Electronic circuit with elongated strip layer and method for the manufacture of the same

• US 8,315,061 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2006
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Quickframe Technologies Pty., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG (Leonhard KURZ Stiftung & Company KG)
• Inventors: Ullmann, Andreas, Knobloch, Alexander, Welker, Merlin, Fix, Walter
• Primary Examiner(s): Thompson, Timothy
• Assistant Examiner(s): MILAKOVICH, NATHAN J
• Application Number:
  US11/991,887
• Publication Number:
  US 20100214748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,260 Days
• Field of Search: 361/748, 361/749, 361/750, 361/792, 361/795, 174/250, 174/254
• US Class Current: 361/749
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 10/464 Lateral top-gate IGFETs comprising only a single gate
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 19/10 comprising field-effect transistors
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/13 using printing techniques, e.g. ink-jet printing or screen printing
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 71/60 Forming conductive regions or layers, e.g. electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 77/111 Flexible substrates
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 85/1135 Polyethylene dioxythiophene [PEDOT]; Derivatives thereof
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/4913 Assembling to base an electrical component, e.g., capacitor, etc.

Abstract

The invention relates to an electronic circuit and to a method for the manufacture of an electronic circuit comprising at least two electronic components on a common flexible substrate, wherein the at least two electronic components in each case have at least one electrical functional layer composed of identical functional layer material. The electrical functional layers are formed from identical functional layer material and from layer regions of a layer formed in strip-type fashion on the substrate.

Claims

1. An electronic circuit comprising:

at least two electronic components on a common flexible substrate, wherein the at least two electronic components each include at least one shared common electrical functional layer composed of identical functional layer material comprising at least one of an organic semiconducting layer and an insulating layer;

wherein the electrical functional layers composed of identical functional layer material each comprise regions of an elongated strip layer on the substrate;

wherein at least two of the layers are parallel, each comprising an elongated strip composed of identical or different functional layer materials for providing electrical functional layers of the at least two electronic components;

wherein at least one first electronic component of the at least two electronic components is one of a transistor, a diode, a nonreactive resistor or a capacitor and at least one further electronic component of the at least two electronic components is different in at least one of kind, properties or configuration than the at least one first component with respect to the group comprising a transistor, a diode, a nonreactive resistor and a capacitor; and

wherein at least two identical components are included formed jointly with at least one of the elongated strip layers.

2. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein a first electronic component of the at least two electronic components has a first electrical functional layer, and in that a second electronic component of the at least two electronic components has a second electrical functional layer, wherein the first and the second electrical functional layers are of identical functional layer material, wherein the first and the second electrical functional layers are arranged on the substrate aligned in-line or side by side.

3. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein the layers in the form of elongated strips on the substrate comprise a semiconducting layer and an electrically insulating layer.

4. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein the layers in the form of elongated strips on the substrate are printed on the substrate.

5. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein at least one of the elongated strip layers on the substrate includes one or both of interrupted and subdivided mutually independent layer regions, wherein, as seen over a cross section of the elongated strip layers on the substrate, the elongated strip layers have at least one continuous opening therebetween.

6. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 5 wherein at least one of the layers in the form of elongated strips on the substrate has a longitudinal direction and is subdivided in either or both of the longitudinal direction and perpendicular to the longitudinal direction.

7. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 5 wherein the at least one opening in the at least one of the layers in the form of elongated strips on the substrate has a via wherein through the via an electrical contact is included between electrical functional layers arranged, as seen perpendicular to the substrate plane, above and below the at least one of the layers in the form of elongated strips.

8. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 5 wherein the opening has a width within the range of 1 μ

m to 10 mm.

9. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein one of the components comprises a field effect transistor.

10. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 9 wherein at least two electronic components of the electronic circuit are field effect transistors each comprising a semiconducting electrical functional layer composed of identical functional layer material, provided by layer regions of a semiconducting layer in the form of elongated strips on the substrate, and wherein the field effect transistors each comprise an electrically insulating electrical functional layer composed of identical functional layer material, which layer regions of an electrically insulating layer comprise respective elongated strips on the substrate.

11. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein at least two electronic components of the electronic circuit are diodes, each of which diodes comprises a semi-conducting electrical functional layer composed of identical functional layer material, which are layer regions of a semiconducting layer in the form of an elongated strip on the substrate.

12. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein at least two electronic components are each nonreactive resistors, wherein the resistors each comprise a functional layer composed of identical functional layer material, which comprise layer regions of a layer in the form of an elongated strip on the substrate.

13. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein at least two electronic components of the electronic circuit are each capacitors, each comprising an electrically insulating functional layer composed of identical functional layer material comprising layer regions of an electrically insulating layer in the form of elongated strip on the substrate.

14. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein the flexible substrate is an elongated tape.

15. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 14, wherein the layers in the form of elongated strips on the substrate are parallel to a longitudinal side of the tape.

16. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein the flexible substrate is multilayered.

17. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein two to twenty layers in the form of elongated strips are on the substrate.

18. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein the at least two layers in the form of elongated strips on the substrate , as seen in the substrate cross section, are in one plane or in different planes on the substrate.

19. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein at least two electronic components each comprise at least two electrical functional layers composed of different functional layer materials, wherein each one of the at least two electrical functional layers of the at least two components comprises a layer region in the form of an elongated strip layer that is used jointly by the at least two electronic components.

20. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein the layers in the form of elongated strips on the substrate have a layer thickness within the range of 1 nm to 300 μ

m.

21. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein the at least two electronic components further comprise electrically conductive functional layers.

22. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein the electronic circuit is an organic circuit.

23. The electronic circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein the electronic circuit comprises components having one of or both of only organic electrical functional layers, or organic and inorganic electrical functional layers.

33. The electric circuit as claimed in claim 21 wherein the electrically conductive functional layers are organic material.

34. The electronic circuit of claim 1 wherein the at least two elongated strip layers are continuous, at least one first electronic component and the at least one further electronic component are on respective different elongated continuous strip functional layer materials.

36. The electronic circuit of claim 1 wherein the at least two elongated strip layers have different thicknesses, the at least one first electronic component and the at least one further electronic component are on respective ones of the different elongated continuous strip functional layers of different thicknesses.

24. A method for the manufacture of an electronic circuit comprising;

forming at least two electronic components on a common flexible substrate, wherein the at least two electronic components each are formed with at least one electrical functional layer composed of identical functional layer material comprising at least one of a shared common semiconductor layer and insulating layer;

wherein the forming step includes forming at least two layers as elongated strip layers on the substrate at least one of which of said at least two layers is said at least one of a shared common semiconductor and insulating layer;

the forming step including forming the electrical functional layers composed of identical functional layer material from layer regions of an individual one of elongated strip layers;

wherein the forming step includes forming at least two parallel elongated strip layers of elongated strips composed of identical or different functional layer materials to provide a electrical functional layers of the components on the substrate;

wherein the forming step includes forming at least one first electronic component of the electronic circuit as a transistor, a diode, a nonreactive resistor or a capacitor and forming at least one further electronic component of the electrical circuit as a different component in at least one of kind, properties or configuration with respect thereto from the group comprising a transistor, a diode, a nonreactive resistor and a capacitor; and

wherein the forming step includes forming at least two identical components comprising at least one of the elongated strip layers.

25. The method as claimed in claim 24 including forming the at least two layers in the form of elongated strips in a continuous process on the substrate in a predetermined application direction.

26. The method as claimed in claim 25 wherein a first electronic component of the at least two electronic components has a first electrical functional layer, and wherein a second electronic component of the at least two electronic components has a second electrical functional layer, wherein the method includes forming the first and the second electrical functional layers from identical functional layer material, and arranging the first and the second electrical functional layers on the substrate aligned in a line or side by side in the application direction.

27. The method as claimed in claim 24 including forming the flexible substrate into an elongated tape and transporting the substrate from roll to roll during the formation of the at least two elongated strip layers.

28. The method as claimed in claim 25 including forming the flexible substrate into an elongated tape wherein the application direction is parallel to a longitudinal side of the tape.

29. The method as claimed in claim 25 wherein the continuous process comprises printing the elongated strip shape layer from the group comprising intaglio printing, relief printing, screen printing, or in that the continuous process used is another coating method that applies a liquid medium to the substrate for forming at least one of the elongated strip layers.

30. The method as claimed in claim 27 employing a printing medium or liquid medium having a dynamic viscosity of less than 200 mPas at a temperature of 20°

C. for forming at least one of the elongated strip layers.

31. The method as claimed in claim 24 wherein at least one of the elongated strip layers is structured by one of a laser beam, embossing, cutting, grinding or scratching.

32. The method as claimed in claim 24 including forming the at least two electronic components with further electrical functional layers by one of printing, vapor deposition or sputtering.

35. The method of claim 24 including forming the at least two elongated strip layers as continuous layers, and further forming the at least one first electronic component and the at least one further electronic component on respective different elongated continuous strip functional layer materials.

37. The method of claim 24 including forming the at least two elongated strip layers with different thicknesses, and further forming the at least one first electronic component and the at least one further electronic component on respective different elongated continuous strip functional layers of different thicknesses.