Thin film transistor arrays

It is interesting to note that Mauguin had discovered the TN LC cell in 1911. Commercialization of this device did not occur for some 75 years, but since then, with the development of thin-film transistor arrays, transparent... 

De Gennes, P.G., Wetting Statics and dynamics. Rev. Mod. Phys. 57, 827-863, 1985. Street, R.A. et al.. Jet printing flexible displays. Mater. Today 9, 32-37, 2006. Wong, W.S. et al.. Hydrogenated amorphons silicon thin-film transistor arrays fabricated by digital lithography, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 24, 577-579, 2003. 

A. Salleo et al.. Polymer thin-film transistor arrays patterned by stamping, Adv. Funct. Mater, 15, 1105, 2005. 

W. S. Wong et al.. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistor arrays fabricated by digital lithography, IEEE Electron Device Lett., 24, 577, 2003. 

The four machines represented four distinct technologies. The GE machine, the commercial version of the prototype used in the Colorado-Massachusetts trial, used an 18 x 23 cm area ( flatpanel ) detector consisting of a cesium-iodide (Csl) phosphor bonded to an amorphous silicon substrate containing a rectangular photodiode array. The Csl phosphor converts the incident x-rays to light, which are then detected by the photodiode array. A thin-film transistor array deep to the amorphous silicon layer processes and transmits the electronic signal to the external electronics. The pitch (size) of a detector element in this system was 100 pm. 

To obtain the thin-film transistor array suitable to softening the panel, flexible 5 inch diagonal liquid crystal displays were also fabricated by lower-temperature vacuum deposition of the organic semiconductor (pentacene). The fabricated panel (QQVGA, 160 X 120 pixels) has confirmed the video display function [12]. 

Kocabas, C. et al. 2005. Guided growth of large-scale, horizontally aligned arrays of single-walled carbon nanotubes and their use in thin-film transistors. Small 1 1110-1116. 

Thin film transistors (TFTs) based systems are much better for colour displays since they give better viewing angles, response times and resolution than STNs. Those systems in which an array of amorphous siUcon transistors is vapour-deposited onto one side of the substrate, each transistor being positioned below each pixel, are known as active matrix TFT (AMTFT) displays. 

Organic thin film transistors are fabricated with a low-temperature process. It is therefore possible to fabricate TFT arrays for flat panel displays in a low cost process. The substrates are low-cost and flexible such as polyethylene terepthalate (PET). The low cost, large area TFT arrays can be used for many applications, e.g. electronic paper, smart cards and remotely updateable posters and notice boards. Currently the amorphous-silicon-on-glass technology is used for such applications. This technology is very expensive. These applications will only become popular in marketplace if the cost of production is substantially reduced. This is the driving force for the R D effort in organic TFTs. 

Thin film transistor (TFT) arrays are produced inexpensively and in large numbers for use in modern computer monitors and televisions. This readout system can be combined with amorphous hydrated silicon or amorphous selenium which is deposited over the large surface of the TFT array and acts as the X-ray conversion layer. Having established themselves firmly as an X-ray detector for medical imaging already, they have until now failed to make an impact on the field of crystallography, their high noise level being the main drawback. It can be surmised with some confidence that this type of detector will become standard equipment in the near future. 

Wong, W.S. et al., Amorphons silicon thin-film transistors and arrays fabricated by jet printing, App. Phys. Lett. 80, 610-612, 2002. 

H. Ko, V.V. Tsukruk, Liquid-crystalline processing of highly oriented carbon nanotubes arrays for thin film transistors. Nano Lett. 6, 1443-1445 (2006)... 

Hatakeyama K, Tanaka T, Sawaguchi M, Iwadate A, Mizutani Y, Sasaki K, Tateishi N, Matsunaga T (2009) Microfluidic device using chemiluminescence and a DNA-arrayed thin film transistor photosensor for single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping of PCR amplicons from whole blood. Lab Chip 9 1052-1058... 

---