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50 MHz rectifier based on an organic diode

Nature Materials volume 4, pages 597–600 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Amain focus of research on organic semiconductors is their potential application in passive organic radio-frequency identification (RF-ID) tags. First prototypes working at 125 kHz have been shown by industrial research groups1. However, to be commercially viable, the organic RF-ID tag would need to be compatible with the base-carrier frequency of 13.56 MHz (ref. 2). High-frequency operation has been out of reach for devices based on organic semiconducting material, because of the intrinsically low mobility of those materials. Here, we report on a rectifier based on a pentacene diode that can rectify an incoming a.c. signal at 50 MHz. At 14 MHz, a rectified voltage of 11 V for an a.c. voltage with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 36 V has been achieved. On the basis of those results, we estimate the frequency limits of an organic diode showing that even the ultra-high-frequency band at around 800 MHz is within reach.

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Figure 1: Pentacene diode.
Figure 2
Figure 3: Rectifying signal of a pentacene diode.
Figure 4: Frequency dependence of the rectified d.c. voltage for a rectifier with an organic diode.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the European-funded Integrated Project POLYAPPLY (IST No. 507143).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IMEC, Polymer and Molecular Electronics, Kapeldreef 75, 3001, Leuven, Belgium

    Soeren Steudel, Kris Myny, Vladimir Arkhipov, Carsten Deibel, Stijn De Vusser, Jan Genoe & Paul Heremans

  2. E.E. Dept, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3001, Leuven, Belgium

    Soeren Steudel & Stijn De Vusser

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Correspondence to Soeren Steudel.

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Steudel, S., Myny, K., Arkhipov, V. et al. 50 MHz rectifier based on an organic diode. Nature Mater 4, 597–600 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1434

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