Search

The Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining more and more popularity and it is establishing itself in all areas, from industry to everyday life. Given its pervasiveness and considering the problems that afflict today's world, that must be carefully monitored and addressed to guarantee a future for the new generations, the sustainability of technological solutions must be a focal point in the activities of researchers in the field. Many of these solutions are based on flexible, printed or wearable electronics. The choice of materials therefore becomes fundamental, just as it is crucial to provide the necessary power supply in a green way. In this paper we want to analyze the state of the art of flexible electronics for the IoT, paying particular attention to the issue of sustainability. Furthermore, considerations will be made on how the skills required for the designers of such flexible circuits, the features required to the new design tools and the characterization of electronic circuits are changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving homogenous dispersion of nanoparticles inside a polymeric matrix is a great challenge for numerous applications. In the present study, we aim at understanding the role of different factors on the dispersion properties of TiO2 in pluronic F-127 mixtures. The mixtures were prepared with different pH and guest/host ratios and investigated by UV-Vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, infrared spectroscopy and electrical conductivity. Depending on the preparation conditions, different amounts of TiO2 were loaded within the copolymer as quantitatively determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The different content of nanoparticles has direct implications on the gelation and micellization of pluronic analyzed by dynamic light scattering. The information derived on the self-assembly behavior was interpreted in relation to the infrared and conductivity measurements results. Together, these results shed light on the most favorable conditions for improving the nanoparticle dispersion inside the copolymer matrix and suggest a possible strategy to design functional nanoparticle-polymer systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complementary measurements of the drain and gate low-frequency noise are used as a powerful probe for sensing the hafnium-related defects in nMOSFETs with high-kappa gate stacks and polysilicon gate electrode. Drain noise measurements indicate that for low hafnium content (23%) and thin high-kappa thickness (2nm), the defect density at the substrate dielectric interface is similar to conventional SiO2 and gate-noise measurements suggest that defect density is degraded by the hafnium content.

In this paper, we show that the topology of successive approximation analog-to-digital converters can be used for the realization of a static analog memory (SAM), that is a circuit capable of indefinitely maintaining at its output a voltage close to the one presented at its input for a limited time. After demonstrating that the accuracy which can be obtained in the storage process is limited by the maximum positive value of the differential nonlinearity of the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) used as part of the circuit, we demonstrate that by means of a proper choice of the ratio of the resistances of the ladder network of the DAC, very high accuracy can be obtained even by employing poor tolerance resistors, without the need for any trimming or calibration step. This fact might be advantageously exploited for the design of integrated multichannel SAMs which, employed in connection with a single high-accuracy DAC, could allow the realization of multiple output, high-accuracy, programmable voltage or current sources. Index Terms--Data conversion, ladder networks, sample-and-hold circuits, tolerance analysis.

The SARF technique was used to characterize a set of Al-1% submicrometric metal lines. The lines exhibited a bamboo structure in which the grain boundary electromigration is inhibited. Three different phenomena were identified capable of generating resistance microfluctuations. A measured activation energy of 1.4 eV confirmed that bulk electromigration sas the main cause of noise generation

Low-frequency noise measurements have long been recognized as a valuable tool in the examination of quality and reliability of metallic interconnections in the microelectronic industry. While characterized by very high sensitivity, low-frequency noise measurements can be extremely time-consuming, especially when tests have to be carried out over an extended temperature range and with high temperature resolution as it is required by some advanced characterization approaches recently proposed in the literature. In order to address this issue we designed a dedicated system for the characterization of the low-frequency noise produced by a metallic line vs temperature. The system combines high flexibility and automation with excellent background noise levels. Test temperatures range from ambient temperature up to 300°C. Measurements can be completely automated with temperature changing in pre-programmed steps. A ramp temperature mode is also possible that can be used, with proper caution, to virtually obtain a continuous plot of noise parameters vs temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]