Flexible sensing systems based on polysilicon thin film transistors technology

Flexible sensors are gaining increasing interest in a number of applications, including biomedical, food control, domotics and robotics, having very light weight, robustness and low cost. In order to improve signal-to-noise ratio, integration of readout electronics is crucial and several technologies are available for the fabrication of thin film transistors (TFTs) based circuits on flexible substrates. Among these technologies, the low temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) is particularly attractive, since LTPS TFTs show excellent electrical characteristics, good stability and offer the possibility to exploit CMOS architectures. The different aspects for the direct fabrication of LTPS TFTs on polymer substrates are reviewed and the specific fabrication process adopted on ultrathin polyimide substrates is described in some detail. Then, as examples of flexible sensing systems, we present both chemical and physical sensors integrated with LTPS TFTs frontend electronics. The present results can pave the way to advanced flexible sensing systems, where sensors and local signal conditioning circuits can be integrated on the same flexible substrate.