FLEXcon built the R&D center to host wet labs, rooms with climate and sound control capabilities, and spacious work areas. Scientists at the center are able to collaborate with the machine operators and technicians in FLEXcon?s plants, developing products from conception to commercialization.

Photo: R&D at FLEXcon's new facility.

The location will enable collaboration among technology experts on new and improved products for emerging markets and supporting the Photovoltaic and Flexible Electronics business units. Researchers are tasked with meeting the needs of current customer industries, such as flexible electronics and photovoltaics, as well as developing new products to diversify FLEXcon?s customer base, said James Casey, VP of technology.

FLEXcon supplies adhesive coating, laminating and finishing of durable materials used in graphics applications, electronics and new products. For more information, visit www.FLEXcon.com

Visit our new Displays Manufacturing Channel on Solid State Technology and subscribe to our Displays Digest e-newsletter!

OTFTs face limited device performance and volume production methods. Recent progress has enabled air-stable, printable, n-type semiconductor materials, making it possible to combine p- and n-type thin film transistors into complementary logic. This could enable breakthrough application of printed electronic circuits that perform comparably to silicon-based complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS).

Also read: Organic Electronics Workshop: TFTs, FETs, and a seeing microphone by Michael A. Fury

The COSMIC (Complementary Organic Semiconductor and Metal Integrated Circuits) project will develop p- and n-type OTFTs and integrate them into complementary logic, aiming for processing tolerances in organic integrated circuits (ICs): better noise margins, higher complexity, improved yield, and lower supply voltage demand. The researchers will demonstrate an analog-to-digital converter coupled to a temperature sensor, introducing OTFTs in the sensors and actuator market. They will also build a silent authentication tag, comprising an organic RF receiver, with potential for item-level, secure tracking of goods using realistic protocols.

Schematic from COSMIC.

Also read: High interest in low-end printable electronics by Katherine Derbyshire

The POLARIC (Printable, Organic and Large-Area Realisation of Integrated Circuits) project is mainly focused on increasing organic electronics? performance by shrinking the CD of the OTFTs. Small critical dimensions make organic ICs compatible with high-throughput transistor fabrication methods, like roll-to-roll (R2R) nanoimprint lithography. This high-resolution patterning technique produces transistor channel lengths below 1µm, increasing organic electronics? performance. Researchers plan to demonstrate an active-matrix liquid display and RFID tag.

VTT's vision for a flexible display backplane, POLARIC project.

The organic electronic building blocks and manufacturing platforms gained from COSMIC and POLARIC will be propagated to all areas of printed electronics -- sensors, memories, batteries, photovoltaics, lighting, etc.

The HTA is a novel approach to creating and developing micro technologies, nano electronics, and smart systems. It combines the capabilities and facilities of CEA-Leti and CEA-Liten, CSEM, Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics, and VTT, structured to facilitate technology transfer to European and international companies. Visit www.hta-online.eu for more information.

Participants in the COSMIC project: Fraunhofer EMFT (coordinator, Germany), Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (France), IMEC (Belgium), STMicroelectronics SRL (Italy), TNO (Netherlands), Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (Netherlands), Technische Universitat Berlin (Germany), Friendly Technologies LTD (UK), Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche (Italy), Universita di Catania (Italy), and Flexink (UK), Polymervision B.V. Learn more at www.project-cosmic.eu.

Participants in the POLARIC project: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (coordinator, Finland), 3D-Micromac (Germany), AMO (Germany), BASF (Switzerland), CSEM (Switzerland), Cardiff University (UK), Fraunhofer EMFT (Germany), IMEC (Belgium), Imperial College London (UK), Joanneum Research (Austria), micro resist technology (Germany), Obducat Technologies (Sweden), and Asulab, a division of The Swatch Group Research and Development Ltd. (Switzerland). Learn more at www.polaricproject.eu.

Lux Research uses primary research to provide detailed information and critical analysis of firms developing emerging technologies that are poised to impact global megatrends like sustainable energy and infrastructure, sustainable health and wellness, and materials revolutions. Each firm gets a ?Lux Take? that ranges from ?Strong Caution? to ?Strong Positive,? to provide a bottom-line assessment of its prospect, with a ?Wait and See? rating for companies that still face too much uncertainty for a definitive call. The top 10 from Q1 2012 are:

1. Transphorm - Energy Electronics (Wait and See)

This high-profile, VC-backed, vertically-integrated manufacturer of GaN-based power devices is a leading start-up with new product releases and demonstrations in the power supply, PV inverter, and motor drive areas.

2. Zyvex Technologies - Advanced Materials (Positive)

Combining a savvy business strategy with its core proprietary polymer technology, Zyvex is one of the few developers to successfully commercialize structural nanocomposites.

3. Clearford Industries - Water, Alternative Fuels (Positive)

With a low-maintenance, easy-to-install distributed wastewater treatment system that is vetted in the developed world, Clearford is poised for a successful transition to developing world markets.

4. Accelergy - Alternative Fuels (Positive)

A leading developer of catalytic coal-to-liquid (CTL) and gas-to-liquid (GTL) technologies that convert cheap, available feedstocks into jet fuel and diesel, Accelergy is currently testing its CTL technology in China and looking for GTL partners in North America.

