[Research Highlights Vol.42] Flexible Organic Electronic Devices for Three-Valued Logic Circuitry

Wearable and flexible integrated-circuit technology is on the rise, especially in the context of the ‘internet of things (IoT)’ — devices sharing information through the internet. So-called organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), built from organic molecules, are mechanically flexible, and therefore suitable for IoT electronics. OFETs are difficult to downsize, however, making their high-density integration onto flexible chips is problematic. Yutaka Wakayama at the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan, and colleagues have now presented an alternative approach. Rather than considering OFETs offering conventional two-valued logic — with zeroes and ones — they developed a circuit element, built from organic materials, capable of handling three logical values.