Molds and Resists Studies for Nanoimprint Lithography of Electrodes in Low-Voltage Polymer Thin-Film Transistors

A low-cost patterning of electrodes was investigated looking forward to replacing conventional photolithography for the processing of low-operating voltage polymeric thin-film transistors. Hard silicon, etched by sulfur hexafluoride and oxygen gas mixture, and flexible polydimethylsiloxane imprinting molds were studied through atomic force microscopy (AFM) and field emission gun scanning electron microscopy. The higher the concentration of oxygen in reactive ion etching, the lower the etch rate, sidewall angle, and surface roughness. A concentration around 30 % at 100 mTorr, 65 W and 70 sccm was demonstrated as adequate for submicrometric channels, presenting a reduced etch rate of 176 nm/min. Imprinting with positive photoresist AZ1518 was compared to negative SU-8 2002 by optical microscopy and AFM. Conformal results were obtained only with the last resist by hot embossing at 120 °C and 1 kgf/cm² for 2 min, followed by a 10 min post-baking at 100 °C. The patterning procedure was applied to define gold source and drain electrodes on oxide-covered substrates to produce bottom-gate bottom-contact transistors. Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) devices were processed on high-κ titanium oxynitride (TiO _x N _y ) deposited by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering over indium tin oxide-covered glass to achieve low-voltage operation. Hole mobility on micrometric imprinted channels may approach amorphous silicon (～0.01 cm²/V s) and, since these devices operated at less than 5 V, they are not only suitable for electronic applications but also as sensors in aqueous media.     

Lone‐Pair‐Induced Covalency as the Cause of Temperature‐ and Field‐Induced Instabilities in Bismuth Sodium Titanate

Bismuth sodium titanate (BNT)‐derived materials have seen a flurry of research interest in recent years because of the existence of extended strain under applied electric fields, surpassing that of lead zirconate titanate (PZT), the most commonly used piezoelectric. The underlying physical and chemical mechanisms responsible for such extraordinary strain levels in BNT are still poorly understood, as is the nature of the successive phase transitions. A comprehensive explanation is proposed here, combining the short‐range chemical and structural sensitivity of in situ Raman spectroscopy (under an applied electric field and temperature) with macroscopic electrical measurements. The results presented clarify the causes for the extended strain, as well as the peculiar temperature‐dependent properties encountered in this system. The underlying cause is determined to be mediated by the complex‐like bonding of the octahedra at the center of the perovskite: a loss of hybridization of the 6s² bismuth lone pair interacting with the oxygen p‐orbitals occurs, which triggers both the field‐induced phase transition and the loss of macroscopic ferroelectric order at the depolarization temperature.     

An efficiently implementable maximum likelihood decoding algorithm for tailbiting codes

Convolutional tailbiting codes are widely used in mobile systems to perform error-correcting strategies of data and control information. Unlike zero tail codes, tailbiting codes do not reset the encoder memory at the end of each data block, improving the code efficiency for short block lengths. The objective of this work is to propose a low-complexity maximum likelihood decoding algorithm for convolutional tailbiting codes based on the Viterbi algorithm. The performance of the proposed solution is compared to that of another maximum likelihood decoding strategy which is based on the A* algorithm. The computational load and the memory requirements of both algorithms are also analysed in order to perform a fair comparison between them. Numerical results considering realistic transmission conditions show the lower memory requirements of the proposed solution, which makes its implementation more suitable for devices with limited resources.     

Highly linear micropower class AB current mirrors using Quasi-Floating Gate transistors

A design approach to achieve low-voltage micropower class AB CMOS cascode current mirrors is presented. Both class AB operation and dynamic cascode biasing are based on the use of Quasi-Floating Gate transistors. They allow high linearity for large signal currents and accurately set quiescent currents without requiring extra power consumption or supply voltage requirements. Measurement results show that dynamic cascode biasing allows a wider input range and a linearity improvement of more than 23 dB with respect to the use of conventional biasing. A THD value better than −35 dB is measured for input amplitudes up to 100 times the bias currents. Two class AB current mirror topologies are proposed, with slightly different ways to achieve class AB operation and dynamic biasing. The proposed current mirrors, fabricated in a 0.5 µm CMOS technology, are able to operate with a supply voltage of 1.2 V and a quiescent power consumption of only 36 µW, using a silicon area <0.025 mm².     

