This paper describes a thermal imaging system which includes a customized micromachined thermal probe and circuit interface for a scanning microscopy instrument. The probe shank is made from polyimide for mechanical compliance and high thermal isolation, and has a thin-film metal tip of ≈50 nm in diameter. The circuit provides closed-loop control of the tip temperature and also permits it to be...

Ambipolar and p-type single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) thin-film transistors (TFTs) are reliably integrated into various complementary-like circuits on the same substrate by inkjet printing. We describe the fabrication and characteristics of inverters, ring oscillators, and NAND gates based on complementary-like circuits fabricated with such TFTs as building blocks. We also show that comple...

Significant photocurrent enhancement has been achieved for evaporated solid-phase-crystallized polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells on glass, due to light trapping provided by Ag nanoparticles located on the rear silicon surface of the cells. This configuration takes advantage of the high scattering cross-section and coupling efficiency of rear-located particles formed directly on the ...

• IMID 2009 DIGEST Abstract A new level shifter using n-channel aluminum-doped zinc tin oxide (AZTO) thin film transistors (TFTs) was proposed to integrate driving circuits on qVGA panels for mobile display applications. The circuit used positive feedback loop to overcome limitations of circuits designed with oxide TFTs which is depletion mode n-channel TFTs. The measured results shows that the...

We report a simultaneous imaging method of the temperature and the magnetic field distributions based on the magneto optical indicator microscopy. The present method utilizes an optical indicator composed of a bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet thin film, and visualizes the magnetic field and temperature distributions through the magneto-optical effect and the temperature dependent optical...

A novel single silicon thin film field-effect-transistor (FET) is developed for use as a sensor to monitor transport and chemical properties of liquids in microfluidic systems. The sensor elements which are compatible with existing (bio-)chemical sensor schemes based on ion-sensitive-field-effect-transistors (ISFET) can detect capillary filling speed and level in aqueous solutions. Using a tran...

After a brief review of the characteristics of electrical stress degradation of flexible, amorphous silicon thin film transistors, the implications for various types of flexible circuitry including active matrix backplanes, integrated drivers and general purpose digital circuitry are examined. A circuit modeling tool that enables the prediction of complex circuit degradation is presented. Exper...

The history of micro system electronics is briefly traced through the successive stages of: miniaturization; subminiaturization; microminiaturization; thin-film integrated circuits; semiconductor integrated circuits; and finally morphological integrated circuits or functional blocks. The term integrated circuit is defined as the combination, on or within a single chunk of material, of multiple ...

Solution-processed semiconductors are seen as a promising route to reducing the cost of the photovoltaic device manufacture. We are reporting a single-layer Schottky photovoltaic device that was fabricated by spin-coating intrinsic silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) from colloidal suspension. The thin-film formation process was based on Si NCs without any ligand attachment, exchange, or removal reac...

Light trapping and photon management of silicon thin film solar cells can be improved by a separate optimization of the front and back contact textures. A separate optimization of the front and back contact textures is investigated by optical simulations taking realistic device geometries into consideration. The optical simulations are confirmed by experimentally realized 1 μm thick microcrysta...