need to develop flexible transistors and electronic devices to enable fabrication of smart skins and conformal electronic structures. Electronically active organic and polymer materials have been studied extensively for their use in various electronic devices such as transistors, photovoltaics, and light emitting diodes. These devices have significant technological and manufacturing advantages over traditional solid state inorganic analogues such as low cost and ease of manufacture, as well as flexibility. Despite these benefits, poor charge carrier mobility of organic materials is one of the obstacles that has hindered their widespread use in these advanced electronic and opto-electronic device applications. Luna, teamed with the University of Akron, are developing conductive polymer - carbon nanotube thin film electronic materials that can overcome this barrier. The use of highly aligned carbon nanotubes (CNT) in the active layer of these devices will increase the carrier mobility to the point that flexible thin film electronics will be competitive with conventional semiconducting devices.