Printed arrays of aligned GaAs wires for flexible transistors, diodes, and circuits on plastic substrates

The uses of micro and nanoscale wire of single-crystal inorganic semiconductors to fabricate flexible transistors, diodes, and circuits of plastic substrates were investigated. As Si nanowires that are synthesized through 'bottom-up' approaches can be assembled into aligned arrays using Langmuir-Blodgett techniques and used as transport channels for flexible thin-film transistors (TFT) on plastic substrates. Micro/nanoscale elements of Si in the form of ribbons were generated from high-quality, single-crystalline bulk sources through 'top-down' approaches can be used to fabricate flexible TFTs on plastic substrates with device mobilities. The top-down fabrication process is attractive because it offers the possibility of preserving the highly ordered organization of nano/microstructures defined at the wafer level during 'dry transfer printing' to the final device substrate. Flexible metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFET) are made by forming ohmic contacts on GaAs wires.