Search

Oxide-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) with a lateral in-plane electrode are self-assembled on paper substrates, and the electrical modulation effect of the in-plane electrode is investigated. A \SiO2-based solid-electrolyte film with high specific capacitance is used as the gate dielectric, and the operation voltage is reduced to less than 2.0 V. The threshold voltage (Vth) of such paper TFTs is tuned from -0.98 to 0.94 V by different voltage biases on the in-plane electrode. The threshold voltage shift (\Delta Vth) can be described by \Delta Vth = -(CG2/CG1)VG2, where CG2 and CG1 are the in-plane electrode and bottom-gate specific capacitance values. High electrical performance with a current on/off ratio of \6 \times \10^5 \sim \10^6, a subthreshold swing of 0.14 \sim 0.19 V/dec, and a mobility of \8.64 \sim \9.45\ \cm^2/\V\cdot \s is obtained at different in-plane electrode voltage biases. Such low-voltage paper TFTs are promising for low-cost and portable electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An electrophoretic display (EPD) cell with a triple-layered microcavity structure was fabricated using a convenient dry film resist. The inherent structural advantage arising from the function of the middle channel layer as a background colored state enabled the EPD to operate with two different-colored states by using a single type of electronic-ink particles, thereby eliminating the possible agglomeration of oppositely charged ink particles and supporting the potential application of the proposed structure to color the electronic paper. The preliminary operation of this new EPD structure was demonstrated as white and blue display states on a rigid glass exhibiting a contrast ratio of 1.5 : 1 with saturation voltages of +30 and -30 V, respectively. Successful demonstrations on both the indium–tin–oxide-patterned glass and flexible polyethylene substrates are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photodetectors (PDs) based on organic–inorganic hybrid materials such as graphene and perovskites have recently emerged at the forefront of the research in optoelectronic devices. Despite the remarkable progress in the performance of optoelectronic devices based on hybrid materials, some aspects such as stability have so far not been thoroughly addressed. This paper serves to demonstrate a fully inkjet-printed PD fabricated by hybrid perovskite (CH3NH3PbClx-3I3) layer between the two graphene electrodes as graphene/perovskite/graphene (GPG) heterostructure. The fully inkjet-printed GPG PD is found to be effective for the visible light region, which can be attributed by the high uniformity and low defects of the printed materials. Thus, the GPG PD achieves a high responsivity of 0.53 A/W. Fully inkjet-printed hybrid perovskite PD demonstrated in this paper unveils the facile, potentially large-scale and cost-effective methods for fabrication of hybrid perovskites-based optoelectronic devices, including PDs and solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The instability of amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) under ultraviolet (UV) light was thoroughly investigated in this paper. Unlike in a darkened state, an off-state leakage current can be found in the dual-sweep I–V transfer curve of a-IGZO TFTs under UV light illumination. Furthermore, despite the same UV light condition, the forward sweep and reverse sweep show different I–V curves, representing two different physical mechanisms. First, the subthreshold swing degradation and threshold voltage shift to the negative direction in the forward sweep are due to the total channel barrier lowering and can be confirmed by changing the light exposure region. Second, in the reverse sweep, the suggested back-channel leakage current can be controlled by dual-gate TFTs. UV light exposure of the metal–insulator–semiconductor–metal structure verifies that the off-state leakage current passes through the back channel in a reverse sweep. Finally, the physical mechanism links between forward and reverse sweeps have comprehensive interpretation in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermionic energy converter (TEC) is a heat engine that generates electricity directly using heat as its source of energy and electron as its working fluid. Despite having a huge potential as an efficient direct energy conversion device, the progress in vacuum-based thermionic energy converter development has always been hindered by the space charge problem and the unavailability of materials with low work function. It is only recently that researchers have started to look back into this technology as recent advances in manufacturing technology techniques have made it possible to solve these problems, making TECs a viable option in replacing current energy production systems. The focus of this paper is to review the challenges of producing efficient and practical TECs, along with recent findings and developments in mitigating these challenges. Furthermore, this paper looked into potential applications of TECs, based on recent works and technologies, and found that, with certain improvements, it can be applied in many sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose a novel technique to overcome the conductance limitation in metal contacted single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs)-based devices using metal nanoparticles (MNPs). Schottky barrier (SB) height at metal-SWNTs contact is believed to be the major contributor for this conductance limitation. Metal contacts with SWNTs are fabricated on a thermally grown SiO2/Si substrate using a conventional lithography process. The SWNTs are aligned between the metal electrodes using dielectrophoresis method. MNPs are introduced in the device using a small drop of MNP suspension to decorate the SWNTs. It is observed that the introduction of MNPs in the device reduces the SB height significantly. We found 0.34 eV reduction in SB height with silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) and 0.15 eV with gold (Au) NPs. The proposed technique has improved the conductance in decorated SWNTs four times for Ag and Au NPs as compared to the bare SWNTs. Improvement in the conductance behavior of the SWNTs using MNPs enhances the sensitivity and switching speed of the devices, therefore, make it a promising alternative to silicon-based devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the issues of oxygen accumulation and variation in the high-resistance state of HfO2-based resistive random access memory (RRAM), with improvement attained by inserting a thin oxygen-vacancy-rich layer of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) film. By acting as the oxygen ion reservoir, this ITO thin film on the TiN electrode can further stabilize resistance switching (RS) characteristics. In terms of reliability, ac