Research progress in fiber-based transistors

Significance The flourishing development of emerging industries including the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, brain-like computing has promoted the miniaturization of electronic devices. To integrate them into daily life, e-textiles which can seamlessly combine the electronic components with functions like energy supply, perception, computing, communication, execution and display with fiber and fabrics have aroused great interest. As one of the basic components for signal processing and computing, transistor is an indispensable part in e-textiles. Meanwhile, fiber material featured with light, soft and diverse forms is regarded as the first choice for making wearable electronic devices. Hence, it is of great significance to develop high-performance fiber-based transistor for E-textile. Progress In order to study comprehensively the application prospects of fiber-based transistors in E-textiles, this review summarizes the composition, classification and working principle of fiber-based transistors, especially the fiber-based field effect transistor (FET) and fiber-based organic electrochemical transistor (OECT). Comparing to the fiber-based FET, the fiber-based OECT assembled with a solution or gel electrolyte exhibits various advantages such as ionic-electronic transport characteristic, low processing temperature and operating voltage (< 1 V), large transconductance (in mS range) and good biocompatibility. Moreover, the research progress of fiber transistor in wearable and implantable biochemical sensors, brain-like neuromorphic devices, such as memristor, artificial synapse, and logic circuits is reviewed. The fiber transistor promotes the development of national strategic industries such as e-textiles, human-computer interaction, intelligent medical treatment and is expected to driving the human society to the era of pan-intelligence. Conclusion and Prospect Fiber transistors have made great progress in recent decades, but the problems and challenges in device integration, performance optimization and practical application are still serious. The materials and fabrication processes for the mainstream thin-film transistor are not compatible with the porous and highly deformable fiber or textile substrates. The mechanical mismatch between the fiber electrode and organism tissue, the inflammation and biofouling all limit the fiber transistor application for chronic and stable in-vivo monitoring. The structure, energy consumption and synaptic functions of brain-like neuromorphic devices is still far from the human brain. More works need to be done. © 2024 China Textile Engineering Society. All rights reserved.