High Performance Piezoelectric Microspeakers and Thin Speaker Array System

This paper reports on an improved piezoelectric microspeaker with a high sound pressure level of 90 dB, a total harmonic distortion of less than 15%, and coherence higher than 0.9. The fabricated Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT) microspeakers have a thickness of only 1 mm including the speaker frame and an active area of 18 mm×20 mm. To achieve higher sound pressure and lower distortion, the PZT piezoelectric microspeaker has a well‐designed speaker frame and a piezoelectric diaphragm consisting of a tilted PZT membrane and silicone buffer layer. From the simulation and measurement results, we confirmed that the silicon buffer layer can lower the first resonant frequency, which enhances the microspeaker's sound pressure at a low frequency range and can also reduce useless distortion generated by the harmonics. The fabricated PZT piezoelectric microspeakers are implemented on a multichannel speaker array system for personal acoustical space generation. The output sound pressure at a 30 cm distance away from the center of the speaker line array is 15 dB higher than the sound pressure at the neighboring region 30 degrees from the vertical axis.     

Non‐Volatile Polymer Electroluminescence Programmable with Ferroelectric Field‐Induced Charge Injection Gate

Electroluminescence (EL) of organic and polymeric fluorescent materials programmable in the luminance is extremely useful as a non‐volatile EL memory with the great potential in the variety of emerging information storage applications for imaging and motion sensors. In this work, a novel non‐volatile EL memory in which arbitrarily chosen EL states are programmed and erased repetitively with long EL retention is demonstrated. The memory is based on utilizing the built‐in electric field arising from the remnant polarization of a ferroelectric polymer which in turn controls the carrier injection of an EL device. A device with vertically stacked components of a transparent bottom electrode/a ferroelectric polymer/a hole injection layer/a light emitting layer/a top electrode successfully emits light upon alternating current (AC) operation. Interestingly, the device exhibits two distinctive non‐volatile EL intensities at constant reading AC voltage, depending upon the programmed direct current (DC) voltage on the ferroelectric layer. DC programmed and AC read EL memories are also realized with different EL colors of red, green and blue. Furthermore, more than four distinguishable EL states are precisely addressed upon the programmed voltage input each of which shows excellent EL retention and multiple cycle endurance of more than 10⁵ s and 10² cycles, respectively.     

Excellent Switching Uniformity of Cu-Doped $hbox{MoO}_{x}/hbox{GdO}_{x}$ Bilayer for Nonvolatile Memory Applications

We have investigated a Cu-doped MoO_x/GdO_x bilayer film for nonvolatile memory applications. By adopting an ultrathin GdO_x layer, we obtained excellent device characteristics such as resistance ratio of three orders of magnitude, uniform distribution of set and reset voltages, switching endurance up to 10⁴ cycles, and ten years of data retention at 85degC. By adopting bilayer films of Cu-doped MoO_x/GdO_x, a local filament was formed by a two-step process. Improved memory characteristics can be explained by the formation of nanoscale local filament in the ultrathin GdO_x layer.     

Solution-Processed High-<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis> Dielectric,ZrO<Subscript>2</Subscript>, and Integration in Thin-Film Transistors

We report a sol–gel method to deposit a high-k dielectric, zirconium oxide (ZrO₂). This solution-based approach has advantages of easy processing and low fabrication cost. Effects of annealing temperatures on dielectric properties, such as tunneling current density and capacitance density, are reported. Morphological and chemical characterizations suggest that the process temperature can be kept at or below 300°C. We have employed the solution-processed ZrO₂ dielectric in a zinc tin oxide thin-film transistor. Saturation mobility of 4.0 cm²/V s at operating voltage of 2 V has been observed. The measured subthreshold swing is 74 mV/decade, which is the result of the combination of an electronically clean dielectric/semiconductor interface and high insulator capacitance.     

