Research
Convenient Handling of Flexible Substrate
Team: Hyuk Park, Suwon Seong
Flexible electronic devices have extensively studied and developed, and several products are already in the market. Their applications include foldable/rollable displays, electronic skin, and wearable sensors. During the fabrication, a flexible substrate is required to be firmly attached to a rigid carrier wafer for stable handling without any deformation. After the fabrication, the substrate is detached from the carrier and ready to be used with its flexible form factor. Our group studies the adhesion mechanism, develops a novel detachment process, and demonstrates applications to large-area flexible electronics.
Interface Engineering for High-speed and High-resolution Electronic Devices
Team: Hyuk Park, Juyoung Yun
Oxide semiconductors are widely utilized in commercial displays, but their contact properties with metal are inferior to silicon. As the resolution of electronic devices increases, and the size is scaled down, contact resistance significantly affects the overall performance; it determines how fast the device can operate and the degree of integration. Our group develops novel methods for reducing the contact resistance with hydrogen treatment. Hydrogen can passivate the interface traps and act as an electron donor, which results in a effective lowering of the potential barrier between the semiconductor and electrode. The results can be exploited in high-frequency (> GHz) devices and high-resolution (> 3,000 ppi) active-matrix platform.
Strain Engineering in Flexible Substrate
Team: Suwon Seong, Seongmin Park
In flexible electronic applications, high-performance rigid materials are challenging to be used as those are fragile when bent. A common approach has been to develop new flexible materials, but their performance and process compatibility are generally inferior to conventional rigid counterparts. To solve this problem, our group develops a novel flexible substrate that contains a strain-attenuating soft layer. This flexible substrate reduces the bending strain applied to the surface, where electronic components are located. Our approach opens a new way of utilizing industry-proven rigid materials in flexible applications.