16 Mar 2005
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Progress at Merck
At the recent conference "Conductive Polymers" in Brussels, Dr Ian McCulloch of Merck Chemicals said that
Merck gets life in air of at least one year with its 0.01 cm2/vs crystalline terthiophene with near zero threshold voltage and 10(5) on off ratio. Next will come a new Merck terthiophene that is heterocyclic but with a non-conjugating central unit. It is regiosymmetric. It offers up to 0.61 cm2/vs saturation mobility and 10(6) on off ratio and this is seen as the final nail in the coffin of amorphous silicon thin films because these are not significantly better yet they call for high temperature substrates and vacuum processes.
Ian's summary was
- Organic semiconductors will be the enabling materials in many high volume, rapidly growing applications for new and existing markets.
- Molecular design principles are being utilised to identify new, air-stable, high-performing charge transport materials.