5. Cbrite - Printed Electronics (Positive)

Novel metal oxide semiconductor materials could liberate flat-panel displays (FPDs) from dependence on silicon and open new frontiers in cost and flexibility.

6. Amyris - Bio-based Materials and Chemicals, Alternative Fuels (Positive)

In spite of revised production and cash flow targets, Amyris still tops the list of bio-based innovators we briefed last quarter with its biosynthetically-produced farnesene that readily converts into products relevant to cosmetics, flavorings, diesel-compatible fuels, and other specialty chemicals.

7. Global Solar - Solar Components, Solar Systems and Sustainable Building Materials (Wait and See)

As a Tier-1 flexible copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS)-based photovoltaics (PV) module manufacturer, Global Solar is one of the flexible solar cell suppliers for Dow Chemical?s PowerHouse Shingles.

8. Liquid Metal Battery - Smart Grid (Wait and See)

With its entirely liquid electrodes and electrolyte, this early-stage MIT spin-out could enable drastic cost reductions for numerous grid-scale energy storage applications.

9. Encap Drug Delivery - Formulation and Delivery (Positive)

Encap?s all-round capabilities include preformulation and formulation services for poorly soluble drugs, potent drugs requiring specialized facilities, and biologics, followed by liquid-filled capsule manufacturing services.

10. Controlled Power Technologies - Electric Vehicles (Wait and See)

Despite requiring expensive control, switched reluctance motors do not use expensive rare earth magnets and can use cheaper cooling systems, providing micro- to mild hybridization with the potential for lower costs.

Lux Research provides strategic advice and intelligence for emerging technologies. Visit www.luxresearchinc.com for more information.

Visit the Semiconductors Channel of Solid State Technology!

The partners will develop ultra-high-performance materials and manufacturing processes to grow the leading-edge electronics sector in France. Arkema will nanostructure polymers to produce new materials that optimize performance and cost of next-generation silicon components. CEA researchers will share expertise in microelectronics development processes. The CEA-Leti (Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information) will focus on microelectronics and information technologies. CEA-Liten (Laboratoire d?Innovation pour les Technologies des Energies Nouvelles et les nanomatériaux) will study new energy technologies.

Also read: CEA-Leti Annual Review: The heart of Europe's semiconductor industry challenges

Arkema will bring a group of technical polymers (fluorinated, piezoelectric, nanostructured thermoplastic polymers) to Liten to meet the technological challenges of the large-area printed electronics sector (flexible screens, intelligent packaging and textiles, photovoltaic panels). The aim is to improve system lifetimes, manufacturing costs, and integration of several functions onto a single support. The use of organic materials opens up a new field of printable, transparent and flexible components that can be integrated into large-area printed electronic products.

The partnership will help develop new materials for lithography and organic electronics manufacturing, said Christian Collette, VP of research & development at Arkema. Microelectronics are a new focus of research for Arkema.

Leti is an institute of CEA, a French research-and-technology organization with activities in energy, IT, healthcare, defense and security. Leti specializes in nanotechnologies and their applications, from wireless devices and systems, to biology, healthcare and photonics. NEMS and MEMS are at the core of its activities. For more information, visit www.leti.fr.

Arkema is a global chemical company. Learn more at http://www.arkema.com/.

Total SMD shipments hit 186.8 million units in February, up 9% from January, serving mobile handset, tablet and digital still camera makers, according to an IHS iSuppli Small & Medium Displays PriceTrak report. The increase brought to an end 4 straight months of shipment declines that started in October 2011 (see the figure).

AMOLED displays are gaining market share, and increased orders are coming in from Chinese electronics vendors. Worldwide shipments of AMOLED mobile handset displays are expected to increase sequentially by 14% in Q1 2012 and by 80% compared to the same time a year ago.

AMOLED displays are lighter weight and offer more saturated colors than traditional LCD panels. Samsung Electronics, Nokia Corp., and HTC Corp. have adopted AMOLED displays for new mobile handsets. AMOLED displays will gain more share as tablet PCs switch to the technology, likely this year.

Samsung Mobile Display Co. currently drives the AMOLED market, with the largest manufacturing capacity. Also read: AMOLED display gives Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 the edge

LG Display Co. recently redirected its AMOLED focus away from mobile handsets toward the TV market, but it is still Samsung Mobile Display's largest competitor.

Taiwanese and Chinese display suppliers are working to improve their competitive positioning, looking to challenge these leaders in AMOLED production and win orders from top handset makers.?M.C.

Solid State Technology, Volume 55, Issue 4, May 2012

More Solid State Technology Current Issue Articles
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OLEDs made up a $1.9 billion market in 2011. In small-screen displays, like smartphones, OLEDs are gaining adoption and working toward cost parity with LCDs. For large-screen displays, like televisions, OLEDs require further technological advancements, bringing down cost barriers, said Jonathan Melnick, Lux research analyst and lead author of the report, ?Cutting Up the LCD Pie: Calculating the Billion-Dollar Slices from Display Innovation.?

OLEDs give smartphones thinner designs with better-performance displays, longer battery life, and lighter weight for an acceptable higher cost than conventional displays. Lux Research?s component materials and manufacturing cost analysis shows that ?OLEDs will decrease from their current $3,000/m² for small-area displays to be cost competitive with LCDs by 2016,? Melnick reports. By 2017, more than one third of all smartphones will use OLED displays, or $9.5 billion of the $11 billion OLED market. If Apple switches its iPhone and iPad designs to OLED displays, this could drive 3x growth or more, to $35 billion.

