Organic electronics and piezoelectric fluoropolymers: Arkema, high-tech market player
Arkema contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG9) "Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation".
Our expertise in high-value-added polymers, developed in partnership with basic research laboratories, start-ups and semiconductor manufacturers, makes us a pioneer in this high-tech niche.
Nanolithography: the challenge of printed circuit miniaturization
Current microelectronics technology using photolithography on silicon to make printed circuits has reached its limits, unable to push resolution below 40 nanometers.
In France, Arkema has joined forces with the research institute CEA-Leti in Grenoble and the organic polymer chemistry lab LCPO in Bordeaux in a high-stakes project to develop electronic nanocomponents. Called “directed self-assembly” (DSA) lithography, the process relies on the ability of certain copolymers to self-organize on a nanometric scale (one billionth of a meter). The resulting geometric patterns — or nanocircuits — offer extremely fine resolution (5 to 10 nanometers) and can be precisely customized.
Nanolithography makes it possible to design less energy-intensive circuits with ten times more capacity. Thus continuing to miniaturize chips, doubling processor performance every 18 months in accordance with "Moore's Law," which has guided the semiconductor market for more than 40 years.
Following successful laboratory testing, Arkema teamed up with various semiconductor leaders — including Intel, STMicroelectronics and Brewer Science — on two projects supported by the European Union: Placyd and CoLiSA. The goal is to build pilot production lines and move a step closer to commercial scale-up.
The connected object and haptic interface revolutions
Through our subsidiary Piezotech®, Arkema is developing a line of fluoropolymers that are electroactive, or piezoelectric. That means that they change shape when stimulated by an electrical field and, conversely, generate current under mechanical pressure.
They set the stage for objects that are interactive and connected. Examples in medicine include sensors to measure temperature and blood pressure or surgical guides that can be positioned to within one millimeter; applications in transportation include sensors that can recover mechanical energy and store it as electrical energy.
Electroactive polymer films will also be used for ultra-sensitive touch interfaces that will transmit very realistic sensations to users. Examples include a paper-thin flexible keyboard with keys that vibrate when struck, an interactive car dashboard, and flexible smartphones.
Arkema is collaborating here with the U.S. start-up Novasentis to develop miniaturized haptic* interfaces, a major innovation in electronics.
* Haptics refers to the science of touch, as acoustics refers to sound and optics to sight.
Materials for the electronics of the future
Printed electronics: circuits on (almost) any substrate
We and our subsidiary Piezotech® have a piezoelectric polymeric ink that will permit printed electronics on substrates such as fabric, paper and flexible plastics. It turns out that it's much simpler and cheaper to print with these conductive inks than to make silicon-circuit-based components. Many everyday objects including smart labels and clothing, connected packaging and medical monitoring devices will be printable using such inks and will act as sensors (temperature, impact, moisture and more) and real-time information relays.
Cutting edge partnerships
Arkema collaborates in this field with a number of laboratories, including the Flexible Organic Electronics Laboratory of the prestigious Yamagota University in Japan, and ELORPrintTec of the University of Bordeaux
In the context of the Year of Chemistry, the Digital Cell of the CNRS Communication Department has been focusing on this platform dedicated to flexible and printable electronics. A tour of the Bordeaux facilities was filmed to highlight this laboratory which “builds a link between the world of academia and the world of industry”, as its Director Professor Georges Hadziioannou explained.
Read also - INNOVATIVE WITH
This first issue of our magazine INNOVATIVE WITH is devoted to our electroactive and piezoelectric polymers.
Materials with incredible properties that tomorrow will become an integral part of everyday life, as explained by our partners, and revolutionize the electronics, medicine or automotive sectors!