Turning an organic semiconductor into a low-resistance material by ion implantation

We report on the effects of low energy ion implantation on thin films of pentacene, carried out to investigate the efficacy of this process in the fabrication of organic electronic devices. Two different ions, Ne and N, have been implanted and compared, to assess the effects of different reactivity within the hydrocarbon matrix. Strong modification of the electrical conductivity, stable in time, is observed following ion implantation. This effect is significantly larger for N implants (up to six orders of magnitude), which are shown to introduce stable charged species within the hydrocarbon matrix, not only damage as is the case for Ne implants. Fully operational pentacene thin film transistors have also been implanted and we show how a controlled N ion implantation process can induce stable modifications in the threshold voltage, without affecting the device performanc

A simplified transfer matrix approach for the determination of the complex modulus of viscoelastic materials

Nowadays, several analytical and numerical approaches are available for analysing the performance of materials used in noise and vibration control applications. All these methodologies require knowledge of a set of input parameters which, in the case of viscoelastic materials, could exhibit strong dependence on frequency in the entire audible range. The aim of this paper is to present a simplified transfer matrix approach for the determination of the complex modulus for longitudinal waves of isotropic viscoelastic materials as a function of frequency. To that effect, the tested material is excited by an electromagnetic shaker and longitudinal waves are investigated. Using a frequency sweep as an excitation signal, the time domain response is measured downstream and upstream of the sample itself. A velocity transfer function is measured and, by using a transfer matrix model of the experimental setup, the complex wave number for longitudinal waves and, consequently, the complex modulus can be determined once the Poisson’s ratio is known in advance. The results are presented and discussed for different materials and compared with well-established quasi-static and dynamic techniques

Interfacing cells with organic transistors: a review of in vitro and in vivo applications

Recently, organic bioelectronics has attracted considerable interest in the scientific community. The impressive growth that it has undergone in the last 10 years has allowed the rise of the completely new field of cellular organic bioelectronics, which has now the chance to compete with consolidated approaches based on devices such as micro-electrode arrays and ISFET-based transducers both inin vitroandin vivoexperimental practice. This review focuses on cellular interfaces based on organic active devices and has the intent of highlighting the recent advances and the most innovative approaches to the ongoing and everlasting challenge of interfacing living matter to the “external world” in order to unveil the hidden mechanisms governing its behavior. Device-wise, three different organic structures will be considered in this work, namely the organic electrochemical transistor (OECT), the solution-gated organic transistor (SGOFET - which is presented here in two possible different versions according to the employed active material, namely: the electrolyte-gated organic transistor - EGOFET, and the solution gated graphene transistor - gSGFET), and the organic charge modulated field effect transistor (OCMFET). Application-wise, this work will mainly focus on cellular-based biosensors employed inin vitroandin vivocellular interfaces, with the aim of offering the reader a comprehensive retrospective of the recent past, an overview of the latest innovations, and a glance at the future prospects of this challenging, yet exciting and still mostly unexplored scientific field

Widening use of dexamethasone implant for the treatment of macular edema

Sustained-release intravitreal 0.7 mg dexamethasone (DEX) implant is approved in Europe for the treatment of macular edema related to diabetic retinopathy, branch retinal vein occlusion, central retinal vein occlusion, and non-infectious uveitis. The implant is formulated in a biodegradable copolymer to release the active ingredient within the vitreous chamber for up to 6 months after an intravitreal injection, allowing a prolonged interval of efficacy between injections with a good safety profile. Various other ocular pathologies with inflammatory etio­pathogeneses associated with macular edema have been treated by DEX implant, including neovascular age-related macular degeneration, Irvine–Gass syndrome, vasoproliferative retinal tumors, retinal telangiectasia, Coats’ disease, radiation maculopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, and macular edema secondary to scleral buckling and pars plana vitrectomy. We undertook a review to provide a comprehensive collection of all of the diseases that benefit from the use of the sustained-release DEX implant, alone or in combination with concomitant therapies. A MEDLINE search revealed lack of randomized controlled trials related to these indications. Therefore we included and analyzed all available studies (retrospective and prospective, com­parative and non-comparative, randomized and nonrandomized, single center and multicenter, and case report). There are reports in the literature of the use of DEX implant across a range of macular edema-related pathologies, with their clinical experience supporting the use of DEX implant on a case-by-case basis with the aim of improving patient outcomes in many macular pathologies. As many of the reported macular pathologies are difficult to treat, a new treat­ment option that has a beneficial influence on the clinical course of the disease may be useful in clinical practice

