Smart Pixel
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The first-ever "smart pixel" made entirely of organic (carbon-based) materials.
It consists of a light emitting diode (LED) controlled by a field effect transistor (FET).
In the transistor, the source, drain, and gate
are all made from gold. In the LED, light is
produced in a sandwich of organic compounds:
hydroxyquinolinato aluminum
(Alq, which allows the transport of electrons)
and triphenyl diamine
(TPD, a transporter of holes,
which are the spaces left behind when an electron vacates a site).
Pixels like this are not only bright (important for use in flat panel displays)
but can be printed rather than etched.
(Adapted by Malcolm Tarlton, AIP, from a Bell Labs figure, courtesy of A.N. Dodabalapur.)
This research is reported by A. Dodabalapur, Z. Bao, A. Makhija, J. G. Laquindanum, V. R. Raju, Y. Feng, H. E. Katz,
and J. Rogers in the 13 July 1998 issue of
Applied Physics Letters.
