When it comes to 3D printing, the sky is the limit. As 3D printing technology continues to advance, applications can be as far reaching as airplane and automobile parts to medical devices and even anatomically correct, biocompatible models. Although 3D printing technology is developing at a rapid pace, the technology itself is not new. It emerged in the 1980s as a means of creating rapid prototypes. In recent years the applications for 3D printed models have evolved with the available hardware, software, and printable materials. Evolving technology, paired with the creative and innovative minds of scientists, engineers, and physicians, has been the launching pad for developments within 3D printing technology specific to healthcare. One way 3D printing technology is poised to create better patient outcomes is in creating an anatomically and patient-specific models to aid in surgery and medical procedures. With the capability to 3D ...
Computer code is a language of logic. As a series of ones and zeroes, binary, the most basic building block of coding, has long defined computing as structured, logical and largely predictable. If you're looking for a metaphor, most digital languages and the hardware components in which they operate have historically been like classical music. There are distinct rules, and everything flows logically in clean and predictable structures. However, new polymeric semiconductors from the University of Cambridge may upset this norm by bringing computing into a digital jazz age.
Lowering the cost of semiconductors
According to the press release from the university, it all started with a challenge to create low-cost, easily-processed semiconducting polymers. That's because semiconductors, while incredibly effective as computer components, are generally one of the most expensive parts of the machine. Historically, silicon has been one of the more common materials used in the creation of semiconductors. However, in 2010, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work with graphene, which quickly became the gold standard for semiconductors. Graphene is a form of pure carbon that is nanoengineered to adopt an atomic-scale honeycomb lattice structure. If you were able to actually see what this looked like, it would resemble chicken wire composed of structurally identical carbon hexagons. Because of it's remarkably ordered atomic structure, graphene has proven to be an incredibly effective semiconductor since it allows orderly flow of electrons over its surface.
According to the press release from the university, it all started with a challenge to create low-cost, easily-processed semiconducting polymers. That's because semiconductors, while incredibly effective as computer components, are generally one of the most expensive parts of the machine. Historically, silicon has been one of the more common materials used in the creation of semiconductors. However, in 2010, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the University of Manchester won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work with graphene, which quickly became the gold standard for semiconductors. Graphene is a form of pure carbon that is nanoengineered to adopt an atomic-scale honeycomb lattice structure. If you were able to actually see what this looked like, it would resemble chicken wire composed of structurally identical carbon hexagons. Because of it's remarkably ordered atomic structure, graphene has proven to be an incredibly effective semiconductor since it allows orderly flow of electrons over its surface.
"It all started with a challenge to create low-cost, easily-processed semiconducting polymers."
However, despite graphene's promising future, there are several problems with this new material – chiefly that it is incredibly expensive to produce and nearly impossible to manufacture on a large scale. As such, it only makes sense to try to create an affordable alternative to graphene with similar properties. Efforts to create such a material have largely focused on semiconducting polymers, which can be processed and printed while retaining well-defined electronic attributes. Already, polymers are used to make semiconductors for printed electronic circuits, large-area solar cells and flexible LED displays. But there is a problem with polymers – when mass-producing these semiconductors, they have been made with a messy, wet coating and a fast-drying printing process, which leaves their internal structure looking like a bowl of spaghetti instead of the ordered crystal lattice that you see in silicon or graphene's perfect atomic honeycomb. That spaghetti structure means that the semiconductors are riddled with imperfections, dead ends and curlicues that trap or slow down critical electrons, ultimately reducing performance.
Controlled chaos
The intuitive thing to do in this situation would be to figure out how to change the process to make semiconducting polymers that are more orderly than a bowl of noodles. But when you're dealing with the movement of electrons on a quantum level, it can prove useful to think outside of the box of perfectly structured carbon atoms. So instead of trying to compose in a classical style, the team from the University of Cambridge started thinking more like jazz musicians by creating a polymer semiconductor with an entirely amorphous structure that allows 70 percent of electrons to travel freely.
The intuitive thing to do in this situation would be to figure out how to change the process to make semiconducting polymers that are more orderly than a bowl of noodles. But when you're dealing with the movement of electrons on a quantum level, it can prove useful to think outside of the box of perfectly structured carbon atoms. So instead of trying to compose in a classical style, the team from the University of Cambridge started thinking more like jazz musicians by creating a polymer semiconductor with an entirely amorphous structure that allows 70 percent of electrons to travel freely.
This new semiconductor is made of what is referred to as conjugated polymers, which is essentially a long backbone chain of molecules with shorter chains at the sides. These structures had not previously been used because those shorter chains on the sides have increased the level of disorder within the polymer, thus making electron travel less efficient. However, this new class of conjugated polymers has proven extremely tolerant to disorder, which leads to an interesting scenario. Basically, the polymer looks amorphous and disorderly on a microstructural level, but at the electronic level, they allow electrons to move almost as freely as they do within crystalline inorganic semiconductors like silicon.
More than meets the eye
?This is made possible due to a strange quantum phenomenon. Instead of trapping electrons in the disorderly bits, every molecular unit in the polymer chain is able to participate in the transportation of charges. So rather than looking like a bowl of spaghetti, a better metaphor would be a pile of ribbon. It might look like each piece is a separate part but they are in fact all part of the same, long structure. This novel conjugated polymer isn't yet as efficient as graphene, but it's certainly getting there, which is great news for anyone looking for more affordable semiconductors.
?This is made possible due to a strange quantum phenomenon. Instead of trapping electrons in the disorderly bits, every molecular unit in the polymer chain is able to participate in the transportation of charges. So rather than looking like a bowl of spaghetti, a better metaphor would be a pile of ribbon. It might look like each piece is a separate part but they are in fact all part of the same, long structure. This novel conjugated polymer isn't yet as efficient as graphene, but it's certainly getting there, which is great news for anyone looking for more affordable semiconductors.
Moving forward, the next step will be to get this semiconducting polymer out of labs and into factories. Of course, that will require additional testing at an analytical laboratory to discover the most efficient ways to mass-produce the new polymer. But as the price point for semiconductors drops, people the world over can expect reciprocal reductions in the cost of electronics.
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