Also read: AMOLED display gives Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 the edge

In 2017, the reflective display market will reach $1.6 billion. Lux Research expects the e-reader market to be subsumed under tablet PCs and hit market saturation starting in 2013. E-readers dominate the non-segmented reflective display market. With e-reader numbers dropping, digital signage will take over as the primary application for reflective displays in 2017.

In the flexible display space, manufacturing technologies are immature, such as barrier films, restricting potential use in new and existing display form factors. Flexible displays will reach a $140 million market in 2017. OLEDs are considered candidates for the flexible display market, though materials and manufacturing challenges exist, keeping OLEDs to a 15% share of the total flexible display market.

The report, ?Cutting Up the LCD Pie: Calculating the Billion-Dollar Slices from Display Innovation,? is part of the Lux Research Printed Electronics Intelligence service. Lux Research provides strategic advice and on-going intelligence for emerging technologies. Visit www.luxresearchinc.com for more information.

Visit the LED Manufacturing Channel on Solid State Technology and subscribe to the LED Manufacturing News monthly e-newsletter!

Day 3 of the MRS Spring 2012 meeting opened Wednesday at Moscone West in San Francisco under partly sunny skies after an air-cleansing pre-dawn sprinkle. The halls were much more quiet and subdued than yesterday morning, suggesting a busy Tuesday night for all of the science bars in town.

C3.1 TM Shaw of IBM Watson Research opened the day with a reliability talk on leakage and TDDB in low-? dielectrics. Leakage was measured with comb structures (60-100nm spaces) using step-wise voltage ramps; data recording started one minute after each step to eliminate charging transients. Over time, the Poole-Frenkel barrier height decreases continuously. At longer test times (>200 hours) the leakage data is more indicative of tunneling between trap sites; overlapping trap sites provide the leakage path. The rate of decrease of the Poole-Frenkel barrier height in early life testing was found to correlate well with TDDB behavior in longer time testing, and may serve as an early screening proxy.  Both moisture and Cu ions have a significant impact on time dependent leakage, but the magnitude of the leakage currents does not correlate well with TDDB lifetime.

C3.2 Sean King of Intel PTD studied the band diagram of the low-?/Cu  system with XPS and REELS to elucidate some fundamental understanding of interconnect leakage mechanisms. He focused on the interface between Cu, the SiCON:H low-? etch stop and the SiOC:H. Leakage through the etch stop was shown to dominate over direct via-to-via leakage through the Ta barrier and the dielectric. Future work will expand on the defect trapping states in this materials system. The talk concluded with an announcement that resumes of new graduates are welcome, as Intel needs to staff a new R&D facility currently under construction in Oregon.

C3.3 Brad Bittel of Penn State described some magnetic resonance studies of BEOL dielectrics; this work is a collaboration with Intel?s Sean King (above). Defects observed with EPR are likely important to leakage current as well as related reliability phenomena. SDT provides a direct link between EPR defects and electrical transport because only the centers involved in leakage can show up in SDT.

K3.5 Daniel Steingart of City College NY told us about flexible storage and energy conversion. Their approach was to focus on making the binders and electrodes flexible by embedding the MnO₂ and Zn electrodes in a Ag-impregnated nylon mesh (this is the work I reported on earlier this week). This battery represents a conventional material set, but the Zn/MnO₂ couple degrades over time as its charge/discharge cycles drive it to a stable equilibrium that is not a useful energy source. The limit seems to be ~600 cycles. Efforts to develop alternate material systems found adhesion failure between Al electrodes and a polymer/nanoparticle composite electrolyte in early test capacitors. It was resolved by using a seed layer of the nanoparticle alone as a surface roughening treatment to promote adhesion of the composite.

C4.1 Roy Gordon of Harvard U spoke on Mn capping layers and diffusion barriers in copper interconnects for TSV and on-chip vias, including a unique void-free via fill process.  The Mn CVD precursor for capping is a metal amidinate that deposits at 300°-350°C at 5 torr selectively on the Cu surface after passivating the dielectric with BDDS or DTS. Mn is a fast diffuser in Cu that migrates to SiO₂ and Si₃N₄ interfaces, leaving the Cu resistivity after 400°C anneal at the pre-Mn level. Adhesion strength to the dielectric increases with Mn at the interface. An 8nm MnSi_xO_y layer was shown to prevent both oxygen and moisture diffusion into the copper. Iodine-catalyzed copper bottom-up fill requires a copper seed layer before the mechanism can initiate. This work found that a seed layer of CVD Mn₄N (Mn amidinate with NH₃ at 130°C) will also adsorb the iodine sub-monolayer to initiate the CVD Cu fill at 180°C. Seam-free Cu fill was shown for <20nm vias with 5:1 AR, with large Cu grains across the entire via diameter prior to anneal. The Cu resistivity is lower than EP Cu due to the greater purity of CVD Cu. TSV copper fill was also demonstrated with AR>25:1 and 460m?/square Cu which exceeds the current roadmap.

