cfaed Seminar Series

The recent advancements in polymer based semiconductor materials, and the progress made towards their implementation through micro/nanofabrication techniques, have yielded exemplary outcomes in the domain of low-cost, flexible sensors and actuators. Several copolymer materials with semiconductor and photoconductor properties are commercially available. Such materials have so far been leveraged in producing optical displays, such as polymer light-emitting diodes, flexible electronic displays and liquid crystals, to name a few.

The choice of carbon-based semiconductor materials has opened several possibilities for development of integrated circuit topologies using organic transistor devices, patterned at room temperature and printed on flexible surfaces for potential large area and low-cost applications. Several research programs are focused on improving the reliability and performance of the organic transistor, and create a long-term development path similar to the silicon-based microelectronics. At the organic semiconductor laboratory (OSL) in ECE department, this is one of the fundamental ambition of my research team.

The program is also looking to implement organic semiconductors and composite polymer materials for target applications in several domains including chemical, biological and environmental sensing. This will lead to design of wearable devices with ambition intelligence for health monitoring applications. Another ambition is to develop disposable biosensors and bioelectronic actuators for applications such as minimally invasive implants, programmable drug delivery systems, and food, water inspection and environmental monitoring.

I will present key highlights from my recent NSERC postdoctoral fellowship project, in the domain of chip based molecular diagnostics and disposable sample-to-answer micro-devices. I will furthermore share information about my current research program and the newly established OSL at Queen’s. Our over-arching goal is to utilize the versatility of copolymer semiconductor materials in several targeted application areas including low-cost bioassays for point-of-care, chip based diagnostics, wearable devices, flexible microelectronic devices and field-deployable environmental health monitoring systems.

This will also be an opportunity to reflect upon potential international collaboration opportunities between cfaed and OSL, and share strategic research interest to pursue.