Polymer sensing circuits

As can be deduced from the frequent mention of dielectric constants in sections about properties of CVD polymers in this review, a majority of CVD polymers are targeted towards low dielectric constant interconnect applications in ultralarge scale integrated circuits (ULSI). The urgent need to develop a suitable material and process for this application can be sensed by the sheer number of papers published in this area. For an in-depth understanding, the reader is referred to some excellent review articles in literature. "" ... 

JL olymers are increasingly being used in a wide variety of applications in electronics and photonics, most of which use polymers in their traditional role as engineering materials (e.g., circuit boards, molded products, wire and cable insulation, encapsulants, and adhesives). In addition, many other unique applications require material properties that only polymers can provide. Examples include resist materials for the lithographic fabrication of integrated circuits (1C) and polymers for optical recording. These types of applications may be considered passive in the sense that the polymer does not play an active role in the operation of the device or circuit. Rather, it serves some other function such as mechanical support, electrical insulation, or in the case of resists, some intermediate function in the fabrication of the device. 

It is certain that electrically conductive polymers have attracted much attention in the field of solid state science in recent years. They are expected to have convenient function in the production of useful electric or electronic devices such as the electrodes in rechargeable batteries, pn-junctions for use in integrated circuits (ICs) or in photovoltaic devices, and so on. In the normal sense, the organic polymers, even the 7r-conju-gated systems having mobile 7r electrons, are typical insulators of poor electrical conductivity and have been utilized as dielectric material. This is considered to be a result of the Peierls transition (Peierls, 1955), namely, a metallic-insulator transition, e.g., for polyacetylene, which is characteristic in the one-dimensional system. This situation is circumvented by the doping technique, in which the electron acceptors or donors... 

Organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) are field effect devices with organic or polymer semiconductor thin film as channel materials. They are currently one of the most fascinating technology for chemical and biological sensing both as discrete elements [3] or implemented in plastic circuits. 

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