C5.1 George Antonelli  of Novellus provided some insights into the ideal hard mask for copper interconnects at 20nm and below. Carbon films are deposited at 275°C with ion bombardment, yielding the same density as conventional films deposited at 500°C. Surface roughness was RMS 0.5-1.1nm, which impacts line edge roughness (LER). Line bending with this system was tested over the range AR 3.2 to 5.7 and was found to peak at AR 4.5 rather than increasing monotonically as AR increases. This was due to the interplay of mechanical stress with other process parameters and material properties. A doped SiC material was designed as an alternative to TiN hard mask to facilitate chemical removal or CMP after etch. More recently, work is underway on an undoped carbide variant that can be removed with wet etch and does not require CMP.

N7.1 Sang-Woo Kim from Sungkyunkwan U (Korea) described a high performance, transparent, flexible, stretchable, foldable (whew!!) nanogenerator based on multi-dimensional ZnO structures. Harvesting electrical energy from mechanical motion and vibration is the common objective, but the scope can range from replacing pacemaker batteries (not recommended for avowed couch potatoes) to embedding large area arrays in roadbeds to use traffic to generate power. PVDF is a material of choice for generating high output voltage, while ZnO is preferred for generating high output current. Graphene sheets were transfer printed onto a PEN polymer substrate, and ZnO vertical nanorods (1D) were grown on the graphene. The material functioned well, but the PEN distorted above 250°C. For such harsh conditions, a cellulose paper with Au seed layer was substituted for the PEN, and performed well even under harsh conditions. A 2D alternative was fabricated using ZnO nanosheets aligned vertically between electrodes. The work function of the top electrode limits the current output, with Au > graphene > ITO > Al.

C5.4 Ed Cooney of IBM talked about the stress effects in Cu inductors for RF technologies. While many of us are focused on 20nm and below, these devices still operate in the 0.18-0.35µm regime and require copper layers >3µm thick for proper inductor performance. At these feature sizes, reliability failure mechanisms are driven more by CTE mismatches.  Raising the post-plating anneal temperature from 100°C to 250°C reduced the room temperature tensile stress in the Cu which in turn reduces the driving force for delamination of the Cu from the SiN cap layer.

K4.5 Gregory Whiting of PARC showed a viable path toward high volume printing of flexible temperature sensors sensitive to 0.1°C up to 50°C. InSn/V₂O₅ was the eutectic mixture chosen for this work, with the ink scaled up to 1kg batches. Devices are printed on PET with screen printed Ag electrodes with gap widths varying from 250 to 500µm. The device shows a sensitivity of 1% change in resistance per degree between 20°C and 70°C, though a sensitivity to moisture dictates the needs for encapsulation for field use.

B2.1 Toshiki Hirano of Hitachi Global Storage (now Western Digital) gave an overview of MEMS and NEMS technology applications in the HDD world. HDD recording density has increased 3×10⁸ times since the first IBM RAMAC in 1957. The track width on a 95mm disk today is 68nm (about the same as a human hair in a baseball field), with 3nm clearance between the R/W head and the disk surface. The next generation of actuator may be a moving magnetic element, now in R&D, in place of the moving slider. Another variation is a R/W head with heating elements on either side of the active area. Precise positioning is achieved by thermal expansion of the heater element on either side. Similarly, head height control can be positioned vertically with a resistance heating element, allowing a fly height of 1-3nm in combination with a contact sensor feedback loop. Bit patterned recording disk media are extendible to 10 Tbit/in² using a self assembled polymer to guide the definition of individual domains. Thermal assisted recording can be facilitated with a near field transducer that has a spot size of 50nm.

N7.6 Rusen Yang of U Minnesota described energy harvesting with ZnO nanowires. ZnO nanostructures are unique in that they have been fabricated into nanobelts, nanosprings, nanorings, nanohelixes, and nanotubes, but nanowires are the focus here. These transducers are adequate to power pH and UV sensors, and the power can be stored to power LEDs. Power delivery is still in the µW to mW range. While the piezoelectric properties of ZnO are of primary interest here, it has other important and useful properties such as biocompatibility that add to its attractiveness for further research.

C6.3 John Zhang of ST Micro talked about the challenges in Cu CMP at 20nm and below. Center-to-edge uniformity is affected by the radial change in via sidewall angle, which gives a larger via top diameter at the edge and therefore a non-uniform tendency for dishing. In shrinking from 1µm L/S to 32nm L/S, Cu dendrites become increasingly problematic but can be controlled with PCMP chemistry. Validation must be established by looking for long term dendrite growth >100 hours after processing, and its effects can show up in TDDB data. The process window is shrinking as uniformity and defectivity often have competing optimization schemes. It was suggested that uniformity and defectivity parameters may have a minimum constant value, but no Heisenberg CMP uncertainty principle was actually articulated.

C6.4 Jae-Young Bae of Hanyang U (Korea) described the correlation of pad conditioning and pad surface roughness with CMP step height reduction, leading to a new slurry concept for initial step height reduction. Picolinic acid was added to ceria slurry; the maximum amount adsorbed on the pad surface for monolayer coverage was 0.36mg/m². The acid increased the adhesion strength of the ceria particles to the pad surface by ~3x, leading to a 5x increase in removal rate, and 3x increase in planarization rate (60s vs. 180s).

