Acreo, in collaboration with Linköping University, are developing low-cost electronics printed on paper. Their focus is on electrochemical devices, such as electrochromic displays. The change between bright and dark state is based on the difference in absorbtion of a polymer, e.g. PEDOT:PSS, in the oxidised versus the reduced state. Switching occurs at low voltages (0.6 to 0.9V), but is inherently slow (~1s).
The difference in conductivity of polymers, such as PEDOT:PSS, PANI, Polypyrrole and Polyhexylthiophene, between different redox states can be used to fabricate electrochemical transistors.
Other applications exploiting a change in material properties upon oxidation/reduction are a wettability switch and and a switchable polariser.
Acreo is using different printing techniques (e.g. screen- and offset-printing) to deposit layers such as the conducting polymer and polymer electrolyte layers.
