The path to ubiquitous organic electronics hinges on its stability

In the year 2004, a revealing review by Stephen Forrest pointed to how organic electronics could shake up the conventional semiconductor industry by exploring the fact that organic semiconductors, in principle, could be processed on inexpensive plastic substrates of virtually any shape from solution or gas phase using high throughput methods.1One of the key challenges identified was the successful translation from the proof-of-concept using lab-scale approaches to large-area appliances. This would require a high degree of innovation to achieve ultra low-cost fabrication methodologies, compatible with industrial standards. Since then, the processing of organic semiconductors through printing and coating techniques to realize life size device fabrication has developed rapidly, to the extent that organic light emitting diodes (OLED), organic field effect transistors (OFET), and organic photovoltaics (OPV) advanced from a lab curiosity to commercialized mainstream technologies, mainly in the form of displays and, partially, solar modules.