Nanoelectronics: NAMS Researchers Develop an All-Printed Flexible UV Photodetector

May 2020

Ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors have applications in medical and healthcare, space, military and scientific instruments. Commercially available photodetetors are fabricated on semiconductor wafers using conventional microfabrication methods. USRA researchers Dong-il Lee, Myeonlok Seol, and Jin-Woo Han along with their colleague Beomseok Kim (Bay Systems) have developed an inexpensive alternative by printing the layers of the photodetector, including the substrate using zinc oxide (ZnO) as the active sensing layer. The bandgap of ZnO matches well with UV wavelength and thus, they have been able to obtain performance comparable to commercial UV sensors. The results, published recently in the journal  ACS Sensors  (Vol. 5, pp. 1028-1032, 2020), confirm the capability of the printed UV sensor to function as an ambient UV dosimeter. The team has been working on developing printable sensors and detectors for various space radiations including gamma rays. This work was sponsored by the NASA In Space Manufacturing Program which strives to print various components and devices such as sensors, antennas, batteries, supercapacitors, energy generation devices and others in the future in the Space Station.