endurance, and retention tests confirm stable RS characteristics for the Pt/HfO2/ITO/TiN device. Finally, a conducting model was proposed to explain the influence of the ITO thin layer and clarify the physical mechanism of electrical improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern electronic devices, a variety of novel materials have been introduced such as transition metal oxides, chalcogenides, ferroelectric, and magnetic materials. The electrical response of such materials, used also as active layers, is strongly affected by atomic defects, which affect device performances, variability, and reliability. Extracting the defect properties (i.e., density, energy, and atomic nature) is, thus, crucial to both engineer the performances of electron devices and correctly project their scaling potential and reliability. In this paper, we propose a simple method to extract the atomic properties of defects from the thermal activation energy of the leakage current using a charge trapping relaxation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the diverse and ever-expanding list of candidate technologies to serve the Internet of Everything, the rise of thin-film transistors on plastic as active components for ubiquitous ICs has been nothing short of meteoric. The stage for this explosion of interest was set by a pivotal advantage of the low manufacturing cost and ultrathin form factor, as demonstrated in recent prototypes of thin-film radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. Most RFID tags use inductive antennas, whereas, in this paper, capacitively coupled antenna is presented. Advantages of capacitive-coupled tags are the monolithic integrated antenna, the compact size, the additional security due to very short range of operation, and the localization and orientation abilities. The main circuit block of the tag, a 12-bit code generator, is demonstrated achieving only 160 nW of power dissipation at 0.3 V power supply transmitting data at 810 b/s on a 18 $\mu \text{m}$ -thick plastic substrate. The footprint of the monolithic integrated antenna is 1 cm2 and essentially defines the size of the full tag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the fabrication of MEMS-based guided two-beam piezoelectric energy harvester for low-frequency operation. A highly c-axis-oriented zinc oxide thin film of 2.5- $\mu \text{m}$ thickness covered with 0.5- $\mu \text{m}$ plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition SiO2 is sandwiched between the aluminum electrodes to form split electrodes on the two beams. A pyramidal-shaped seismic mass that gives a higher electric potential is realized by bulk micromachining using CMOS compatible 25 wt% tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide wet etching. The thickness of the beams is optimized using deep reactive-ion etching to achieve a low-frequency operation. COMSOL Multiphysics has been used to study the stress distribution to optimize the dimension and placement of the split electrodes. The optimized split electrodes give a reduced resonance frequency by 4.2% when compared with previously used electrode pattern ensuring maximum electric potential generation for guided two-beam structure. The resonance frequency of the device measured experimentally using laser Doppler vibrometer comes to be 466 Hz. The packaged device exhibits a maximum sensitivity of 1.5089 mV/m/s2 in the frequency range from 160 to 1000 Hz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an enhanced compact model of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) interconnects while considering defects and contact resistance is proposed. Based on the atomistic-level simulations, we have found that defect densities impact MWCNT resistance and ultimately their electrical performance. Furthermore, we have computed by atomistic-level simulations, the end-contact resistance between single-wall carbon nanotube and palladium (Pd) electrode to mimic the Pd–CNT end-contact resistance of each CNT shell in MWCNT. We have developed an advanced shell-by-shell model to include various parameters, such as shell diameter, shell chirality, defects on each shell, and connectivity of each shell to end contacts. We run Monte Carlo simulations to perform variability studies on each of these parameters to understand the electrical performance variation on MWCNT interconnects. We present the simulation results to convey the critical impact of variations. The impact of doping on MWCNT variability in the form of Fermi level shift will be addressed in Part II of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct conversion crystalline silicon X-ray imagers are used for low-energy X-ray photon (4–20 keV) detection in scientific research applications such as protein crystallography. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel pixel architecture that integrates a crystalline silicon X-ray detector with a thin-film transistor amorphous silicon pixel readout circuit. We describe a simplified two-mask process to fabricate a complete imaging array and present preliminary results that show the fabricated pixel to be sensitive to 5.89-keV photons from a low activity Fe-55 gamma source. This paper presented can expedite the development of high spatial resolution, low cost, direct conversion imagers for X-ray diffraction and crystallography applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper studies on the RF MEMS switch based on flexible liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate and the influence of the LCP substrate bending characteristics on mechanical properties of the switch. Due to the excellent properties of flexible LCP materials, RF MEMS devices based on LCP substrates will be very suitable for microwave systems with high space requirements and wearable devices. Obviously, the deformation of flexible substrate will affect the performance of RF MEMS switch. Therefore, this paper proposes a modeling of the substrate bending to analyze it. The experimental results of the fabricated switches show that the pull-in voltage of the switch is $\sim 22$ V, the insertion loss is better than −0.6 dB, the isolation is better than −15 dB, and the return loss is better than −18 dB up to 20 GHz. According to the experiments, we can find that when the curvature of the substrate is increased from zero to 22.2 (1/m), then the measured pull-in voltage is increased from 22.1 to 23.9 V and when the curvature of the substrate is increased from 22.2 to 44.2 (1/m), then the measured pull-in voltage is decreased from 23.9 to 18.9 V. In conclusion, with the increase of substrate curvature, the switch pull-in voltage will increase at first and then decrease. The experimental results are in good agreement with the modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses nonvacuum ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition