Dr M Raja
It can be used for large area systems such as in photovoltaics, displays and medical applications. The devices incorporated into circuits may be similar to those in silicon; however, there is much scope for innovation. One very interesting application for systems employing logical functions is the use of pseudo-CMOS circuits. These configurations operate in a dynamic mode whereby the charge is stored for short periods of time on capacitance designed for the purpose. The aim is to reduce the number of components and the active area, so as to increase the yield of working circuits. A specific application considered will be the integration of row and column driver circuitry onto the backplane of displays. The recent performance improvements of organic semiconductors have surpassed that of amorphous silicon, thus the ambition of full display electronics fabricated on the panel, most likely fully flexible, can now be realised as in the example below.
Fig 1 - Example of a flexible display
Within this project, circuits will be initially modelled using an appropriate form of device physics resulting in novel compact models. This consequently will assist the development of the transistor processes as well as help to generate radically new bespoke circuit concepts. The project will involve building the circuits, for example, static and dynamic shift registers for row/column drivers, in ultra-clean conditions. Testing the circuits is also necessary, changing not only supply voltage but also the ambient temperature. This will provide vital circuit information and also demonstrate the validity of the models, enabling further development of newer and more advanced circuit structure that will be undertaken towards the end of the project. Scaling is a factor that is vital in determining the success of the technology. It provides not only an increase in circuit speed but also the basis of building a roadmap. It involves, with the latter, some basic constants. These will be obtained in the project.
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