WIN Distinguished Lecture - Professor Arokia Nathan: "Transparent and Flexible Oxide Nano-Electronics"

Friday, March 24, 2017 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

The Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) presents a Distinguished Lecture by Professor Arokia Nathan, Chair of Photonic Systems and Displays, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK.

Lecture: 3:00-4:00 pm
Reception: 4:00-5:00 pm

Transparent and Flexible Oxide Nano-Electronics

Prof. Arokia Nathan
The oxide semiconductor is becoming a key material for future electronics because of their wide band gap, hence high transparency and low OFF current, compared with the ubiquitous silicon thin-film technology. The oxide can be processed at room temperature and at low fabrication cost, which makes it amenable for integration on a wide range of substrate materials including plastic and paper. This talk will review the new generation of applications of oxides ranging from large area electronics to the newly emerging Internet of Things. While the oxide transistor continues to evolve, producing devices with higher mobility, steeper sub-threshold slope and lower threshold voltage, practical circuits are constrained by issues related to non-uniformity, electrically- and illumination-induced instability, and temperature dependence. We will discuss the critical design considerations of displays, sensors and sensor interfaces to show how device-circuit interactions should be handled and how compensation methods can be implemented. In particular, the quest for low power becomes highly compelling in newly emerging application areas related to wearable devices in the Internet of Things. We will discuss thin-film transistor operation near the OFF state, driven by the pivotal requirement of low supply voltage and ultralow power; the operation of the wearable device is challenged by limited battery lifetime even if augmented with energy harvesting.