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Greg Whiting

Palo Alto Research Center

Printed, Flexible and Transient Electronics for Distributed Systems

Bio: Greg joined the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 2008 where he currently manages the Novel Electronics Group.  He is interested in materials and processes for unconventional electronic systems – such as those that may be mechanically flexible and conformable, large area, widely distributed, controllably transient or manufactured using printing techniques, in order to address applications in areas including distributed sensing, wearable electronics, environmental monitoring, data security, and additive manufacturing.

Prior to joining PARC he worked for Cambridge Display Technology, studying organic field-effect transistors, polymer/polymer blend photovoltaics, and polymer light-emitting diodes.  Greg received a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2007 where his research focused principally on solar cells and field-effect transistors formed using surface-initiated polymer films. He received a B.S. degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002 where he studied solution processed polymer/nanoparticle solar cells.

Greg has co-authored over 20 peer reviewed journal articles, holds 16 US patents, and his research has been covered by various media outlets including the New York Times, and IEEE Spectrum.  He is an active member of a number of societies including the MRS and is an executive committee member of the AVS.   His awards include a Flexi award from the FlexTechAlliance, a top performer award from DARPA, and he was recently nominated to attend the National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Symposium.

Abstract: Unconventional electronic devices that are mechanically flexible, manufactured using printing techniques, or controllably transient can expand the distribution of functionality into spaces difficult to access with conventional componentry. The use of print-like techniques for the manufacture of electronics provides for a number of benefits including large-area coverage, deposition of an extensive set of materials, mass customization, facile integration of dissimilar materials with a variety of substrates, allows for systems with low mass and mechanical flexibility and potentially enables a more inclusive, distributed manufacturing model.  

This presentation will cover three approaches for printing electronics.  1) Fabricating devices entirely from solution-based materials, thereby maximizing the available design space and simplifying fabrication, but limiting performance and addressable applications due to materials properties, resolution of typical printing techniques, and process variability.  2) Integration of printed devices with pre-fabricated microelectronic components on flexible substrates, enabling more complex functionality such as RF communication and complex signal processing, but requiring more cumbersome assembly processes than with printing alone.   3) A digital electrostatic fluidic microassemblytechnique, capable of positional and orientationalcontrol of small objects including microelectronic devices, as an approach to bridge the length-scale gap between photolithography and common print techniques.  By developing a wide set of printed components, including circuits, power sources, sensors, and others, complete stand-alone systems can be demonstrated for distributed sensing applications such as structural, health and environmental monitoring. 

For some distributed systems physical transience is a potentially useful function.  This presentation will also describe an approach for achieving controllably transient electronic systems based on the use of a stress-engineered glass substrate, that rapidly disintegrates when triggered, fragmenting and dispersing the substrate and any thin electronic components processed onto it.