Breakthrough Reported in Transconducance in Ink-jet Printing
MRS Communications, the recently launched journal from the Materials Research Society and Cambridge University Press, was designed to serve the fast-moving international materials research community. Focused on reporting cutting-edge materials research and offering quick turnaround at both the editorial and production stages of publication, the journal will publish its first article less than 2 months after its official launch at the 2011 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco. The inaugural Rapid Communications article details an important breakthrough by a team of Japanese and German researchers.
The researchers report that they have successfully achieved a transconductance of 0.76 S/m for organic thin-film transistors with 4 V-operation. The team writes: “This is the highest transconductance reported for organic TFTs fabricated using printing, to the best of our knowledge.” The first rapid communications paper is freely available here.
The transconductance report is the first in the new journal’s Rapid Communications section (defined as a concise presentation of a study with broad interest showing novel results).
The first published paper shows that, thanks to ultra-low volume (subfemtoliter) inkjet nozzles, small transistors (channel length ~ 1 µm) were fabricated using electrodes printed from nanoparticle metal inks. The small dimensions allowed the authors to demonstrate low-power and high-speed operation (theoretically up to a few MHz) of organic transistors, a requirement for useful circuits.
The researchers go on to show that organic and printed electronics are not limited to large and slow devices, but can be extended to fast and miniaturized circuits while remaining compatible with low-cost fabrication on cheap flexible substrates. In general, these capabilities widen the spectrum of potential applications of this technology.
MRS Communications is a full-color, online-only publication that will publish a number of article types, supplementary materials and multimedia content that will appear immediately on the state-of-the-art platform, Cambridge Journals Online (CJO). The first full issue of the journal will appear later this year.
This ground-breaking publication offers authors an exceptionally rapid review process and time-to-publication, while also providing a swift and direct channel to the global 16,000- strong MRS membership and to the international network of leading academic, industrial and government libraries worldwide served by Cambridge University Press.
Along with Rapid Communications, such as the one highlighted here, MRS Communicationsoffers:
- Prospectives: forward-looking short reviews on new, speculative or controversial areas of research
- Ultra-Rapid Communications: fast-breaking research updates or other news items
- Correspondence: letters to the editor
- Commentaries: highlights of other articles
- Editorials: opinion pieces from members of the Board or guest editors.
Potential authors are invited to submit their papers through the online submission system, which is available at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mrscom. Author instructions are available atwww.mrs.org/mrc-instructions.
NOTES TO EDITORS
For further information, please contact: Hannah Gregory at +44(0)1223 325544 or email[email protected]
Anita B. Miller at +1.724.779.2754 or email [email protected]
The Research Team
Tomoyuki Yokota (1); Tsuyoshi Sekitani (1); Yu Kato (1); Kazunori Kuribara (1); Ute Zschieschang (2); Hagen Klauk (2); Tatsuya Yamamoto (3); Kazuo Takimiya (3); Hirokazu Kuwabara (4); Masaaki Ikeda (4); and Takao Someya (1), (5)
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Department of Applied Physics, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
- Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany
- Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Institute for Advanced Materials Research, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8527, Japan
- Nippon Kayaku Co., Ltd., Kita-ku, Tokyo 123-0865, Japan
- Institute for Nano Quantum Information Electronics (INQIE),The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan 5.
About the Materials Research Society
MRS is an organization of over 13,000 materials researchers from academia, industry and government worldwide, and a recognized leader in promoting the advancement of interdisciplinary materials research and technology to improve the quality of life. MRS members are students and professionals hailing from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and engineering—the full spectrum of materials research. Headquartered in Warrendale, Pennsylvania (USA), MRS membership now spans 90 countries, with approximately 45 percent of members residing outside the United States.
MRS serves and engages members across generations to advance their careers and promote materials research and innovation. The Society produces high-quality meetings and publications, assuring that members of all career stages can present and publish their most important and timely work to an international and interdisciplinary audience. MRS continues to expand its professional development portfolio, as well as promote diversity and inclusion in the scientific workforce, with career services for researchers worldwide. The Society advocates for the importance of scientific research and innovation to policymakers and the community. And the MRS Awards program honors those whose work has already had a major impact in the field, as well as those whose work shows great promise for future leadership.
For more information about the Materials Research Society visit
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@Materials_MRS.