A Novel Uplink MIMO Transmission Scheme in a Multicell Environment

Uplink multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission scheme is developed for time division duplex (TDD) systems in a multicell environment. We propose a precoding scheme that maximizes the total achievable rate and works in the decentralized manner with only locally available channel state information (CSI) at each transmitter. We first establish and solve a decentralized optimization problem for the case of multiple-input single-output (MISO) channels, introducing a new precoding design metric called signal to generated interference plus noise ratio (SGINR). By extending the result to general MIMO channels, we propose an SGINR-based precoding scheme where the number of transmit streams is selected adaptively to the surrounding environments. Simulation results confirm that the proposed precoding scheme offers significant throughput enhancement in multicell environments.     

Downlink Capacity Analysis of Collaborative Crossed Timeslots in CDMA TDD Systems

Traffic asymmetry between uplink and downlink is expected to be a remarkable 3G characteristic in cellular mobile multimedia communications. CDMA system with TDD is a good solution to this traffic asymmetry. However, the level of traffic asymmetry may be significantly different from a cell to another cell. To tackle this problem and to support the traffic hot spot, crossed slots are examined. The use of crossed slots is restricted within a certain range of a cell by investigating the inter-cell interference and the maximum planned load factor. We examine the radius of inner zone and discuss the capacity of downlink crossed slots for various neighbor cell environments. Computational results show that the capacity increase in the target cell is outstanding by reducing the service range of neighbor cells. When all six neighbors reduce their service range by 20%, the capacity at target cell crossed slot is increased by 35%. Monte Carlo simulation is performed with large scale fading to verify the numerical analysis.

High-performance C60 and picene thin film field-effect transistors with conducting polymer electrodes in bottom contact structure

C₆₀ and picene thin film field-effect transistors (FETs) in bottom contact structure have been fabricated with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) electrodes for a realization of mechanical flexible organic FETs. The C₆₀ thin film FETs showed n-channel enhancement-type characteristics with the field-effect mobility μ value of 0.41 cm² V^?1 s^?1, while the picene thin film FET showed p-channel enhancement-type characteristics with the μ of 0.61 cm² V^?1 s^?1. The μ values recorded for C₆₀ and picene thin film FETs are comparable to those for C₆₀ and picene thin film FETs with Au electrodes.     

Designing a Stable Cathode with Multiple Layers to Improve the Operational Lifetime of Polymer Light‐Emitting Diodes

The short device lifetime of blue polymer light‐emitting diodes (PLEDs) is still a bottleneck for commercialization of self‐emissive full‐color displays. Since the cathode in the device has a dominant influence on the device lifetime, a systematic design of the cathode structure is necessary. The operational lifetime of blue PLEDs can be greatly improved by introducing a three‐layer (BaF₂/Ca/Al) cathode compared with conventional two‐layer cathodes (BaF₂/Al and Ba/Al). Therefore, the roles of the BaF₂ and Ca layers in terms of electron injection, luminous efficiency, and device lifetime are here investigated. For efficient electron injection, the BaF₂ layer should be deposited to the thickness of at least one monolayer (～3 nm). However, it is found that the device lifetime does not show a strong relation with the electron injection or luminous efficiency. In order to prolong the device lifetime, sufficient reaction between BaF₂ and the overlying Ca layer should take place during the deposition where the thickness of each layer is around that of a monolayer.     

Nanostructured Bulk Silicon as an Effective Thermoelectric Material

Thermoelectric power sources have consistently demonstrated their extraordinary reliability and longevity for deep space missions and small unattended terrestrial systems. However, more efficient bulk materials and practical devices are required to improve existing technology and expand into large‐scale waste heat recovery applications. Research has long focused on complex compounds that best combine the electrical properties of degenerate semiconductors with the low thermal conductivity of glassy materials. Recently it has been found that nanostructuring is an effective method to decouple electrical and thermal transport parameters. Dramatic reductions in the lattice thermal conductivity are achieved by nanostructuring bulk silicon with limited degradation in its electron mobility, leading to an unprecedented increase by a factor of 3.5 in its performance over that of the parent single‐crystal material. This makes nanostructured bulk (nano‐bulk) Si an effective high temperature thermoelectric material that performs at about 70% the level of state‐of‐the‐art Si_0.8Ge_0.2 but without the need for expensive and rare Ge.