POLARIC gets underway to produce organic electronic circuits at high volume

The four-year project has funding of €9.9 million, and involves thirteen partners.

The main obstacle in the way of widespread application of organic electronic components is the current inability to combine high-level device performance with high-volume production methods.

The POLARIC project (Printed, Organic and Large-Area Realisation of Integrated Circuits) aims to combine large-area fabrication methods with high-performance organic electronic circuits on a scale not previously attempted.

High performance in this context means speeds in the kHz-MHz range, low operating voltage, at below 5V, and low power consumption. At the same time, the manufacturing process will produce components and circuits at high yields using large-area compatible, high-volume methods.

This will hinge on the further development of further roll-to-roll (R2R) printing methods, such as compatible nano-imprinting technologies for short channel configuration of the electrodes. Proper material selection will lead to high performance complementary circuit devices.

The POLARIC project will also focus on the fabrication of R2R tools, in order to make serial replication viable. Finally, the circuit design, modelling, and characterisation of organic electronics will be developed, to provide a toolbox similar to that which is available for silicon-based microelectronics.

After the project, high-performing organic electronic building blocks and manufacturing platforms will be available for use in all areas of printed electronics such as sensors, memories, batteries, photovoltaics and lighting.

As a large-scale strategic project, POLARIC will include a large amount of dissemination activities, key personnel and student exchange, training, and networking activities.

The work is divided between 13 partners from 7 different countries. The project is coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, with 3D-Micromac (Germany), AMO (Germany), BASF (Switzerland), CSEM (Switzerland), Cardiff University (UK), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft IZM (Germany), IMEC (Belgium), Imperial College London (UK), Joanneum Research (Austria), micro resist technology (Germany), Obducat Technologies (Sweden), and Asulab, a division of The Swatch Group Research and Development Ltd (Switzerland).