Researchers Develop Revolutionary Transistor for High-Performance Bioelectronics

Northwestern University researchers have developed a groundbreaking new technology that could revolutionize the field of bioelectronics. A transdisciplinary team of scientists from the university have created an electrochemical transistor that is lightweight, flexible, and high-performance.

This new device is compatible with blood and water and can amplify important signals, making it ideal for biomedical sensing. The technology has the potential to enable wearable devices for onsite signal processing, right at the biology-device interface. Applications could include measuring heartbeat and levels of sodium and potassium in blood, as well as eye motion for studying sleep disorders.

The transistor is based on a new kind of electronic polymer and a vertical, instead of planar, architecture. It conducts both electricity and ions and is stable in air. The development of this technology required the collaborative expertise of chemists, materials scientists and biomedical engineers working together in order to design and synthesize new materials, and to fabricate and characterize the transistor.

“All modern electronics use transistors, which rapidly turn current on and off,” said Tobin J. Marks, a co-corresponding author of the study. “Here we use chemistry to enhance the switching. Our electrochemical transistor takes performance to a totally new level. You have all the properties of a conventional transistor but far higher transconductance (a measure of the amplification it can deliver), ultra-stable cycling of the switching properties, a small footprint that can enable high density integration, and easy, low-cost fabrication.”

Marks is a world leader in the fields of materials science and organic electronics. He is the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of materials science and engineering and chemical and biological engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering.

Learn more in Northwestern Now’s article, “Vertical electrochemical transistor pushes wearable electronics forward.”