C6.5 Bahar Basim of Ozyegin U (Turkey) talked about a wafer level CMP model to predict the impact of pad conditioning on process performance. Higher wafer scratch levels are correlated with points on the pad at which the conditioner sweep changes direction. Sweeping the conditioner over the edge of the pad surface also creates additional wear when the conditioner transits back onto the pad. The resulting pad profile model enables tailoring the wafer surface to best match the incoming wafer profile.

Also see Mike Fury's other reports from MRS Spring 2012:

MRS Spring 2012: Day 1

MRS Spring 2012: Day 2

Day 2 of the MRS Spring 2012 meeting opened Tuesday in Moscone West in San Francisco under overcast skies and a light drizzle. The halls were packed at 8am as so many of the symposia lead off with presentations that have high audience appeal.

K1.1 Kazumasa Nomoto of Sony offered Sony?s outlook for the future of ultra flexible AM-OLED TFT displays, enough so to merit the labels foldable and rollable. In a full color 4.1 inch 121 ppi FWQVGA format, an 80µm thick AM-OLED display has a bending radius of 4mm. In a 13.3 inch 150 dpi UXGA format, a 120µm thick electrophoretic display (EPD) has a bending radius of 5mm. This is facilitated by integrating flexible OTFT gate driver circuitry into the backplane. The 20nm thick PXX gate oxide consists of alternative self-assembled layers. Both screen printing and inkjet printing techniques are employed in the process flow.

E1.1 Sorin Cristoloveanu of IMEP-LAHC Minatec guided us along the path to single transistor DRAM (1-T DRAM) in which the capacitor storage cell scales proportionally to the drive transistor. Metastable dip (MSD) DRAM is a hysteresis device that has no associated capacitor. Another variation is ARAM. Below a storage channel width of 10nm, it is not longer possible to sustain a separation of holes and electrons. Inserting a 3nm separator between the two sides of the channel (suggesting a squared off ?A?) makes it possible to reduce the total width below 10nm. A new device called Z²-FET is a PIN junction with zero subthreshold swing and zero impact ionization. The fabrication process is compatible with SOI CMOS. URAM is the combination of a 1-T DRAM with a non-volatile memory (NVM) element. Several additional concepts were presented more rapidly than I could keep up.

L1.1 Siegfried Janz of NRC Canada talked about the use of silicon photonic wires as optical sensor elements. Folded waveguides can be configured in dense spirals or grids to achieve, for example, a 2mm long sensing element in a 150µm² area. These elements can be applied to photonic wire evanescent field (PWEF) affinity binding sensors for DNA, protein and bacteria analysis to 200 pico molar sensitivity. The entire waveguide detector system is fabricated in an oxide layer 200nm thick. Microfluidic channels 200µm wide are aligned and pressed over the PWEF array to flow analyte over the sensor elements. The PWEF sensor arrays are manufactured with 500 chips per wafer in the CMOS foundry at LETI.

J3.1 Rahul Sen of Nantero described the use of CNT formulations in electronic devices. Materials are 300mm CMOS compatible spin coated films that can be lithographically patterned with conventional oxygen plasma techniques. Facilities fabricating with these films include ON Semi and SVTC. The CNT solution has <25ppb metal impurities; the final film has <1×10¹¹ atoms/cm² for BEOL compatibility. Sporadically high calcium levels >30ppb was resolved with an ion exchange process. One application of this material is the development of an NRAM? universal memory device using CNT as the switching element.

M1.6 Soenke Steenhusen of Fraunhofer ISC took us from research to reality as regards 3D optical interconnects. The energy required to operate processers suggests a limit of 1.25 TFLOPS/chip which translates to an energy threshold of 6 GFLOPS/watt using conventional metal interconnects. This becomes the fundamental driver for integrating optical interconnects in their stead. The optical waveguide fabrication methodology described involved 2 photon polymerization (2PP) of polymer materials using femtosecond laser pulses.

DD5.2 Tomás Palacios of MIT presented the use of graphene for RF and sensing devices. His approach is to fabricate graphene devices on top of completed CMOS structures, or to make the graphene devices directly on flexible substrates. He uses the PMMA transfer method for graphene grown at 1000°C from CH₄ on Cu. His applications of interest cover the whole range of known markets that have been discussed elsewhere. For on-chip interconnects in the range of 100nm wide down to 1nm wide, graphene has a low constant resistivity; in this range, the resistivity of copper spikes exponentially. By fabricating a top-gated GFET on an insulating substrate rather than conductive silicon, the GFET device can exhibit a high f_T >20GHz in which the parasitic capacitance is low, meaning that the de-embedded f_T is quite comparable to the non-de-embedded value.

BB1.11 Chia-Lin Chuang of National Taiwan U discussed a highly transparent p-ZnO prepared from a non-toxic sol gel. Generally, p-type ZnO is difficult to fabricate for a variety of reasons including native donor defects, deep acceptor levels and unintentional hydrogen doping. Their non-toxic composition included zinc acetate, indium nitrate, IPA, MEA and ammonium acetate. The resulting films have a resistivity of 4.43 ??cm with a carrier concentration of 1.36×10¹⁸/cm³.