method to grow TiO2 for ultraviolet (UV) detection. The analyses of the materials like X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and photoluminescence were investigated. The 600 °C annealing temperature is the optimum condition to obtain the anatase TiO2. The metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) photodetectors (PDs) with 3-, 5-, 7-, 10- \mu \textm finger spacing were fabricated and the performance was investigated. The PD with 10- \mu \textm finger spacing has the lowest dark current of 2.92\times 10^-11 A and the highest UV-to-visible rejection ratio ( $R_{{{{\rm UV}/{\rm VIS}}}}) of 2.1\times 10^5 at 5 V. The PD with 5- \mu \textm finger spacing has the lowest noise equivalent power of 2.57\times 10^-9 W and the highest detectivity ( D^\ast ) of 5.46\times 10^{8} cmHz ^{0.5}\text{W}^{-1}$ . The rising time and the falling time of the PD are 5 and 12 s. In addition, the TiO2-based MSM PD in this paper operated normally at 450 K; however, the performance is slightly degraded. The mechanisms causing degradation at high temperature were investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A general equivalent circuit model for the metal/organic semiconductor (OSC)/liquid/metal system is presented. Each circuital element, representative of a physically observable phenomenon associated with the device working principle, is analyzed and discussed. Two case studies of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of devices featuring NaCl (concentration of 0.1 M) and MilliQ water as liquid are reported, showing that both cases can be considered as a particular case of the general model presented in this paper. Experimental verification of the two practical cases is achieved by performing measurements onto electrodes coated by either an n-type or a p-type OSC deposited by sublimation or drop casting, respectively. The good agreement with the experimental data makes our model a useful tool for the characterization and failure analysis of electronic devices, such as water-gated transistors, electrophysiological interfaces, fuel cells, and others electrochemical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of metal nanocrystals (NCs) has been confirmed to improve electrical uniformity of oxide-based resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices significantly; however, the current reports do not systematically elucidate the relationship between the size/distribution of NCs and the electrical uniformity of RRAM devices. In this paper, we focused on the impact of metal NCs size and areal density on the resistive switching (RS) performances of oxide RRAM by atomic layer deposition (ALD) based on the experimental results and theoretical calculation. The dependence of ALD cycles of 50–130 during Pt or CoPtx NCs growth on the RS parameters of Al2O3 or HfO2 memory units has been evaluated systematically. The RRAM embedded Pt or CoPtx NCs shows the trends: with increasing ALD cycles, the forming voltage, set/reset voltage, the resistance in off and on state, and ${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle OFF}}/{R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ ratio entirely first decrease, then flatten, and increase later with a minimum value at about 100 cycles. Although all metal NCs with various sizes enhance the electric field strength compared to at the planar region, only metal NCs with proper NCs size and areal density (9 nm/6– $10\times 10^{\textsf {11}}$ /cm2 in this paper) can effectively produce stronger localized electric field at the tip of metal NCs, leading to optimal RS behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When developing silicon carbide (SiC) devices, the reliability of the internal body diode is an important issue. Stacking faults (SFs) are expanded from basal plane defects by using a body diode. Although it is well known that ON-voltage degradation occurs due to SFs, their effects on dynamic reliability have not been studied well. Furthermore, including the effects of SFs, there are not many reports about the dynamic reliability of SiC-MOSFETs. In this paper, a double-pulse switching test using 3.3-kV SiC-MOSFETs was carried out to clarify the failure mechanism of the switching operation of SiC-MOSFETs and effects of SFs on the safe operation area (SOA). Before the switching test, current stress was applied to the body diode of the devices under test (DUTs) to expand the SFs. The circuit configuration was half-bridge type, and a double-pulse gate signal was applied to the lower arm DUT. The switching voltage was 1.8 kV, and the switching current increased at about 8-A steps to failure. As a result, reverse recovery SOA (RRSOA) reliability decreased depending on the amount of SFs in the SiC-MOSFET. Because RRSOA failure was caused by avalanche due to the hole concentration during reverse recovery and the SFs raised local current density, reverse bias SOA (RBSOA) hardly decreased even if SFs containing SiC-MOSFETs were used. This is because RBSOA failure was caused by degradation of the gate isolation layer due to overheating and the temperature coefficient of the SFs electric resistance indicated negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The switching properties of Te and TeTiW top electrodes (TEs) on TiW/SiN/TiN resistive switching memory devices are explored in this paper. The TeTiW TE device exhibits more favorable bipolar resistive switching behavior because of the decrease in binding energy after its use. This finding is confirmed through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses. The filament of the TeTiW TE device is metal like after forming, and the reset process corresponds with the thermal-dissolution mechanism. A physical model based on a Te filament is constructed to explain such phenomena. The TeTiW TE device provides the excellent endurance of more than 104 cycles, with an ON/OFF ratio of 500. The improvement can be attributed to the filament’s robustness during the forming and set processes, which prevent its diffusion even at high temperature. The device also features long retention for up to 104 s at 225 °C without stress, and 104 s at 85 °C with stress of −0.3 V. Therefore, it has high potential for high-density nonvolatile memory applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we demonstrate the linear conductance-change characteristics of a conductive-bridging RAM (CBRAM) to be employed as an artificial synapse device in neuromorphic systems. The CBRAM with a bilayer electrolyte structure (${\mathrm {Cu/Cu}}_{{2}-{x}}\text{S}$ / $\mathrm {WO}_{{3}-{x}}$ /W) exhibits analog switching behavior during the depression process due to the well-controlled dissolution of the conductive filament. To analyze the origin of this motion, we investigate the effective voltage applied to $\mathrm {Cu}_{{2}-{x}}\text{S}$ and $\mathrm {WO}_{{3}-{x}}$. Our findings reveal that $\mathrm {Cu}_{{2}-{x}}\text{S}$ , acting as a voltage divider, helps in suppressing the large voltage drop in $\mathrm {WO}_{{3}-{x}}$ , where the formation/dissolution of filament occurs. Furthermore, due to the diode-like characteristics of $\mathrm {Cu}_{{2}-{x}}\text{S}$ and the division of voltage drop between $\mathrm {WO}_{{3}-{x}}$ and $\mathrm {Cu}_{{2}-{x}}\text{S}$ , an optimum programming energy is applied to $\mathrm {WO}_{{3}-{x}}$ during the depression process. This leads to linear conductance-change characteristics under identical pulses. However, abrupt conductance-change characteristics are observed during the potentiation process. Thus, we use only the device characteristics of the depression part for the neuromorphic system. An excellent classification accuracy is achieved due to the linear conductance-change characteristics and optimized pulse conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) with different device geometries and source/drain (S/D) contact metallizations are investigated. To facilitate the analysis, the channel and contact regions in top-gated staggered and drain-offset TFTs employing various permutations of ruthenium (Ru) and gold (Au) bottom electrodes are quantified with a TFT device model. The staggered TFT structure employs identical geometric overlaps between the gate-and-S/D electrodes; whereas the drain-offset TFT structure replaces the gate-to-drain overlap with a geometric gap in the channel. First, the experimental TFT current–voltage (${I}$ – ${V}$) characteristics are disentangled into the intrinsic channel and contact components by the transmission line method. The contact and channel behaviors are then individually modeled using a universal transistor compact model. From evaluating the model parameters, the diverse device characteristics observed in this paper are attributed to the Au electrode’s electron doping effect altering the properties of both the TFT’s contact and channel regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper of thermoelectric generators, metals are used as the prospective thermoelectric materials or thermoelements on flexible copper (Cu)-clad polyimide substrate. The fabricated thick film generators have planar and lateral structures with lateral heat flow and lateral thermopile layout. Hereby, two prototypes of thermoelectric generators are made, the first employing Cu and nickel (Ni) and the second Cu and cobalt (Co) as their positive and negative thermoelements, respectively. This paper also investigates the roles of geometrical structures such as the thermoleg’s length and width and the generator’s size in promoting elevated thermoelectric power generation. Consequently, the highest performing thermoleg designs (length: 5–20 mm; width: 100– $1000~\mu \text{m}$) for the two prototypes are identified as having a length, width, and thickness of 5 mm, $1000~\mu \text{m}$ , and $31~\mu \text{m}$ , respectively, with generator dimensions of 1.1 cm length and 4.3 cm width. Collectively, this design has an accumulated average temperature difference, output power density, and thermoelectric efficiency factor of 60 K, $0.59~\mu $ Wcm−2, and $1.64\times 10^{-\textsf {4}}\,\,\mu $ Wcm−2K−2, respectively, for the Cu–Ni generator, while the corresponding values for the Cu–Co generator are 64 K, $1.15~\mu $ Wcm−2, and $2.81\times 10^{-\textsf {4}}\,\,\mu $ Wcm−2K−2. An improvement factor of 1.71 is realized by the Cu–Co generator compared to the Cu–Ni one due to its larger Seebeck coefficient and figure of merit. This highlights the Cu–Co metallic couple as an encouraging thermoelement in thermoelectricity. Promisingly, the thick film and lateral device structures are more compatible and favorable for metal-based thermoelectric generators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlling the electron and hole current is a crucial requirement in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) as it has a significant impact on the charge balance factor and the location of exciton generation zone. In this paper, via a self-consistent solution of the 3-D master equation approach coupled to Poisson’s equation, it is shown that the charge carrier and current density can be controlled in a wide range in OLEDs by utilizing a host–guest structure in the charge carrier transporting layers of the device. To this end, first, the impact of the injection energy barrier height, trap depth, and blending ratio on the charge carrier and current density is investigated. Second, the strategy of partially blending the hole or electron transporting material with an appropriate guest material is presented, and it is shown that by employing this strategy, current density can be enhanced over two orders of magnitude for high injection energy barriers, where the charge injection is most difficult. Moreover, this strategy guarantees that the transport of charge carriers to the emissive layer is conducted by the hole or electron transporting material itself rather than the guest material which is important as hole and electron transporting materials must fulfill other requirements such as high charge carrier mobility or specific excitonic energy levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of novel device applications, e.g., in the field of Internet of Things or point-of-care personalized diagnostic systems, came an increased demand for MESFETs for fast and low-power consumption integrated circuits and active-matrix displays. In this paper, we present fabrication and characterization of transparent Ru–Si–O/In–Ga–Zn–O MESFETs on flexible substrates. The use of transparent conducting oxide, namely, Ru–Si–O, as Schottky gate electrode, allows for processing the devices at room temperature, enabling the utilization of such low-temperature substrates as polyethylene terephthalate foil and paper. It was shown that tuning the device geometry allows realization of transistors providing on-current up to 2 mA, while the highest on-to-off current ratio equals 2\times 10^\mathrm 5 , with off-current below 1 nA, carrier mobility in the channel exceeds 9 cm ^\mathrm 2\cdot \textV^\mathrm -1\cdot \texts^\mathrm -1 , and subthreshold swing is below 250 mV $\cdot $ decade ^{\mathrm { {-1}}} . [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The tunable negative differential resistance (NDR) characteristics of metal-insulator-semiconductor- insulator-metal (MISIM) tunnel diodes (TDs) structure with thin oxide were observed by biasing the substrate simultaneously with one of the TDs under designed voltage drops (AV). An inner circular electrode TD surrounded by a ring-shape electrode TD gate pattern was adopted. The NDR region can be adjusted by varying the AV between the inner TD and the body. Not only the peak-to-valley current ratio (PVCR) but also the voltage range where NDR occurs