Stretchable Semiconductor Developed... Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology Advances Stretchable Device Development

UNIST Professor Son Jaesung's Team Develops Stretchable and Durable Inorganic Semiconductor Thin Film

Demonstrated in Parkinson's Disease Patient Monitoring Device, Manufactured with Affordable Solution Process

Monitoring Device for Parkinson's Disease Patients Using Resistive Memory.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] A stretchable semiconductor has been developed. This advancement is expected to accelerate the development of foldable and rollable displays.

Flexible semiconductors are essential for patch-type health monitoring devices and displays. While most flexible semiconductors are organic-based, the development of an inorganic-based flexible semiconductor has attracted attention.

It is particularly notable because it is made from inorganic materials, which tend to be hard and brittle.

These inorganic materials can withstand high-temperature and high-pressure processes and have excellent durability, making them promising for various flexible electronic device developments.

The Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST, President Lee Yong-hoon) announced on the 17th that a research team led by Professors Son Jae-sung, Choi Moon-ki, and Kim Ju-young from the Department of New Materials Engineering successfully synthesized a silver sulfide (Ag2S) inorganic semiconductor thin film using an inexpensive solution process.

According to the research team, they demonstrated the performance of the inorganic semiconductor thin film by applying a resistive random-access memory (RRAM) device made from the synthesized thin film to a Parkinson's disease patient monitoring device.

Process of Fabricating Thin-Film Semiconductor Devices.

When the developed device was attached to a patient's body, it was able to detect motor abnormalities such as muscle spasms in Parkinson's disease patients.

The silver sulfide inorganic semiconductor thin film developed by Professor Son's team exhibits semiconductor properties while also being highly stretchable.

Conventional inorganic semiconductor materials are composed of ionic bonds and are inherently brittle, but the newly developed silver sulfide thin film is a semiconductor material with excellent elasticity, capable of elongation strain up to 15%.

Seung-gi Jo, a postdoctoral researcher at Yonsei University's KIURI research group and the first author, explained, "Inorganic semiconductor materials inherently possess superior thermal and chemical stability compared to organic compound semiconductor materials, making them suitable for stretchable electronic devices that can operate stably even in high-temperature and humid special environments."

The newly developed inorganic semiconductor thin film can be manufactured using a low-cost, low-temperature solution process, unlike previous methods, making it advantageous for commercialization.

The process involves spin-coating a solution containing inorganic semiconductor particles and solvent evenly onto a substrate, followed by evaporation and removal of the solvent.

(From the top left clockwise) Professor Son Jaesung, Professor Choi Moonki, Professor Kim Jooyoung, Researcher Yang Woojung, Researcher Cho Soyoung, Researcher Hwang Kyungseok. [Image source=UNIST]

So-young Jo, a master's course researcher in the Department of New Materials Engineering at UNIST and co-first author, explained, "The conventional production methods that apply significant high temperature and high pressure to raw materials result in expensive thin film production costs, and other material layers constituting memory semiconductor devices cannot withstand such conditions, making it difficult to apply directly to device fabrication."

Using this method, the research team developed the world's first "stretchable thin-film silver sulfide-based resistive memory semiconductor."

This memory semiconductor device demonstrated a high on/off current ratio and operational durability, enabling its use in the development of patch-type health monitoring devices.

Woo-jung Yang, a master's and doctoral integrated course researcher in the Department of New Materials Engineering at UNIST and co-first author, said, "We developed a patch-type device that can monitor Parkinson's disease patients by combining stretchable resistive random-access memory with motion sensors. Using touch sensors, it is also possible to manufacture large-area matrix devices."

This research was published online on April 30 in the world-renowned scientific journal Advanced Materials and was selected as a cover paper (inside back cover) for publication.

The research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea through the Future Materials Discovery Project and the Challenging Materials Technology Development Program.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.