Flexible electronics have demonstrated promising potential for low-cost and wearable applications. These are manufactured on substrates not typically associated with semiconductor processing such as polyimide, plastics or organic materials. The unique mechanical properties of such substrates enable the development of shape-conforming circuits as well as integration of passive circuitry over large areas and on uncommon surfaces such as food packaging or textiles in a cost-effective manner. Given their equally conformal and low-temperature manufacturing methods metal-oxides are a suitable material for developing on flexible substrates.

CEF researchers work on developing novel electronic circuits based on metal-oxides for applications on flexible substrates as well as towards monolithically integrating memory and computing elements made exclusively from metal-oxides to move electronics to the post-silicon era. In addition to flexible electronics CEF also develops in solution-based substrate-agnostic organic electronics for hybrid applications, such as sensors. These applications enhance the capabilities of both conventional and flexible devices with added capabilities such as photosensivity or biosensitivity for fully monolithically integrating sensing platforms.