GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY

AMRITSAR

POLYTRONICS: EMERGING FUTURE TECHNOLOGY

SEMINAR REPORT

Submitted by:

JASJEET SINGH
2011ECA1045

CERTIFICATE

Certified that this report entitled POLYTRONICS is the Seminar presented by Jasjeet
Singh, Roll number-2011ECA1045 on 5 November 2014 in partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the award of the Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and
Communication Engineering of the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

Shivinder Devra

Dr.M.L. Singh

Assistant professor

Head of the Department

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, we would like to place on record our deep sense of gratitude to Prof.
Shivinder Devra, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Guru Nanak
Dev University, Amritsar for providing this opportunity to carry out the present seminar work.
Without his wise counsel and able guidance, it would have been impossible to complete the
seminar in this manner.
I express my sincere gratitude to all the faculty members of the department for their intellectual
support throughout the course of this work, and we are also indebted to all whosoever have
contributed in this project work.
I would like to thank GOD, the Almighty, for having made everything possible by giving our
strength and courage to do this work. Lastly, we wish to express our sincere appreciation to our
parents for their patience and encouragement during this work.

Date: 5 November 2014, 2014

Place: Amritsar

ABSTRACT
For many years plastics were well known merely as INSULATORS and were used
predominantly

for

shielding

copper

wires.

Now

the

emerging

new

technology

POLYTRONICS, changes our viewpoint in visualizing the conducting polymers as a material

of MICROELECTRONICS.

Microelectronics technology in conjunction with silicon is flexible enough to easy rolling up of

circuits that consume less power and above all they can be manufactured at a fraction of cost
involved in making semiconductor chips. This technology has number of upcoming areas of
interest where lot of research is going on to manufacture microelectronic components on plastic
substrates which would allow manufacturing of gadgets through just printing process. In this
paper I would like to impart my ideas on INKJET PRINTING TECHNOLOGY which plays
main role in printing polymer circuits, ELECTRONIC PAPER, construction and manufacturing
of Plastic batteries, medicinal applications of Polytronics using RUBBER CIRCUITS and
ELECTRO ACTIVE POLYMER and ORGANIC LED (OLED). If this technology emerges
practically, the world of electronics will take a new leap.

In todays world of ever-expanding technology, Polytronics is going to change the whole

world of consumer electronics and form the principal root for the major advancement in the
design of electronic circuits and manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCB).The era of
polymer electronics has taken a great start and all the technological companies have turned
their entire research towards Polytronics. We hope that, in the forthcoming years Polytronics
will accelerate the pace of the technological advancements and describe a new dimension in the
near future.

CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION

2 INKJET PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

3 PLASTIC BATTERIES

10

4 ORGANIC LIGHT EMITTING DIODES

11

5 ADVANTAGES

14

6 CONCLUSION

16

7 REFERENCES

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1. INTRODUCTION
Silicon has largely influenced the Electronics industry and would continue to do so over
period of time. However, technologists are now looking at other alternatives, mainly
PLASTIC CIRCUITS, to meet our future needs. Here is a look into how plastics would
influence the world of electronics.
The study of usage of polymeric materials in electronics is termed as POLYTRONICS.This
polytronics has some advantages over silicon technology. They are
1. Easy Manufacturability (mass production).
2. Low cost.
3. They can be recycled and reused
(decreases environmental stress).
4. Consumes less power.
5. They are mobile, small, and light in weight.
6. They are used to make display devices that have extraordinary picture quality.
The feasibility of developing entire electronic components on basis of polymers is met by
INKJET PRINTING TECHNOLOGY and is illustrated by several applications such as
electronic paper, plastic batteries, etc.

2. INKJET PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

The huge cost of manufacturing Silicon microchip is due to the large complex
processes involved. Photolithographic techniques are used to pattern wafers with
microcircuit, which is grown in powerful vacuum, while the wafers are baked at
temperatures of several hundred centigrades.The INKJET PRINTING TECHNOLOGY
provides continuous production line of plastic circuits on plastic substrates and then cut
into individual units. The substrates are made of acetate material that is as transparent as
vugraph sheets.This printing technology plays a major role in the development of flat
screen displays.

2.1 PRINCIPLE
A piezoelectric material expands when a voltage is passed across it, pressing on a
reservoir fluid and sending droplets flying out on to the substrates.
Here, the construction of TOPGATE TRANSISTOR is explained below.

Fig1. Construction of topgate transistor

8

The water based droplets contain an organic conductor-POLY (3,4- ethylenedioxythiophene)

doped with a solution of polystyrene sulphonic acid otherwise known as PEDOT/PSS.As the
droplets dry they become a conducting layer and form source and drain of a transistor. They are
then coated with a layer of semiconducting polymer (9, 9-dioctyl flourene-co-bithiophene)
followed by a dielectric layer of polyvinylphenol.Finally gate is printed, creating a so called top
gate transistor.

How the semiconductor polymer dries is very crucial. The molecular chains must line up in a
way that makes it easy for an electron to hop from one chain to another, but the polymers tend
to form into disordered microstructure that reduces electron charge.

Resolution of the screen can be improved by coating glass substrate with a hydrophobic film of
polyimide pattern. When the water based droplets fall on the surface they are forced away from
the hydrophobic regions in the required pattern.

