LEGO-like Assembly of Fibrous Modules for Display Textiles

Abstract

Due to their promising advantages over classical rigid devices, the development of display textiles has exciting potential for various fields, including sensor technology, healthcare, and communication. To realize display textiles, it is necessary to prepare light-emitting building blocks at the fiber level and then weave or knit them to form the desired textile structures. However, from a practical viewpoint, it is difficult to continuously weave functional fibers containing light-emitting devices using conventional textile technologies. To address this issue, we introduced fibrous modules that can be assembled like LEGO blocks to realize textile displays. A unique feature of this work is that the light-emitting pixels are generated through a simple contact between modular electrochemiluminescent (ECL) fibers. Each fiber is composed of a single metallic wire coated with a gel-type ECL electrolyte that is formed by using a simple dip-coating method in ambient air. The sticky nature of the gel electrolyte enables the construction of lightemitting pixels through the simple physical contact of two or more fiber modules without the need for external pressure or heating. The diversity of this technology offers in terms of fibrous module arrangements and assembly can provide various options for designing the geometries of light-emitting pixels. We have implemented this technique to demonstrate not only a 1 × 1 pixel but also 3 × 3 pixels with an irregular shape. These results demonstrate that the unique strategy for display devices developed in this work provides a feasible approach for various electronic and optical textile applications.

A comprehensive review of FET‐based pH sensors: materials, fabrication technologies, and modeling

“…In recent years, devices based on transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOS) have received much more attention as an alternative material to silicon for various devices. [ 416 ] Among various AOS materials, amorphous $$\text{InGaZnO}_{4}$$ (a‐IGZO) has been utilized in various device applications such as biosensors, [ 417 ] phototransistors, [ 418 ] and nonvolatile memories. [ 419 ] The primary reason for wide range of applications is due to superior optical and electrical characteristics, higher field‐effect mobility, and superior spatial uniformity.…”

“…[ 419 ] The primary reason for wide range of applications is due to superior optical and electrical characteristics, higher field‐effect mobility, and superior spatial uniformity. [ 416,420 ] IGZO‐based ISFETs have been reported recently. [ 124 ] In one of the literature, it has been reported that a‐IGZO based channel DG ISFET with Al$$_{2}$$O$$_{3}$$‐sensing film shows a pH sensitivity of 347.6 mV/pH, beyond the Nernstian limit.…”

“…[ 423–425 ] Yet, for the devices which are fabricated on glass or flexible substrates, it is impossible to subject them to thermal anneal at high temperatures. [ 416 ] To overcome this problem, microwave annealing process can be used, due to the low heating temperature, which aids in the elimination of the defects from the a‐IGZO TFT. It has been reported that microwave annealed a‐IGZO TFT shows improved performance, such as higher mobility of electron and better on/off current ratio, leading to better sensitivity, reliability, and chemical stability, where the obtained sensitivity is 57.77 mV/pH using SnO$$_{2}$$‐sensing film [ 416 ] for single‐gate operation.…”