K2.1 Nanshu Lu (now at UT Austin) of the John Rogers group at U Illinois Urbana presented the groups? recent achievements in epidermal electronic systems. Micro-transfer printing is the method of choice for interconnecting small rigid silicon electronics elements with thin nanoribbons of silicon or metal. Depositing onto a pre-stretched elastomer substrate provides a resting state in which the interconnects are buckled or canted and can endure up to 100% elongation while imparting ?1% stress to the rigid circuit elements. The trick of fabricating extremely thin silicon for flexibility applies to the PDMS polymer substrate as well when the objective is to apply the device to the skin and tolerate stretching and bending without adhesion loss. The thin polymer stability is maintained until it is applied using technology similar to that used in applying temporary tattoos. For some device types, the rigid silicon electronics can be eliminated by integrating the active device elements into the serpentine interconnects themselves. For development of integrated devices, functions that have been demonstrated include amplifiers, temperature sensors, strain gauges, solar power sources, induction couplers and wireless transmitters & receivers for device control. Current devices, however, use wires to connect to external control and power sources. The only three elements in contact with the skin are gold, silicon and polyimide, all of which are FDA approved.

K2.2 Michael Melzer of IFW Dresden extended the family of stretchable electronics from silicon and optoelectronics to now include magneto electronics. Stretchable GMR multilayers are fabricated by depositing GMR thin films on a pre-strained PDMS substrate. Data indicates no loss of magnetic performance through this process to 2.5% strain even though resistance starts to rise above 1.6% strain. For greater detection sensitivity, stretchable spin valves were developed using the same process flow as for the GMR multilayers. After some refinement of the process, they were able to achieve 29% strain without losing functionality or sensitivity.

K2.5 A Gaikwad of City College NY described a stretchable battery embedded in cloth with Zn and MnO₂ as the active materials. Cracking and delamination due to flexing and stretching was addressed by embedding these materials in a non-conducting nylon mesh in an earlier version. In the new version, a silver coated nylon cloth is used as the substrate for the Zn electrode and separately for the MnO₂ electrode. No delamination or electrical degradation was observed at 100% strain in either the x- or the y-direction. The capacity of 4 mAh/cm² was maintained even with this stretching 100% level.

C2.6 Yusuke Matsuda of Reinhold Dauskardt?s group at Stanford presented a new class of ULK dielectric materials in work done jointly with IBM and RPI. Moisture-assisted cracking is a pervasive problem with current silica-based ULK material options. Polycarbosilane dielectrics (CLPCS) are introduced, their salient feature being a network of Si-CH₂-Si bonds. The films have a dielectric constant 2.3-2.5 with no porosity. In comparison with MSSQ and CDO films, CLPCS has a higher fracture strength, lower density  and no sensitivity to moisture-assisted cracking. However, there is some crack growth due to viscoelastic relaxation of C-C bonds.

BB2.6 Susan Trolier-McKinstry of Penn State described a low cost, damage-free microcontact printing method for patterning electroceramic films. PDMS stamps for PZT patterning can be used only one time, but the transfer integrity is good for PZT films 110-130nm thick at ~3µm lines/spaces. Dots 3-4µm with 2-3µm spaces can also be printed faithfully. Alternate stamp material research has led to polyurethane (PU) and composite PU/PDMS enables up to 50 passes for multiple use with a simple solvent wash in between. The PU stamp can print large areas >1cm² and feature sizes from 5µm to 1cm. Electrical and piezoelectric properties of films so deposited overlapped nicely with films of equivalent thickness deposited by conventional methods.

F4.4 Youn-Seon Kang of Samsung R&D provided a glimpse into the coming 20nm node for PRAM. Challenges include contact size, cell to cell distance, reset current and operating voltage. The 20nm diode contact process includes growth of epitaxial Si in the vias, ion implantation, silicidation, tungsten capping and CMP. Use of a confined structure allows a lower reset current with a larger bottom electrode, suggesting that further reduction is possible. Double pattern lithography is used for the minimum feature sizes. Thermal disturbance between neighbor cells is not observed up to 10⁸ cycles. Samsung is optimistic that PRAM will be a robust NVRAM competitor below 20nm.

BB2.8 Isabel Van Driessche of Ghent U (Belgium) used aqueous solutions of YBa₂Cu₃O₇ for inkjet deposition and patterning of superconducting coatings. Fluorine-free aqueous formulations for chemical solution deposition (CSD) were used to eliminate the toxic BaF₂ used in traditional approaches. Conventional methods were used to optimize the solution rheology for inkjet image control. Atmospheric control during annealing reduces the detrimental formation of BaCO₃ that is problematic in other systems. Features as small as 40µm were successfully demonstrated; smaller features are likely with further ink formulation.

Usually the elastic versions must withstand repeated flexing without loss of function as with a patch attached to a living heart for diagnostics, energy harvesting to power implants and/or control, for that, they tend to be laminar and usually thin. No definitions of electronics and electrical sectors are fully watertight but it is convenient to consider stretchable electronics as a part of printed electronics, a term taken to include printed and potentially printed (eg thin film) electronics and electrics. This is because the cost, space and weight reduction sought in most cases is best achieved by printing and printing-like technologies.     

Artificial Muscle has commercialized electroactive devices employing elastic electrodes some years ago in haptic touch switches (you feel what you are doing) and promoted them for such things as energy harvesting and steerable serpentine camera lenses. Bayer AG has now snapped up this promising company.

