Intrinsic Thermal Desorption in a 3D Printed Multifunctional Composite CO Sorbent with Embedded Heating Capability.

Efficient removal of CO from enclosed environments is a significant challenge, particularly in human space flight where strict restrictions on mass and volume are present. To address this issue, this study describes the use of a multimaterial, layer-by-layer, additive manufacturing technique to directly print a structured multifunctional composite for CO sorption with embedded, intrinsic, heating capability to facilitate thermal desorption, removing the need for an external heat source from the system. This multifunctional composite is coprinted from an ink formulation based on zeolite 13X, and an electrically conductive sorbent ink formulation, which includes metal particles blended with the zeolite.

Dynamic and Tunable Threshold Voltage in Organic Electrochemical Transistors.

In recent years, organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have found applications in chemical and biological sensing and interfacing, neuromorphic computing, digital logic, and printed electronics. However, the incorporation of OECTs in practical electronic circuits is limited by the relative lack of control over their threshold voltage, which is important for controlling the power consumption and noise margin in complementary and unipolar circuits. Here, the threshold voltage of OECTs is precisely tuned over a range of more than 1 V by chemically controlling the electrochemical potential at the gate electrode.

Performance of in-pixel circuits for photon counting arrays (PCAs) based on polycrystalline silicon TFTs.

Photon counting arrays (PCAs), defined as pixelated imagers which measure the absorbed energy of x-ray photons individually and record this information digitally, are of increasing clinical interest. A number of PCA prototypes with a 1 mm pixel-to-pixel pitch have recently been fabricated with polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si)-a thin-film technology capable of creating monolithic imagers of a size commensurate with human anatomy. In this study, analog and digital simulation frameworks were developed to provide insight into the influence of individual poly-Si transistors on pixel circuit performance-information that is not readily available through empirical means.

Electronic Structure and Properties of Organic Bulk-Heterojunction Interfaces.

The electronic structure and physical mechanisms of carrier generation and transport in the organic bulk heterojunction are reviewed. The electronic structure describes the bands and band-tail states, the band alignment at the bulk-heterojunction interface, and the overall density-of-states model. The different electronic character of excitons and mobile charge is discussed, the former being highly molecular and the latter more delocalized.

Influence of polymer compatibility on the open-circuit voltage in ternary blend bulk heterojunction solar cells.

The evolution of the open-circuit voltage (Voc) with composition in ternary blend bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells is correlated with the miscibility of the polymers. Ternary blends based on poly[N-9'-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4',7'-di-2-thienyl-2',1',3'-benzothiadiazole)] (PCDTBT) and poly(3-hexylthiophene-thiophene-diketopyrrolopyrrole) (P3HTT-DPP-10%) with phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) acceptor were investigated. The Voc is pinned to the lower value of the P3HTT-DPP-10%:PC61BM binary blend even up to 95% PCDTBT in the polymer fraction.

Sol-gel solution-deposited InGaZnO thin film transistors.

Thin film transistors (TFTs) fabricated by solution processing of sol-gel oxide semiconductor precursors in the group In-Ga-Zn are described. The TFT mobility varies over a wide range depending on the precursor materials, the composition, and the processing variables, with the highest mobility being about 30 cm(2)/(V s) for IZO and 20 cm(2)/(V s) for IGZO. The positive dark bias stress effect decreases markedly as the mobility increases and the high mobility devices are quite stable.

25th anniversary article: a decade of organic/polymeric photovoltaic research.

Organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology has been developed and improved from a fancy concept with less than 1% power conversion efficiency (PCE) to over 10% PCE, particularly through the efforts in the last decade. The significant progress is the result of multidisciplinary research ranging from chemistry, material science, physics, and engineering. These efforts include the design and synthesis of novel compounds, understanding and controlling the film morphology, elucidating the device mechanisms, developing new device architectures, and improving large-scale manufacture.

Origin of the tunable open-circuit voltage in ternary blend bulk heterojunction organic solar cells.

Ternary blend bulk heterojunction organic solar cells comprising either a polythiophene donor and two fullerene acceptors or two polythiophene donors and a fullerene acceptor are shown to have unique electronic properties. Measurements of the photocurrent spectral response and the open-circuit voltage show that the HOMO and LUMO levels change continuously with composition in the respective two-component acceptor or donor pair, consistent with the formation of an organic alloy. However, optical absorption of the exciton states retains the individual molecular properties of the two materials across the blend composition.

Hybrid Si nanowire/amorphous silicon FETs for large-area image sensor arrays.

Silicon nanowire (SiNW) field-effect transistors (FETs) were fabricated from nanowire mats mechanically transferred from a donor growth wafer. Top- and bottom-gate FET structures were fabricated using a doped a-Si:H thin film as the source/drain (s/d) contact. With a graded doping profile for the a-Si:H s/d contacts, the off-current for the hybrid nanowire/thin-film devices was found to decrease by 3 orders of magnitude.

Active pixel imagers incorporating pixel-level amplifiers based on polycrystalline-silicon thin-film transistors.

Active matrix, flat-panel imagers (AMFPIs) employing a 2D matrix of a-Si addressing TFTs have become ubiquitous in many x-ray imaging applications due to their numerous advantages. However, under conditions of low exposures and/or high spatial resolution, their signal-to-noise performance is constrained by the modest system gain relative to the electronic additive noise. In this article, a strategy for overcoming this limitation through the incorporation of in-pixel amplification circuits, referred to as active pixel (AP) architectures, using polycrystalline-silicon (poly-Si) TFTs is reported.

An investigation of signal performance enhancements achieved through innovative pixel design across several generations of indirect detection, active matrix, flat-panel arrays.

Active matrix flat-panel imager (AMFPI) technology is being employed for an increasing variety of imaging applications. An important element in the adoption of this technology has been significant ongoing improvements in optical signal collection achieved through innovations in indirect detection array pixel design. Such improvements have a particularly beneficial effect on performance in applications involving low exposures and/or high spatial frequencies, where detective quantum efficiency is strongly reduced due to the relatively high level of additive electronic noise compared to signal levels of AMFPI devices.

Analytic model for diffuse reflectivity of silicon nanowire mats.

Disordered silicon nanowires are diffuse optical reflectors, with reflectivity modified by the nanowire absorption. We present an analytical model which describes the reflectivity, absorption, and transmission of a nanowire mat, across a wide spectral range, and including substrate effects. The model provides the ability to predict the optical properties of other nanowire mat structures, including core/shell heterostructures.

Vertically integrated thin film color sensor arrays for imaging applications.

Large area color sensor arrays based on vertically integrated thin-film sensors were realized. The complete color information of each color pixel is detected at the same position of the sensor array without using optical filters. The sensor arrays consist of amorphous silicon thin film color sensors integrated on top of amorphous silicon readout transistors.

A comparison of x-ray detectors for mouse CT imaging.

There is significant interest in using computed tomography (CT) for in vivo imaging applications in mouse models of disease. Most commercially available mouse x-ray CT scanners utilize a charge-coupled device (CCD) detector coupled via fibre optic taper to a phosphor screen. However, there has been little research to determine if this is the optimum detector for the specific task of in vivo mouse imaging.

Integrated hydrogenated amorphous Si photodiode detector for microfluidic bioanalytical devices.

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) PIN photodiodes have been developed and characterized as fluorescence detectors for microfluidic analysis devices. A discrete a-Si:H photodiode is first fabricated on a glass substrate and used to detect fluorescent dye standards using conventional confocal microscopy. In this format, the limit of detection for fluorescein flowing in a 50-microm deep channel is 680 pM (S/N = 3).