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A thin and flexible scanner for fingerprints and documents based on metal halide perovskites

Nature Electronics volume 4, pages 818–826 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Solution-processed photodetectors could be of use in large-area light-sensing applications because they can be fabricated at low cost on plastic substrates and their absorption spectra can be tuned by chemical design. However, fabricating photodetectors with low dark currents and integrating them into high-resolution backplanes remains challenging. Here we show that solution-processed metal halide perovskite photodiodes on top of an amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide transistor backplane can be used to create a flexible image sensor that is ~100 μm thick and has a resolution of 508 pixels per inch. We have developed a pixel edge cover layer for the system that reduces electrode current leakage and thus dark current density. The low noise current in combination with high external quantum efficiency results in high photodetectivity at wavelengths from 550 nm to 770 nm. We show that our imager can be used for document scanning and biometric fingerprinting and that it can be wrapped around objects with radii as small as 0.6 cm.

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Fig. 1: Perovskite photodetector.
Fig. 2: Characteristics of discrete 1-mm2 PPDs and scaling of PPD pixel size.
Fig. 3: All-in-one-scanner.
Fig. 4: Image sensor characterization.
Fig. 5: Thin-film colour scanner and wrap-around imager results.

Data availability

The datasets analysed in this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the process engineers of Holst Centre’s R&D TFT Pilot Line for the realization of the TFT backplanes, as well as the thin-film encapsulation on top of the PPD frontplane. We also acknowledge M. Fattori (Eindhoven University of Technology) for his help with the noise measurements. This work is partly financed through the Flexlines project within the Interreg V-programme Flanders–Netherlands, a cross-border cooperation programme with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund, and co-financed by the Province of Noord-Brabant, Netherlands.

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Author notes

  1. Ilias Katsouras

    Present address: ASML Netherlands BV, Eindhoven, Netherlands

  2. Corné H. Frijters

    Present address: SALDtech, Eindhoven, Netherlands

  3. Francesco Di Giacomo

    Present address: Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy (CHOSE), Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

Authors and Affiliations

  1. TNO at Holst Centre, The Dutch Organization for Applied Scientific Research, Eindhoven, Netherlands

    Albert J. J. M. van Breemen, Santhosh Shanmugam, Bart Peeters, Laurens C. J. M. Peters, Richard L. van de Ketterij, Ilias Katsouras, Hylke B. Akkerman, Corné H. Frijters, Eric A. Meulenkamp & Gerwin H. Gelinck

  2. Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands

    Riccardo Ollearo, René A. J. Janssen & Gerwin H. Gelinck

  3. TNO partner in Solliance, Eindhoven, Netherlands

    Francesco Di Giacomo, Sjoerd Veenstra & Ronn Andriessen

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  1. Albert J. J. M. van Breemen
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Contributions

F.D.G., S.V. and R.A. developed the PPD frontplane. R.O., S.S. and C.H.F. fabricated discrete PPDs and PPD arrays. R.O., S.S. and A.J.J.M.v.B. performed electrical characterization of discrete PPDs. B.P., L.C.J.M.P., R.L.v.d.K., I.K. and H.B.A. characterized the PPD arrays. A.J.J.M.v.B. and G.H.G analysed the results and wrote the manuscript. R.A.J.J. and E.A.M. corrected the draft manuscript. All authors discussed and revised the final manuscript. A.J.J.M.v.B. supervised the project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Albert J. J. M. van Breemen or Gerwin H. Gelinck.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Electronics thanks Zhiyong Fan, Hang Zhou and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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van Breemen, A.J.J.M., Ollearo, R., Shanmugam, S. et al. A thin and flexible scanner for fingerprints and documents based on metal halide perovskites. Nat Electron 4, 818–826 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00662-1

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