On the use of the transfer matrix method to evaluate sound insulation in complex building partitions

The transfer matrix method (TMM) represents a powerful tool to investigate wave propagation through different media, which could be particularly suitable to compute sound transmission through building partitions. Even though layered structures can be easily modelled by using the TMM approach, it is not always easy to determine the elastic properties of each layer the partitions is made of. Traditional partitions, generally made in masonry with clay or concrete bricks coupled together with mortar joints, are inhomogeneous and anisotropic structures whose elastic properties are difficult to measure. Again, cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, due to their peculiar substructure, might exhibit a highly orthotropic behaviour. A homogenisation approach, based on a minimization algorithm of the transmission loss (TL) of the bare structure, is proposed in this paper. It allows to consider inhomogeneous or anisotropic materials as an equivalent elastic solid described by effective frequency-depended elastic properties. The reliability of this approach is validated by comparing the TL of different building partitions computed using the TMM with the experimental sound insulation determined by means of laboratory measurements

Simultaneous recording of electrical and metabolic activity of cardiac cells in vitro using an organic charge modulated field effect transistor array

In vitro electrogenic cells monitoring is an important objective in several scientific and technological fields, such as electrophysiology, pharmacology and brain machine interfaces, and can represent an interesting opportunity in other translational medicine applications. One of the key aspects of cellular cultures is the complexity of their behavior, due to the different kinds of bio-related signals, both chemical and electrical, that characterize these systems. In order to fully understand and exploit this extraordinary complexity, specific devices and tools are needed. However, at the moment this important scientific field is characterized by the lack of easy-to-use, low-cost devices for the sensing of multiple cellular parameters. To the aim of providing a simple and integrated approach for the study of in vitro electrogenic cultures, we present here a new solution for the monitoring of both the electrical and the metabolic cellular activity. In particular, we show here how a particular device called Micro Organic Charge Modulated Array (MOA) can be conveniently engineered and then used to simultaneously record the complete cell activity using the same device architecture. The system has been tested using primary cardiac rat myocytes and allowed to detect the metabolic and electrical variations thar occur upon the administration of different drugs. This first example could lay the basis for the development of a new generation of multi-sensing tools that can help to efficiently probe the multifaceted in vitro environment

Validation of polymer-based screen-printed textile electrodes for surface EMG detection

In recent years, the variety of textile electrodes developed for electrophysiological signal detection has increased rapidly. Among the applications that could benefit from this advancement, those based on surface electromyography (sEMG) are particularly relevant in rehabilitation, training and muscle function assessment. In this work, we validate the performance of polymer-based screen-printed textile electrodes for sEMG signal detection. We obtained these electrodes by depositing poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene doped with poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) onto cotton fabric, and then selectively changing the physical properties of the textile substrate. The manufacturing costs are low and this process meets the requirements of textile-industry production lines. The validation of these electrodes was based on their functional and electrical characteristics, assessed for two different electrode sizes and three skin-interface conditions (dry, solid hydrogel or saline solution), and compared to those of conventional disposable gelled electrodes. Results show high similarity in terms of noise amplitude and electrode-skin impedance between the conventional and textile electrodes with the addition of solid hydrogel or saline solution. Furthermore, we compared the shape of the electrically-induced sEMG, as detected by conventional and textile electrodes from tibialis anterior. The comparison yielded an R2 value higher than 97% for all measurement conditions. Preliminary tests in dynamic conditions (walking) revealed the exploitability of the proposed electrode technology with saline application for the monitoring of sEMG for up to 35 minutes of activity. These results suggest that the proposed screen-printed textile electrodes may be an effective alternative to the conventional gelled electrodes for sEMG acquisition, thereby providing new opportunities in clinical and wellness fields

Primary Voltage and Frequency Regulation in Inverter Based Islanded Microgrids through a Model Predictive Control Approach

A frequency and voltage control strategy based on a decentralized and communication-less approach is proposed in this work and applied to Photovoltaic-Storage-Microturbine islanded Microgrids (MGs). The approach is based on the Model Predictive Control (MPC) technique. Thanks to the use of local measurements, each source can nullify the steady-state voltage and frequency errors by means of a dedicated MPC controller. Consequently, the proposed approach unifies the advantages of classic droop and master/slave controllers due to the absence of communication links among devices and due to the absence of a secondary centralized control loop