Robotic platform fabricates and characterizes field-effect transistors
Scientific Achievement
Through utilization of the Polybot, an automated robotic device fabrication and characterization platform, a novel hydrogen-bond motif containing semiconducting polymer was thoroughly studied, elucidating novel insights into the structure-property electronic relationships involved in field effect transistors.
Significance and Impact
Despite taking over a decade to design, synthesize, and adopt new electronic materials to meet performance requirements, frequent changes in safety and environmental regulations necessitate expedited material development with custom-engineered properties. The robotic platform accelerates new materials development for electronics.
Research Details
Employed this automated platform to explore a broad spectrum of processing conditions for semiconductors, varying both coating temperature and velocity.
About Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials
The Center for Nanoscale Materials is one of the five DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers, premier national user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale supported by the DOE Office of Science. Together the NSRCs comprise a suite of complementary facilities that provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate, process, characterize and model nanoscale materials, and constitute the largest infrastructure investment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The NSRCs are located at DOE’s Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. For more information about the DOE NSRCs, please visit https://science.osti.gov/User-Facilities/User-Facilities-at-a-Glance.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.