Amani – many congratulations! A project you have handled
with grit. Our first paper on transient electronics. In addition to simple
water based dissolution, for the first time we have shown recyclability of the
expensive substrates using environmentally benign manufacturing. Thanks to all
the collaborators from the Core Labs too.
Water Soluble Nano-scale Transient Material Germanium Oxide
For Zero Toxic Waste Based Environmentally Benign Nano-Manufacturing
A. S. Almuslem, A. N. Hanna, T. Yapici, N. Wehbe, E. M.
Diallo, A. T. Kutbee, R. R. Bahabry, M. M. Hussain
In the recent past, with the advent of transient electronics for mostly
implantable and secured electronic applications, the whole field effect
transistor structure has been dissolved in variety of chemicals. Here we show,
simple water soluble nano-scale (sub-10 nm) germanium oxide (GeO2) as the
dissolvable component to remove the functional structures of metal oxide
semiconductor devices and then reuse the expensive germanium substrate again
for functional device fabrication. This way, in addition to transiency, we also
show an environmentally friendly manufacturing process for CMOS technology.
Every year trillions of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)
electronics are manufactured and billions are disposed, which extend harmful
impact to our environment. Therefore, this is a key study to show a pragmatic
approach for water soluble high performance electronics for environmentally
friendly manufacturing, as well as, bioresorbable electronic applications.