Progress in organic integrated circuit manufacture

This review article focuses on the development of processes for the manufacture of organic electronic circuits. Beginning with the first report of an organic transistor it highlights the key developments leading to the successful manufacture of microprocessors and other complex circuits incorporating organic transistors. Both batch processing (based on silicon integrated circuit technology) as well as mass-printing, roll-to-roll (R2R) approaches are discussed. Currently, the best circuit performances are achieved using batch processing. It is suggested that an emerging, large mass-market for electronic tags may dictate that R2R manufacture will likely be required to meet the high throughput rates needed. However, significant improvements in resolution and registration are necessary to achieve increased circuit operating speeds.