can be controlled. It is supposed that the injected electrons and the inversion charges increase and decrease with negative bias, respectively, for the MIS(p) TD and play an important role in this observation. Meanwhile, the asymmetry of inner gate and ring gate enhances the coupling efficiency at reverse bias region. In this paper, the PVCR can be tuned to more than two orders and the voltage of the NDR region can be shifted to larger than 1 V. The tunable NDR characteristic of MISIM provides a possible application of MIS TD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a 4H-SiC trench insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) incorporating a Schottky contact in the collector side is proposed to reduce the turn-off energy loss. The proposed structure is explored and compared with the conventional IGBT using ATLAS. The simulation results have indicated that the reduction in turn-off energy loss is more than 88%, with a slight degradation in the I-V characteristics. Concurrently, with the same on-state voltage drop, the turn-off loss is reduced by a figure of 84%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, simultaneous multiwavelength detection using quantum dots (QDs) and energy selective contacts is investigated. This detection can be achieved by intersubband and interband transitions in QD-based superlattices. Here, we show that attaching a double-barrier resonant tunneling to the QD-based active layer solves the basic problem of carrier extraction from each discrete energy level to individual electrodes (as a multicontact package). The mini-band energy levels and corresponding wave functions for arrays of QDs are calculated using the 2-D Schrodinger equation. We present simultaneous multiwavelength detection by QD structures with selective contacts for the first time according to the best of our knowledge. This paper opens the way to new strategies in the engineering and the fabrication of simple detectors for multiband radiation detection. In addition, for more clarification, photocurrent and dark current of photodetector with two independent output paths are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vertical zinc oxide (ZnO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) with submicrometer channel length have good performance, including large current density (>10 mA/mm), high mobility (> 14 cm ^2 /Vs), and large current ON–OFF ratio ( >10^7) . They also have asymmetric current–voltage ( $I$ – $V$ ) characteristics in the saturation region when the source and drain electrodes are interchanged. We have used 2-D simulations with the Synopsis Sentaurus Device to model vertical ZnO TFTs. The devices studied in this paper had ZnO active layers deposited using spatial atomic layer deposition (SALD). Model parameters were calibrated by matching simulation results with experimental results of planar bottom-gate ZnO TFTs and further adjusted to fit vertical TFT (VTFT) experimental characteristics. We find we need acceptor-like traps above and below the conduction band minimum to model the SALD ZnO semiconductor behavior; in this paper, we introduced these as bulk traps. We find the asymmetric $I$ – $V$ characteristics arise from an ungated region near the foot of the VTFT, and which has a more significant effect on charge injection than on charge extraction. Modeling TFTs with different ungated region lengths gave good agreement with experimental characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we compare the performances of FinFETs, lateral gate-all-around (GAA) FETs, and vertical GAAFETs (VFETs) at 7-nm node dimensions and beyond. Comparison is done at ring oscillator level accounting not only for front-end of line devices but also for interconnects. It is demonstrated that FinFETs fail to maintain the performance at scaled dimensions, while VFETs demonstrate good scalability and eventually outperform lateral devices both in speed and power consumption. Lateral GAAFETs show better scalability with respect to FinFETs but still consume 35% more energy per switch than VFETs if made under 5-nm node design rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive study is conducted on the electron transport in conductive polymer matrix composites (CPMCs), employing the nonequilibrium Green’s function formalism. This paper provides a microscopic insight into the electron tunneling through the potential barriers existing between conducting sites. It is shown that Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation as well as other models with simple barrier shapes, which are widely used in literature, can lead to inaccurate results in comparison with the quantum mechanical approach using a hyperbolic barrier. In this paper, unlike most previous ones, percolation-related effects are disregarded for further focus on electron transport through the polymer potential barriers. It is assumed that a tunneling-conductive channel exists between the electrodes. This can be created either by applying electric field alignment or using a filler volume fraction higher than the percolation threshold. A two electrode resistive device is studied and the results indicate that a conductor–insulator transition occurs at a barrier thickness of $\sim 1.7$ nm and the barrier thickness should be larger than several angstroms. Next, a novel tunneling field-effect structure based on CPMCs is introduced and its characteristics are comprehensively investigated. This device features a remarkably simple structure, an extremely high channel to gate coupling, a large transconductance, and a high current level. Besides, it has the advantage of being based on polymers. This ensures favorable physical properties, ease of fabrication, and low-cost processing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the laser power density is varied to increase the P2 laser spot size to investigate its effects on the performance of hydrogenated amorphous silicon-germanium (a-SiGe:H) thin-film solar modules. A larger P2 line spot size is expected to lower the series resistance of the modules, due to the increased contact area between the front and rear electrodes . However, increasing the laser power density faces several problems , which are: 1) damage of the SnO2 front electrode if the used power density exceeds the ablation threshold; 2) reduced quality of a-SiGe:H films; and 3) low spot size increasing rate at high power densities. The first can further lead to the presence of silicon oxide formation at the bottom of the P2 scribes. This paper demonstrates another method to obtain a larger spot size. A multiple P2 line scribing process has been performed to increase the spot size without deteriorating the film’s quality and the module performance. Finally, a 6-P2 linewidth of about 160 $\mu $ m leads to a balance between the gain in fill factor and the loss in photocurrent. The