Application of Organic/Polymer Photodetectors in the Medical and Healthcare Area

摘要

Organic/polymer photodetectors have attracted extensive attentions due to their adjustable responding spectra, solution processed procedure and capability of flexible device fabrication. In recent years, with the rapid development of organic semiconducting materials, the performances of organic/polymer photodetectors have been significantly improved. Organic photodetectors show comparable performance to that of commercial silicon-based photodetectors in visible light region, while outdo that in the near-infrared region. The study on organic photodetectors also widens their potential applications. Especially in medical and healthcare area, where lighter, thinner and more flexible organic/polymer photodetectors have aroused research interests, paving a new way for the development of novel portable healthcare monitoring device. For example, photoplethysmography signal monitoring is essentially important for the development of both wearable devices and clinical medicine area. By using flexible organic photodetectors, high resolution photoplethysmography signals were obtained. Organic light-emitting diodes with organic photodetectors are further integrated on flexible substrates via solution processed approach, and skin-like healthcare devices with real-time photoplethysmography, blood oxygen monitoring capabilities were realized. Focusing on both fundamental research and extending applications of organic/polymer photodetector, we summarized recent developments of organic/polymer photodetector for healthcare technology. In this review, the material design principles and outlook for high performance organic/polymer photodetectors toward medical and healthcare applications are discussed. In the first chapter, we describe the working principle of organic photodetectors. The representative near-infrared sensitive organic semiconductors were reviewed. Then, practical applications of the organic photodetectors for healthcare techniques were subsequently introduced. Finally, the current challenges in this field and prospects for the future development were concluded in the last part.

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