Nonetheless, it would be fair to say that the commercialization of stretchable electronics has been disappointingly rare so far.

mc10 Inc in the USA is a rare example of a pure play stretchable electronics company. It works with partners in a joint development model to prototype and manufacture novel applications for consumer, military, medical and industrial applications, giving us a glimpse of where this nascent industry sees its products being used.

The value chain for printed electronics is unbalanced, with too little effort to commercialize the technologies, such as by designing innovative, amusing or useful new products, never before possible, created using the new toolkit. For example, the easiest commercialization of stretchable electronics may lie in consumer goods, jewelry, fashion, toys and novelties but almost all participants are focused on the slow-moving healthcare sector that is understandably more demanding in terms of safety and quality requirements and approvals. Certainly many very interesting things are being done to modernize sportswear, for example.

That said, it is particularly in healthcare that stretchability, bringing portability, disposability, error prevention, wearability and so on, reads on to many of the big trends and needs today. These include how to cope with an ageing population that wish to stay mobile and how to respond to the fact that there will not be enough physicians, hospitals and carers to cope using old procedures and equipment. Stretchable implanted and skin mounted electronic and electrical patches will diagnose and respond earlier, delivering drugs with less error than when the patient had to remember times and doses. It facilitates the bionic man and woman and more. Indeed the longer term objectives are truly awesome, with talk of un-intrusive electronics in the folds of the brain for example.

Taking the broader view that stretchable electronics makes a host of new functions possible in many sectors of industry, we see investors sensing that this nascent industry is indeed at a tipping point. Too often the objectives have been engineering-led and un-ambitious in terms of market positioning. Add 100 creative designers to the mix and commercialization will leap forward at a blistering pace.

On the one hand, mc10 focuses on healthcare applications, commercializing the outstanding advances in the subject provided by the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. It completed a Series b fundraising bringing the round's total to $14.75 million in September 2011. mc10 takes electronics 'out of the box' to create thin, conformal systems that are able to move with the natural world. The company combines breakthrough technology with innovative engineering to develop exciting new consumer, medical, and industrial products. mc10 is headquartered in Cambridge, MA

"mc10 represents a game-changing technology for medical devices and health care electronics," said Adam Fine, Managing Director of investor Windham Venture Partners, experts in healthcare. "We are pleased to provide both capital and expertise to accelerate their products and partnerships in life science applications."

mc10's ability to create bendable, stretchable systems out of otherwise rigid high performance electronics has immediate benefits for health and wellness products. For example, mc10 is working on "electronic skin", which can measure everything from heart rate to activity level to hydration, all in a thin, sticker-like package. This has enormous potential in the health, wellness, and health care markets.

The company's active partnerships, collaborations, and funding sources, including Massachusetts General Hospital, the US Navy, and Reebok, demonstrate the broad impact of mc10's platform. For mc10, Windham's support and involvement represents an ideal addition to the existing team. "Windham complements the skills and interests of our other venture investors," said mc10's CEO David Icke. "They bring a driven, entrepreneurial approach along with a deep knowledge and far-reaching experience that will help us build our life science electronics business."

Now investors are alert for the mc10 of other application sectors for stretchable electronics given that so much of the engineering is ready to move into pre-production. Here we have origami electronics and car electronic and electrical parts that can mould into position as the vehicle is constructed. However, tackling this calls for a completely different approach and value chain from traditional electronics and electrics with its focus on companies making different components and other companies that put them all together in a box and make them work. Traditional electronics and electrics does not involve the paper and packaging, publishing or printing industry to any significant extent. It has some input from the chemical and plastics industry but the new electronics turns all this on its head with totally new forms of collaboration becoming essential and much of the added value going to the chemical industry in particular.

Those that try to use the old approach of making and selling individual components by just printing them tend to go out of business because what the market and the economics demand is complete smart labels etc that perform a function at lowest cost. Even ink making comes centre stage as does the replacement of print and manual procedures before the replacement of electronics. Excitingly, some of those inks will even include such exotica as carbon nanotube and graphene springs and transparent, not just stretchable and foldable electronics becomes widely possible. For more information on stretchable electronics please view IDTechEx's "Stretchable Electronics Comes to Market" report at www.IDTechEx.com/stretch.

In 2007, BASF Future Business GmbH joined Polyera to develop and commercialize new organic semiconductors and dielectrics for use in CMOS-analog printed circuits over several years.

Polyera makes high-performance functional materials for the electronics and opto-electronics industries. For more information, visit www.polyera.com.

Chengwei Capital an independent venture capital fund in China.

Tsing Capital a leading cleantech venture capital firm in China. China Environment Fund, established and managed by Tsing Capital, is a series of funds in China with a focus in cleantech- and environment-related investments. Further information can be found at www.tsingcapital.com.

Solvay is an international chemical group and an investor in Polyera. Solvay SA (SOLB.BE) is listed on NYSE Euronext in Brussels and Paris (Bloomberg:SOLB.BB, Reuters:SOLBt.BR)

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Figure. Oxide TFT applications. SOURCE: Displaybank, Oxide TFT Technology and Development Status Report.

Research and development (R&D) investments are being made by major display panel companies in Korea and Japan, with mass production in mind. Expect to see oxide TFT in LCDs, AMOLEDs, and e-paper displays.

