"Organic Electronics: A Circuits and Systems Perspective"

Submitted by yen-kuang.chen on April 10, 2017 - 12:46pm

Organic Electronics: A Circuits and Systems Perspective
JETCAS Volume 7, Issue 1, April 2017

Dear IEEE JETCAS Readers,

The IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems (JETCAS) published its April 2017 issue on Printed/Organic Electronics (and Flexible Hybrid-Electronics) – an emerging multi-disciplinary field whose synonyms include Flexible Electronics, Plastic Electronics, Polymer Electronics, Large Area Electronics, etc. Printed/Organic Electronics is deemed a key enabler for the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution for its unique lightweight mechanically-flexible form factor and low-cost printing attributes.

The purpose of this issue is to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art, insights into the many unresolved and formidable challenges (including how these may be addressed from all aspects of the supply chain but with emphasis from a circuits and systems perspective), efforts by the Printed/Organic electronics community, the new and potential functionalities that Organic/Printed Electronics may provide, progress for useful applications, and ‘open’ problems.

This issue embodies fifteen papers where every paper is multi-disciplinary, reflecting the nature of Printed/Organic Electronics – but with a skew towards circuit design. The first paper provides a comprehensive and critical overview of the state-of-the-art, challenges and unresolved issues, efforts by the circuit design community, interdependencies between the multi-disciplinary technologies and the need for co-design/co- optimization thereto, the need for new and esoteric circuit design methodologies beyond contemporary designs for silicon, etc. The theme of the first cluster of papers is ‘Applications’, and provides insights into the application space of Printed/Organic Electronics, the ensuing challenges in circuit design, how its flexible form-factor may be exploited, and that Printed/Organic Electronics complements silicon and not a competitor thereto. The theme of the second cluster is ‘Designability’ including modeling and simulations and depicts its rudimentariness and nascence. The theme of the third cluster is ‘Materials and Printing Supply Chain’ – the first two constituent supply chains of Printed/Organic Electronics – and how they relate to circuit design.

The many formidable challenges in Printed/Organic Electronics present tremendous and exciting opportunities for the Circuits and Systems community. We hope you enjoy this interesting special issue.

Best Regards,
Yen-Kuang Chen (Editor-in-Chief)
Eduard Alarcon (Deputy Editor-in- Chief)