optimal module conversion efficiency of 8.82%, which is 8.7% higher than that using a single P2 line process, can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroelectric (FE) hafnium oxide is a promising candidate for memory applications. In this paper, endurance, imprint, and retention tests are carried out on FE aluminum-doped hafnium oxide thin films with different electrodes: 1) metal–insulator–metal (MIM) and 2) silicon–insulator–silicon(SIS). MIM devices exhibit higher endurance than SIS devices. However, SIS devices show superior imprint and retention, with an extrapolated retention time-to-failure larger than 10 years at 85 °C. These results are very promising to integrate FE-HfO2 in 3-D structures, either for dynamic random access memory or for NAND applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM) cell based on a skewed straintronic magnetotunneling junction (MTJ) switch. A straintronic magnetotunneling junction (s-MTJ) is a three-terminal switch, where the resistance between two of the terminals switches when a potential is applied to the third (gate) terminal that induces strain in the magnetostrictive free-layer. An s-MTJ is a highly energy-efficient switch that would dissipate only ~aJ of energy during switching. This paper discusses a novel variant of s-MTJ, namely skewed s-MTJ (ss-MTJ), where the MTJ switching can be controlled by two gate terminals. The current through an ss-MTJ is minimum when the potentials at the first and second gate terminals ( V2 and V3 , respectively) obey the relation V3 = V2+VF . Here, VF is a fixed voltage (“offset voltage”). Current in an ss-MTJ increases steeply when V2 and V3 deviate from the above “match” condition. This unconventional I – V characteristic of an ss-MTJ is exploited to design a non-Boolean TCAM cell based on just one transistor, one trench capacitor, and one ss-MTJ. We also discuss search and write operations in the ss-MTJ-TCAM cell, and show that the cell requires very small voltages to operate because of the unique I – V characteristics of the ss-MTJ. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper demonstrates InGaAs vertical nanowire (VNW) MOSFETs fabricated via an improved top–down approach, the performance of which is comparable to that of the best bottom–up devices in terms of the balance between transport and electrostatics. These devices, when contrasted with an earlier generation fabricated by a similar technology, have enabled the first experimental study of source/drainasymmetry in InGaAs VNWMOSFETs. The transconductance differs significantly when swapping source and drain due to inherently different top and bottom contact electrical resistance. This also results in distinct asymmetry in the saturation behavior of the output characteristics. On the other hand, diameter nonuniformity along the nanowire (NW) length is responsible for asymmetry in the subthreshold characteristics. A uniform NW cross section, enabled by our improved InGaAs dry etch technology in the present devices, eliminates the asymmetry of the electrostatics, which was observed in our previous work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we present a $4\times4$ capacitive pressure tactile sensor fabricated with new materials, which consists of one dielectric layer and two electrode layers. The dielectric layer is composed of carbon nanotubes dispersed in liquid crystal, which is surrounded by a hydrogel elastomeric membrane. An upper Au parylene film and a lower Au parylene film taped on the kapton tapes are served as the electrode layers. The properties of the devices are well characterized and the capability of adjustable measurement range is successfully realized. Experimental results demonstrate that the capacitance will change with the different driving frequency and voltage accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Signal processing is fundamental to the modern information society. Sensing and signal processing of various biological signals using human body conformable flexible organic integrated circuits have been actively researched to enable continuous health condition monitoring via wearable devices. To amplify very small electrical biological signals from humans, high performance flexible organic amplifiers are required. In this paper, we briefly review the principles and recent progresses of printable organic amplifiers, including materials, processes, and circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon nanotube-based field effect transistors (CNTFETs) are an interesting alternative to organic FETs in the growing field of printed electronics. Solution processed CNTFETs can be fabricated at low temperatures, are compatible with roll to roll processes and with flexible substrates. Usually metal electrodes for CNTFETs are deposited using standard techniques (e.g., evaporation or sputtering) which require expensive equipment and a high thermal budget. The elimination of such deposition step would allow a fully solution-based process for the CNTFETs fabrication. In this paper, we demonstrate an all carbon nanotube (CNT) transistor which is entirely solution processable without sacrificing the device performance. Performed detailed contact resistance analysis shows that CNT electrodes make better contacts to semiconducting CNTs channel than gold electrodes. The device performance is shown for an electrolyte-gated CNTFET fabricated on a flexible substrate. Such transistors are used as low cost biosensors for vivo implants by exploiting better interaction of flexible substrates to cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a microfluidic device is introduced based on direct current (dc) dielectrophoresis for the separation of circulating tumor cells from normal blood cells. Differential sidewall electrodes are designed inside the channel and two middle-channel outlets are located after the end of the electrodes, which are assigned to collect the normal blood cells. A maximum dc potential of 3 V is applied to the electrodes, resulting in a differential dielectrophoretic forces acting on the cells. This paper involves isolating MCF-7 breast cancer cells from white blood cells (WBCs) and red blood cells (RBCs), eliminating the demand for primary RBC lysis. Numerical simulation results revealed that the differential electrodes not only suppressed successfully the need for high applied voltages by dc dielectrophoresis but also diminished the joule heating effects. Besides that, the arrangement of the differential electrodes was observed to play a critical role in the separation performance. In particular, designing the outlets, as well as adjusting the electrode potentials, has effectively assisted the device to be tunable for different cancer cells even with different radii. More strikingly, the ability of the device to deflect the waste cells (WBCs and RBCs) to out of the