Jones Seminar: Photonic Processing of Amorphous Oxide Semiconductors for Flexible Thin-Film Transistors

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Meeting ID: 923 9477 7186
Passcode: 501051

Over the past 20 years, amorphous oxide semiconductors based on indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) and its derivatives have come into the spotlight as an excellent choice for the channel material in thin-film transistors (TFTs). This is due in large part to their unusually high mobility in the amorphous phase, as well as their low off-state leakage current. IGZO has been investigated for a wide variety of applications ranging from displays and flexible electronics to back-end-of-line (BEOL) devices and DRAM.

In this talk, I will present our recent work combining solution-processed indium oxide-based semiconductors with two novel photonic processing techniques to produce flexible thin-film transistors. First, I will introduce photonic curing, which is used to anneal thin films at high temperatures on substrates with a low thermal budget. Rather than heating an entire device as a furnace does, photonic curing uses large-area high-energy optical pulses to rapidly heat a thin film while maintaining a relatively low substrate temperature. Thus, photonic curing is an attractive method to achieve rapid thermal processing of large-area electronics on flexible substrates. Next, I will discuss photonic lift-off, which uses similar large-area pulses of white light to release polymer films from glass carriers without damaging the flexible oxide TFTs. Finally, I will highlight the potential benefits of flexible electronics for applications in medical research and health care by sharing our recent work using flexible electrocorticography (ECoG) sensing arrays and chemical biomarker sensor patches.

Hosted by Professor Will Scheideler.

About the Speaker(s)

Sarah Swisher
Associate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, U Minnesota

Sarah Swisher is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Minnesota, and serves as the associate director for research advancement at the Minnesota Nano Center. She received her BS in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and her MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. Her current research sits at the intersection of semiconductor device physics, materials science, and bioengineering. She studies novel processing methods for thin film devices and leverages the benefits of flexible electronics to enable advancements in biological sensors and medical devices. Her research approach is collaborative and multidisciplinary, with ties to the Center for Neuroengineering, the Institute for Engineering in Medicine, the International Institute for Biosensing, and the Translational Center for Resuscitative Trauma Care. Her recent awards include the Intel Foundation Robert Noyce Memorial Fellowship in Microelectronics, the Russell J. Penrose Excellence in Teaching Award, and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Contact

For more information, contact Amos Johnson at amos.l.johnson@dartmouth.edu.