Displaybank has issued a report on technology status and related companies' development trends of the attention-attracting in the industry, Oxide TFT, covering its characteristics, structure and manufacturing process; applications in LCD, OLED, E-paper backplanes; oxide TFT-related companies in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the US; and key issues in the panel manufacturing process, device reliability, and new materials processing. Access the report at http://www.displaybank.com/_eng/research/report_view.html?id=804&cate=1.

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Also read: Roll-to-roll presents flat-panel display sector with new manufacturing option

The circulating coating fluid is gently agitated to ensure a homogenous mix. The fluid reservoir holds 5 liters.

The Panda Coater measures 1 x 1.2m with cleanroom-compatible finishing. It has storage and levelling built-in.

Rainbow Technology Systems (RTS) supplies fine line printing technologies for PCBs and other electronics substrates. For further information please visit www.rainbow-technology.com.

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Dr. John Batey has been re-elected as chairman of the Governing Board and Michael Ciesinski was re-appointed president and CEO. Dr. Keith Rollins, Chief Innovation Officer for DuPont Teijin Films US Ltd., has been named vice chairman of the Governing Board. Dr. Rollins will join with Dr. Batey in providing industry direction to FlexTech Alliance on development and deployment of technology and applications for flexible, printed electronics and displays.

Other directors elected were Thomas Edman, Applied Materials, Michael McCreary, E Ink, Malcolm Thompson, MJT & Associates, David Morton, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Frank Caris, dpiX, Jennifer Ernst, Thin Film Electronics ASA, Richard Wilson, Cambridge Display Technology, Wim Vanderpoorten, Cytec, and Michael Dudzik, Lockheed Martin.

Also read: Thin Film Electronics, Lockheed Martin execs join FlexTech Alliance

?Keith?s technical acumen, dedication to strategic planning, and business development experience will provide direction and practical experience in building the flexible, printed electronics industry,? said Dr. Batey, consortium chairman. Dr. Rollins has over 25 years experience in the advanced materials and specialty chemical industries. In his new role as FlexTech Alliance vice chairman, Rollins will share responsibility with John Batey in overseeing the organization?s decisions on policy, program content, and disposition of funds available to the consortium for sponsoring technology-related R&D projects. They will work with the Governing Board and all FlexTech Alliance stakeholders to further the organization?s development in a manner that increases the consortium?s value.

?Flexible, printed electronics is a disruptive technology opening up new markets for displays, lighting, renewable energy and sensor applications among many others,? said Dr. Rollins.  ?FlexTech Alliance plays a crucial role in bringing these new technologies from R&D to production. I am excited to have been chosen for a leadership position in the organization that helps turn ideas into reality."

The FlexTech Alliance is devoted to fostering the growth, profitability and success of the electronic display and the flexible, printed electronics supply chain.  More information about the FlexTech Alliance can be found at www.flextech.org.

DuPont Teijin Films is a premier producer of PET and PEN polyester films.  The group specializes in film products and related services for the specialty, industrial, packaging and electronics markets. DuPont Teijin Films is a 50/50 joint venture between DuPont and Teijin.

OLAE promises a large market potential of over $50 billion by 2020 according to the Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and several other research organizations. The technology is an answer to many challenges in our society with regard to renewable energy, environment protection, information, entertainment, communication, e-mobility, health and more. OLAE covers five important areas ? OLED Lighting, Organic and Inorganic Photovoltaic, OLED Displays, Organic Electronics and Integrated Smart Systems ? which all have a similar disruptive technology in common.

 The Plastic Electronics Special Interest Group (PE-SIG) will be governed by distinguished board members from leading industry corporations, research institutes and academia, including executives from BASF, Merck, Technical University of Dresden, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and others. The PE-SIG of SEMI will focus its activities on Roadmaps, Standardization, Industry Research and Statistics, Conferences, Exhibitions and Public Policy worldwide. The 8^th edition of the Electronic Conference and Exhibition will be held in conjunction with SEMICON Europa in Dresden (9-11 October 2012) and will be extended to other regions in the future.

 ?The SEMI track record of using global industry collaboration, advocacy and standards to expand and optimize major industries such as semiconductors, displays, solar PV, and related technologies will greatly help the emerging OLAE industry to move from lab to fab,? says Dr. Karl Hahn, senior vice-president of BASF and board member of the newly established PE-SIG. ?There are substantial synergies between technologies, equipment, materials, and services among SEMI member companies and the rapidly developing OLAE industry,? says Thomas Morrow, head of Emerging Markets at SEMI Headquarters.

• ?Technology and Application Outlooks for Small-Middle Size Display? by Jia-Heng Wang, co-chief operating officer and executive vice president of BOE Group
  
• ?Evolving Glass Solutions Address Challenges in Advanced Display Trends? by Fang Li, president of Corning Display Technologies China
  
• ?Greener TFT-LCD and Display Panels? by Han-pin Hsieh, professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Chiao Tung University (Hsinchu, Taiwan) 
• ?Orientation of China Mobile Display Market? by Qing-Quan Liu, Marketing director of Tianma Micro-electronic
  

In addition, the FPD Conference includes technical sessions on Next Display Technology; Touch Screen; Naked-Eye 3D; 2 sessions on TFT-LCD; and OLED.

For more information, visit www.fpdchina.org.

SEMI is a global industry association serving the nano- and microelectronic manufacturing supply chains.

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