3. PLASTIC BATTERIES
Plastic batteries are new type of low power batteries that do not require a case and are
thin enough to be printed on a paper. They are of low cost and can be mass produced as
the battery material is roughly 0.5 millimeters thick.

Fig2 Plastic battery

3.1 CONSTRUCTION

The new battery consists of 3 different layers.

It has conventional zinc manganese dioxide components as anode and cathode which are
thin foil-like plastic sheets.

Electrolyte is a polymer gel placed between electrodes.

3.2 USES

They can be used for incorporating power source in integrated circuits.

The polymer battery system can be used to power space satellites, giving them
uninterrupted power supply by harnessing solar energy while -

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4. ORGANIC LIGHT EMITTING DIODES (OLED)

Unlike traditional LCDs, OLEDs are self-luminous and do not require
backlighting, diffusers, polarizers or any other baggage that goes with liquid crystal
displays. OLED consists of two charged electrodes on the top of some organic light
emitting material. This eliminates the need for bulky and environmentally undesirable
mercury lamps and fields a thinner, more versatile and more compact display. The low
power consumption provides for maximum efficiency and helps to minimize heat and
electric interference in electronic devices.

Fig3 OLED

There are two types of OLEDs:

Passive matrix display
Active matrix display

4.1 PASSIVE MATRIX DISPLAY

The passive matrix OLED display has a simple structure and is well suited for low cost
and low information content applications such as alpha-numeric displays. It is formed by
providing an array of pixels by intersecting anode and cathode conductors.

4.1.1 CONSTRUCTION
Organic materials and cathode metals deposited into a RIB structure(base and pillar) in
which the rib structure automatically produces OLED display panel with desired
electrical isolation for cathode lines. The major advantage of this method is that all

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patterning steps are conventional. So entire panel fabrication process can be easily
adapted to large area, high through put manufacturing.

Passive matrix display

Fig4 Passive display matrix

To get a passive matrix OLED to work electrical current is passed through selected
pixels by applying a voltage to the corresponding rows and columns from drivers
attached to each row and column. An external controller circuit provides necessary input
power, video data signal and multiplex switches. A video output is thus displayed on the
panel by scanning through all the rows successfully in a frame time, which is typically
1/60th of a second.

4.2 ACTIVE DISPAY MATRIX

In contrast to the OLED matrix display, active matrix OLED display has an
integrated electronic backplane, it lends itself to high 12esolution, high information
content applications including videos and graphics. This form of display is made possible
by poly-silicon technology because of its high carrier mobility. It provides Thin Film
Transistors (TFT) with high current capability and high switching speed.

4.2.1 CONSTRUCTION

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The basic OLED cell structure consists of thin organic layers sandwiched between a
transparent anode and a metallic cathode. The organic layer comprises a hole-injection
layer, hole-transport layer, emissive layer and an electron transport layer. When
appropriate voltage (2-10) V is applied to the cell, the injected positive and negative
charges recombine in the emissive layer to produce light (Electron Luminescence).

Fig5 Active display matrix

The structure of organic layers and the choice of anode and cathode are designed to
maximize the recombination process in emissive layer, thus maximizing the light output
from the OLED device.

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5. ADVANTAGES

Robust design: OLEDs are tough enough to use in portable devices such as cellphones,
digital video cameras and DVD players..

Production advantage: 20% to 50% cheaper than LCD processes.

Fig6

5.1 ELECTRONIC PAPER

E-paper is a unique type of display whose flexibility, high contrast and bistability give it paper
like functionality .These versatile displays are poised for dramatic growth across multiple
application especially, in an always-on world of mobile broadband. Plastic electronics is the
technology of choice for E-paper backplanes, especially for flexible and large displays. This
technology overcomes the hurdle to large, high resolution, flexible electronic displays-the
backplane. By connecting E-paper to the internet wirelessly with a phone or computer or LAN
we can down load favourite newspapers and carry them all on sheet of paper.

5.2 POLYTRONICS CONTRIBUTIONS

1. Torpedoes contain a large circuitry which is to be protected from water .By using the
POLYTRONICS we can make the Torpedo compact as there is no need for protection for
the plastic circuitry.
2. Using POLYTRONICS, we can convert a big computer into a single polymer sheet,
which contains a OLED display screen and mother board, processor and drivers at the
back. This computer has some advantages over the existing computers and lap tops. They
are
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Water proof
It can easily rolled
Light in weight
3. We can construct a sensor system which can detect the position of submarine.
4. The present cell phones are not water resistance, by using POLYTRONICS we can make
them water resistant as well as compact.

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6. CONCLUSION
In todays world of ever-expanding technology, Polytronics is going to change
the whole world of consumer electronics and form the principal root for the major
advancement in the design of electronic circuits and manufacture of printed circuit boards
(PCB).The era of polymer electronics has taken a great start and all the technological
companies have turned their entire research towards Polytronics. So I conclude that, in
the forthcoming years Polytronics will accelerate the pace of the technological
advancements and describe a new dimension in the near future.

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7. REFERENCES
1. PC-6: Manual for the Poly-com "6" Transceiver for 6 meters. Compliments of Larry
Saletzki,

WA9VRH.

2. T.Makimoto and T.T.Doi, Polytronics Present and future, in Tech.Dig.Electronics

Technologies Meeting,IEDM02,2002,pp.9-16.

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