DiAiPi: Thin Film Photodiodes for Biometric Data

Main article: Biometric identification technologies

2021: Developing Technology for Flexible Thin Film Photodiodes and Matrix Photodetectors

The startup "DiAiPi" of the group of companies "FlexLab," which is part of the North-West Center for Technology Transfer (NWCTT) FIOP of the Rusnano Group, has developed technology for creating flexible thin-film photodiodes and matrix photodetectors with sensitivity in a wide spectral range. The first prototypes will be presented on September 14-16, 2021 at the Skolkovo Innovation Center Technopark. This was announced by Rusnano on September 14, 2021.

The startup DiAiPi specializes in the development and integration of printing technology for the creation of organic (OPD) and new hybrid organ-inorganic perovskite (PVSK-PD) materials for the production of matrix photodetectors. Such devices can be used in wearable electronics as automated systems for obtaining biometric and biomedical data. For example, in sensors for monitoring the health of a patient or for implementing a human recognition function by identifying fingerprints or palm veins.

The development of the startup "DiAiPi" - thin-film sensors OPD and PVSK-PD - have a number of advantages over traditional electronic components made of expensive silicon: they are distinguished by flexibility, ease, setting the width of the forbidden zone, high sensitivity in a wide spectral range and solution production technologies. The latter feature allows you to create elements of a given shape, expanding the fields of application of photodiode technologies, and makes their production cheaper.

For example, printed organic photodetectors (OPD) of the startup "DiAiPi" showed a high sensitivity of detecting light of the order of 0.3 A/W, external quantum efficiency over 55% in the visible range and speed up to 0.2 μs. These properties, combined with the flexibility of OPD biometric sensors repeating the shape of a finger, will reduce the time to take a print by almost three times, from 30-35 to 10-15 seconds.

The development of technologies for creating thin-film photodiodes and matrix photodetectors with sensitivity in a wide spectral range is one of the promising directions in the field of flexible electronics. According to a study by IDTechEx, the global market for printed, flexible and organic electronics will grow by more than one and a half times and reach $74 billion in 2030.