Atransparent and flexible organic transistor was recently developed by a POSTECH-SKKU joint research team. Professors Kilwon Cho and Kwang Soo Kim teamed up with Professor Byung Hee Hong at Sungkyunkwan University and worked on graphene, the ‘dream material,’ stepping into the market of next generation displays such as transparent monitors, windows, and flexible displays that can function like GPS navigation systems on automobiles and wearable electronic devices.

The research team used graphene as electrodes for Organic Thin-Film Transistors (OTFTs) and successfully produced a flexible and transparent OTFT on a plastic substrate. The world-renowned journal in material science, Advanced Materials, published the work, noting that the success will become a key factor for the future electronic information industry, which is projected to grow to about USD 60 billion by 2020.

Graphene exhibits high electrical conductivity and transparency, and it also has a comparative advantage in making patterns to be used as electrodes. Using these properties, the team was able to develop a transparent and flexible organic transistor with excellent electrical performance.

This is a significant advancement because conventional metal electrodes for transistors have limited applicability due to their limited transparency and conductivity. The research result is expected to have a direct impact on the future of transparent flexible displays, which is a very competitive market.

Professor Cho commented, “Our recent achievement can be applied to a variety of products, including integrated circuits, information displays and many others. Since the Nobel Prize was awarded in 2010 to the researchers who worked on Graphene, the material has attracted much attention, and our work is noteworthy in that it has significantly advanced the commercialization of graphene.”