Smartkem - OTFT circuit developments enabling low-voltage flexible processors

Embedding smartness in plastic-based devices requires some form of circuitry based on transistors to generate logical functions. Equally there may be need for signal processing to amplify and digitise signals from sensors. Such combinations of functionality goes towards the generation of so-called internet-of-things (IOT). For large scale deployment of the technology, there are a number of desirable features of the property and capability of the circuitry such as circuit operating power, voltage, frequency, transistor gate count, production yield and overall cost of production. Whilst p-type OTFT circuits have been developed with some promising performance metrics, challenges remain up till now to provide a technology that operates at a low enough power consumption and with high enough noise margin. Recently, we have advanced the capability to integrate n-type oxide TFTs and this has brought the much anticipated and rapid progress towards very low power operation and high noise margin. This presentation will illustrate the technical and commercial approach to provide a rapid turnaround capability for plastic-based CMOS circuitry. The process offered by Smartkem follows an affordable route to both prototyping and scale up via the use of existing IGZO capability in the display backplane industry combined with a versatile digital lithography-based p-type OTFT process. Balanced device current driving characteristics and matched turn-on voltages give near ideal inverter behaviour with high tolerance for process variations. Finally, a roadmap for provision of a PDK using EDA tools is presented so that electronic designers can design plastic CMOS circuits and submit layouts for production.