microchannel prior to the cancer cells was proven to positively affect the separation efficiency and purity. The proposed device was capable of separating different cells leveraging various diameters with capture purity and efficiency of higher than 83% and 100%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D printing offers a novel, time-efficient, and multi-material fabrication platform for numerous applications owing to its potential to rapidly manufacture low-cost and 3D printed (3DP) structures. In this paper, polylactic acid (PLA) and conductive composite graphene/PLA filaments were used to fabricate 3DP microchannels and electrodes intended for enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) using a commercial bench-top 3D printer. This 3D printing technology delivers a simplistic, cost-effective, and quick fabrication process, which eliminates the requirement of any further amendment and post-processing. With this technology, we demonstrate structurally simple, miniature 3DP microfluidic membraneless EBFCs (3DP-MM-EBFCs), served with glucose and oxygen with the utilization of redox mediators generating continuous power. The cell performance was evaluated at different flow rates, obtaining open circuit potential (OCP) 0.425 V and maximum peak power density (PD) $4.15~\mu \text{W}$ /cm2 at a current density (CD) of $13.36~\mu \text{A}$ /cm2. The advancement in 3DP electrode surface characteristic and the dimethylformamide (DMF) treatment is carried onto the electrode surface followed by the immobilization of the enzymes individually. The 3DP fabrication technology demonstrated the feasibility of simple and advanced microfabrication techniques to build a well-organized plug-and-play and rapidly analyzed device to power several portable low-power devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid sintering of printable metal nanoparticle inks is vital for the industrial mass production of electronic devices. In this paper, we report a rapid laser annealing method for printed Ag nanoparticle-based inks. We also fabricate Ag circuits and organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) on flexible plastic substrates through spontaneous patterning under deep ultraviolet (DUV) exposure. Compared to the conventional thermal annealing, laser annealing significantly reduces the processing time from 3600 to 10 s while preventing damage caused by excessive heat. The OTFT with laser-annealed Ag source/drain electrodes achieved good performance with saturated mobility of 1.68 cm $^{{2}}\cdot \text{V}^{-{1}}\cdot \text{s}^{-{1}}$ , high-reliability factor of 86.75%, and large saturated drain current resulting from the small channel resistance. This rapid laser annealing method is feasible for printing flexible electronics using metal nanoparticle-based inks in industrial mass production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore new metal electrodes for ferroelectric capacitors based on Al-doped HfO2. We find that Ti/Pd, Ti/Au, and W top electrodes can induce much higher remanent polarization as compared to the traditional TiN top electrode. The endurance of the capacitors with Ti/Pd electrodes is also much better than that with TiN and W electrodes. These results indicate that Ti/Pd is a very promising candidate for ferroelectric Al-doped HfO2. In addition, we find that the remanent polarization reaches maximum when the annealing temperature is around 900 °C–950 °C. At a given annealing temperature, the optimal Hf-to-Al cycle ratio corresponding to the highest remanent polarization is around 23:1. With optimized process conditions, we demonstrate high-performance Ti/Pd gated ferroelectric Al-doped HfO2 capacitors with remanent polarization up to $20~\mu \text{C}$ /cm2, endurance higher than 108 cycles, and retention over ten years at room temperature. Another interesting feature of the ferroelectric capacitors with Ti/Pd electrodes is high tunability of polarization by external pulses, which will be important for neurosynaptic computing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a super-junction p-type lateral diffused metal–oxide–semiconductor transistor (SJ-pLDMOS) utilizing electron to enhance the current capability is proposed. The proposed SJ-pLDMOS has an n-channel in the drain region and is controlled by an auto-generated voltage signal (${V}_{\mathrm {\textsf {Gn}}}$). The voltage signal ${V}_{\mathrm {\textsf {Gn}}}$ is generated during the ON- and OFF-state of the hole current which flows across an integrated resistor (${R}\text{p}$) implemented in the p-base region. Thus, the proposed SJ-pLDMOS utilizes both hole and electron currents to significantly enhance the current capability. Simulation results show that the current capability of the proposed SJ-pLDMOS without any conductivity modulation effect is comparable with that of a super-junction nLDMOS (SJ-nLDMOS). The total power loss of the proposed super-junction pLDMOS (SJ-pLDMOS) is reduced by about 26.7% and 18% compared with that of the SJ-nLDMOS and Triple Resurf nLDMOS (TR nLDMOS) at a rated load current density of $25~\mu \text{A}/\mu \text{m}$ , respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report the fabrication of flexible and transparent InGaZnO thin-film transistors on muscovite mica substrates. The mica substrate is compatible with four-step photolithographic processes as well as high-temperature processes. The field-effect mobility, subthreshold swing, ON/OFF ratio, threshold voltage, and hysteresis voltage are improved after annealing both at 300° C and 400° C in nitrogen. The device demonstrates more stable performance under positive gate bias stress when annealed at 400° C than at 300° C. The electrical performances are stable when exposed to tensile bending cycles up to 10 000 times. The mica with devices shows small optical loss in the visible region, where the average transmittance is as high as 86.75%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An L-ascorbic acid (L-AA) biosensor based on an indium–gallium–zinc oxide (IGZO)/aluminum (Al) membrane modified by graphene oxide (GO) and magnetic beads (MBs) was produced and trusted to investigate its potential biosensor applications. An atomic force microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used to analyze electron transfer resistance (${R} _{\textsf {et}}$), surface roughness, and surface morphology. The experimental results show that the L-AA biosensor possessed the average sensitivity of 78.9 mV/decade with a linearity of 0.997. The experimental results from the EIS confirm that ${R} _{\textsf {et}}$ can be improved by the addition of GO and MBs. This paper opens a new window for the detection of L-AA based on MBs-ascorbate oxidase/GO/IGZO/Al sensing membranes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel vertical phototransistor was reported and compared with planar