Polymer semiconductors exhibit great potential for thin film electronics. The future applications of polymer electronics include logic circuits, flexible displays, memories, detectors, smart labels, healthcare devices, etc. The unique advantages of polymeric semiconductors include a very wide materials library owing to a potentially unlimited molecular tunability, solution processability, low temperature processing, compatibility with large-area deposition techniques, intrinsic robust mechanical properties, flexibility for arbitrary substrates, and increasingly enhanced charge transport properties. Polymeric field-effect transistors have in particular gained a lot of interest, an interest which keeps raising as outstanding advances in terms of performances have been very recently obtained, contributing to a steady increase in field-effect charge mobility, now consistently out-performing amorphous silicon. The role of backbone planarity, side chain engineering and resilience to disorder, along with the control of aggregates via suitable solvent formulation and the development of effective coating technologies capable of controlling films microstructure and induce polymer backbones alignment and anisotropy, represent some of the most successful ingredients that recently contributed to strong improvements in the field.

The aim of this symposium is to bring together an ample spectrum of experts in the wide field of polymer electronics, from synthetic chemists to materials scientists and device engineers, to share key recent advances in high-performance polymer semiconductors for several application and foster new breakthroughs towards innovative and robust commercial applications.

electrical properties macromolecular structure polymer semiconducting