Autogestion de Réseaux de Capteurs Sans Fil : Services, Fonctions, Modèles et Étude de Cas

The wireless sensor networks (Wsn) are a novel technology that has appeared after great advancements in the development of intelligent sensors, powerful microprocessors, and communication protocols, their basic components. This kind of network is composed by hundreds to thousands of elements and has the objective of data collecting, processing, and disseminating to a point of interest. The network elements, named sensors nodes, have small dimensions and resource restrictions, especially the energy, the processing, and the communication capacities. It is expected that theWsn are intelligent, autonomic, and context aware. To reach such an objective, they are supposed to perform the management of themselves, i.e., be self-managed. In this article, we propose a management solution for such a sort of network, based on the autonomic computing paradigm. In order to show that self-management can improve the productivity of the network and control the quality of the provided services, we present a case study of a heterogeneous and hierarchicWsn that collects and disseminates data continuously.     

Multicast deflector

Technological evolution is leading telecommunications toward all-IP scenarios, where multiple services are transported as IP packets. Among these services is the broadcast of video. A possible mechanism for broadcasting multiple video channels over IP is to use IP multicast, and let each client decide about the reception of a channel. The secure IP multicast specified by the IETF MSEC working group is a candidate solution for securing these broadcast services. In this paper we propose a new solution for supporting the broadcast of multiple video channels which can be accessed only by authorized users; besides, when a video channel is not visualized in the last mile its transmission is temporarily suspended, so that the cable can be used for other services such as standard Internet access.     

Combustion Synthesized Zinc Oxide Electron‐Transport Layers for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have advanced rapidly with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) now exceeding 22%. Due to the long diffusion lengths of charge carriers in the photoactive layer, a PSC device architecture comprising an electron‐ transporting layer (ETL) is essential to optimize charge flow and collection for maximum performance. Here, a novel approach is reported to low temperature, solution‐processed ZnO ETLs for PSCs using combustion synthesis. Due to the intrinsic passivation effects, high crystallinity, matched energy levels, ideal surface topography, and good chemical compatibility with the perovskite layer, this combustion‐derived ZnO enables PCEs approaching 17–20% for three types of perovskite materials systems with no need for ETL doping or surface functionalization.     

Pressure‐Tunable Ambipolar Conduction and Hysteresis in Thin Palladium Diselenide Field Effect Transistors

Few‐layer palladium diselenide (PdSe₂) field effect transistors are studied under external stimuli such as electrical and optical fields, electron irradiation, and gas pressure. The ambipolar conduction and hysteresis are observed in the transfer curves of the as‐exfoliated and unprotected PdSe₂ material. The ambipolar conduction and its hysteretic behavior in the air and pure nitrogen environments are tuned. The prevailing p‐type transport observed at atmospheric pressure is reversibly turned into a dominant n‐type conduction by reducing the pressure, which can simultaneously suppress the hysteresis. The pressure control can be exploited to symmetrize and stabilize the transfer characteristics of the device as required in high‐performance logic circuits. The transistors are affected by trap states with characteristic times in the order of minutes. The channel conductance, dramatically reduced by the electron irradiation during scanning electron microscope imaging, is restored after an annealing of several minutes at room temperature. The work paves the way toward the exploitation of PdSe₂ in electronic devices by providing an experiment‐based and deep understanding of charge transport in PdSe₂ transistors subjected to electrical stress and other external agents.     

Very Low Voltage MOS Translinear Loops Based on Flipped Voltage Followers

A novel technique for operating MOS Translinear loops at very low supply voltages is described, based on the use of Flipped Voltage Followers for biasing the loops. The resulting topologies, suited to standard CMOS processes, can be successfully applied to a varied repertory of low-voltage analog circuits, such as squarers, multipliers, filters, oscillators, and RMS-DC converters. Measurement results for a geometric-mean and a squarer/divider circuit demonstrate on silicon the usefulness of this technique.     

利用KPI调试和优化UMTS网络

从语音到视频到网上游戏,UMTS网络提供了各种客户服务,对移动网络运营商来说,调试或优化网络正变得越来越复杂.网络运营商一直把传统网络的主要性能指标(KPI)看作理解和调试网络性能的工具.