phototransistors for the first time. As compared with the planar phototransistors, the vertical ones exhibited much better photoelectric performance, which is attributed to an ultrashort photo-generated holes transfer distance and a stronger excitons dissociating electrical field due to their ultrashort channel length (tens of nanometers). Moreover, in order to examine the transport and trapping of different carrier charges separately, the impact of [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) dopant on the performance of planar and vertical phototransistors was investigated. The vertical devices exhibited an ultrahigh responsivity (~6600 A/W) as well as an excellent detectivity ($\sim 7\times 10^{15}~\text{Jones}$) and a fast photoresponse (rise time of 0.28 s), whereas slight changes were observed in the planar ones with doping of PCBM. The high performance of the blend vertical phototransistors is due to the trapping of the photo-generated electrons with PCBM and the effective transport of holes due to the ultrashort channel length. This paper provided a promising pathway for low-cost, high-performance phototransistors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new 500-V ON-state breakdown voltage (ON-BV) parasitic JFET is proposed in this paper. Compared with traditional structures, a special junction field-effect transistor (JFET) region is located at the edge of the LDMOS. The drift region length of the JFET is larger than that of the LDMOS region. When JFET works in high-voltage on-state, the carriers are separated from the LDMOS region by a transition region close to the JFET region. Then the peak electric field and the impact ionization rate are suppressed. It helps the device to achieve the high ON-BV. Experimental results show that the ON-BV of the proposed structure is larger than 500 V, which is far larger than that of the traditional structures. In addition, the OFF-state breakdown voltage is 550 V. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the study of resistive random access memory using GeTeOx film as the switching layer, the device performed excellent property of bipolar resistive switching (BRS), which could be gradually transformed to the complementary resistive switching (CRS) by varying SET process current compliance. The conductive filament conduction mechanism of BRS could be verified by electrical characteristics and reliable data fitting. Through increasing current compliance of the SET process, CRS could be achieved due to higher activity of oxygen vacancies originated from the intensified thermal effect. This paper was beneficial to understand the switching mechanisms of BRS and CRS and provide a method to realize interconversion. Moreover, it was also a potential and promising device to be applied in the neurosynaptic biomimetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new concept high-voltage pseudo-p-channel lateral double-diffused MOS (p-LDMOS) with multiple current paths for conduction is proposed and investigated in this paper. The proposed power device consists of two hole current paths (p-channel MOS device) and one electron current path (n-channel MOS device). The gate of the n-channel device is automatically controlled by an induced signal inside the chip, thus the proposed device can be considered as a p-LDMOS with more than 66.2% reduction of specific on-resistance in comparison with the conventional p-LDMOS device. Furthermore, the proposed device has a much better safe operation area, since the compensation of the electric flux density brought by electron and hole currents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current filament phenomena in high gain gallium arsenide (GaAs) photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSS) always draw a significant influence on the lifetime of the devices. This paper presents a study on the influence of the current filament over the material properties and output characteristics of the GaAs PCSS. The working principle of the current filaments has been analyzed and it is shown that the performance of GaAs PCSS degrades due to the heating effects of the current filaments. It is observed that the heating effect of current filament reduces the dark resistivity of the GaAs material; furthermore, it gradually damages electrode of PCSS, leading to the breakdown of PCSS. This paper presents the relationship between the turn-ON process and damage of the PCSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inkjet technology is commonly used as a nonimpact, versatile, and additive digital manufacturing/printing technology. The flexibility offered by this technology toward deposition accuracy, usage, industrial upscaling relevance, and even testing of various solution processable functional materials, e.g., conductors and insulators, makes it very attractive for printed electronic applications. The focus of this paper is improving the curing time durations for inkjet-printed polymeric dielectric layers. In this paper, enhancement with regard to curing time durations is performed and they were found to be reduced dramatically down to less than 1 min using Infrared (IR) emitters, whereas the state-of-the-art curing demands a minimum of 60 min. Here in the experiments, inkjet printing was done using conductive and dielectric inks for developing fundamental devices like a capacitor. The sintering of silver electrodes was done using a conventional oven, and curing of the polymeric dielectric was done using a conventional oven as well as IR radiation. Observations are made on the basis of the dielectric insulation between the top and bottom electrodes for the capacitors containing dielectrics cured in conventional oven and those which are cured using IR radiation under two different manufacturing platforms, i.e., sheet to sheet and roll to roll. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an amplifier design using ballistic vertical InAs nanowire (NW) transistors is investigated, focusing on a basic common-source amplifier. The maximum power gain at 90 GHz is evaluated for different NW transistor architectures together with the power dissipation. The linearity of the amplifier is evaluated by estimating the IIP3 and 1-dB compression points. Furthermore, the impact of the parasitic capacitances and resistances is quantified and it is demonstrated that the gain may be increased by a cascode design. It is concluded that a power gain exceeding 20 dB at 90 GHz may be achieved by a common-source amplifier based on an InAs NW transistor architecture. A power consumption below 1 mW is possible, while still maintaining a high power gain. Furthermore, IIP3 exceeding 10 dBm is predicted. The combination of these qualities makes the NW transistor architecture an attractive prospect for low-power amplifiers at millimeter wave frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]