Organic Optoelectronic Device Shutter Electrode Charge Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Organic charge-coupled devices (OCCDs) face challenges in achieving efficient, controlled, and precise lateral charge movement due to low charge mobilities and short carrier lifetimes in organic semiconductors, making it difficult to measure light intensity and move charge packets without substantial signal loss.
Innovation Solution
An organic optoelectronic device is designed with a substrate, electrodes, an organic heterojunction layer, an insulator layer, and an organic channel layer, where a shutter electrode generates a repulsive potential barrier to control charge movement, and an energy barrier between the heterojunction and channel materials is set at least 300 meV to facilitate efficient charge transport.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If organic semiconductors are used in CCDs, then the device offers low-cost, light-weight, and mechanically flexible advantages, but charge transport efficiency deteriorates due to low charge mobilities and short carrier lifetimes
Solution Approach 1:
The device is segmented into distinct functional layers: a photogeneration layer for creating charge carriers, an insulated shutter electrode for controlling charge release, and a channel layer for transporting charges. This segmentation allows each layer to be optimized independently, with the organic semiconductor channel layer maintaining flexibility while the overall device structure ensures reliable charge transport through proper layer configuration and interface design.
Solution Approach 2:
An insulated shutter electrode is introduced as an intermediary component between the photogeneration region and the channel layer. This shutter electrode, when biased, creates a potential barrier that controls the release and transport of charge packets. The intermediary structure enables precise timing control of charge movement, improving transport efficiency without sacrificing the organic material's inherent flexibility and low-cost advantages.
2Length of moving object
If lateral charge movement is extended across millimeter-to-centimeter distances, then imaging capability is achieved, but signal loss increases due to short carrier lifetimes in organic semiconductors
Solution Approach 1:
Charge packets are generated and confined in a photogeneration layer adjacent to an insulated shutter electrode before being transferred to the channel layer. The shutter electrode is preliminarily biased to create a potential barrier that prevents premature charge loss. This preliminary confinement and controlled release mechanism ensures that charges are transported efficiently over long distances without substantial signal loss, enabling millimeter-to-centimeter scale imaging.
Solution Approach 2:
The shutter electrode bias is dynamically adjusted to control charge packet release and transport. By switching the shutter electrode between blocked and unbiased states, the device dynamically controls charge flow timing. This dynamic control synchronizes charge release with the imaging process, maintaining signal integrity over extended transport distances while achieving the required imaging capability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables effective conversion of light into charge packets and their movement across organic CCDs with reduced signal loss, enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of light measurement and data collection.
Implementation Method 1
converting a quantity of light received in a heterojunction into a charge packet
Implementation Method 2
the shutter electrode is configured to generate a repulsive potential barrier in the channel layer, suitable to at least reduce movement of charge in the channel layer
Implementation Method 3
an energy barrier between the organic heterojunction material and the organic channel material is at least 300 meV... using energetic barriers to physically separate electron and hole polarons
Data Source
AI summary
An organic optoelectronic device comprises a substrate having first and second regions, a first electrode positioned over the first region of the substrate, a shutter electrode positioned over the second region of the substrate, an organic heterojunction layer comprising an organic heterojunction material, positioned over at least a portion of the first electrode, an insulator layer positioned over at least a portion of the shutter electrode, an organic channel layer, comprising an organic channel material, positioned over at least a portion of the heterojunction and insulator layers, and a second electrode positioned over the channel layer in the second region of the substrate, wherein the shutter electrode is configured to generate a repulsive potential barrier in the channel layer, suitable to at least reduce movement of charge in the channel layer. A method of measuring received light in an optoelectronic device is also described.