Electrònica Física per a enginyers

Conceptes bàsics per entendre el funcionament dels dispositius electrònics fonamentals: díode, transistor bipolar i transistors d'efecte de camp per junció o per estructura metall-òxid-semiconducto

Influence of In and Ga additives onto SnO2 inkjet-printed semiconductor

Tin oxide is a multifunctional semiconductor that offers excellent capabilities in a variety of applications such as solar cells, catalysis and chemical sensors. In this work, tin-based semiconductors have been obtained by means of solution synthesis and inkjet, and compared to similar materials with In and Ga as additives. The effect of different thermal treatments after deposition is also studied. n-Type behavior with saturation mobility N2 cm2 /Vs has been observed, and suitability as a semiconductor for thin-film transistors (TFTs) demonstrated with on/off ratios of more than 8 decades. Both In and InGa additives are shown to provide superior environmental stability, as well as significant change from depletion to enhancement operation modes in TFTs

Influence of mismatch on the defects in relaxed epitaxial InGaAs/GaAs(100) films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Thick (∼3 μm) films of InxGa1−xAs grown on GaAs(100) substrates, across the whole composition range, have been examined by transmission electron microscopy and double‐crystal x‐ray diffraction. The results were compared with the observed growth mode of the material determined by in situ reflection high‐energy electron diffraction in the molecular beam epitaxy growth system. The quality of the material degraded noticeably for compositions up to x∼0.5 associated with an increased density of dislocations and stacking faults. In contrast, improvements in quality as x approached 1.0 were correlated with the introduction of an increasingly more regular array of edge dislocations

A Compact raster lensless microscope based on a microdisplay

Lensless microscopy requires the simplest possible configuration, as it uses only a light source, the sample and an image sensor. The smallest practical microscope is demonstrated here. In contrast to standard lensless microscopy, the object is located near the lighting source. Raster optical microscopy is applied by using a single-pixel detector and a microdisplay. Maximum resolution relies on reduced LED size and the position of the sample respect the microdisplay. Contrarily to other sort of digital lensless holographic microscopes, light backpropagation is not required to reconstruct the images of the sample. In a mm-high microscope, resolutions down to 800 nm have been demonstrated even when measuring with detectors as large as 138 μm × 138 μm, with field of view given by the display size. Dedicated technology would shorten measuring time

Comparison of the thermal decomposition processes of several aminoalcohol-based ZnO inks with one containing ethanolamine

Four inks for the production of ZnO semiconducting films have been prepared with zinc acetate dihy-drate as precursor salt and one among the following aminoalcohols: aminopropanol (APr), aminomethylbutanol (AMB), aminophenol (APh) and aminobenzyl alcohol (AB) as stabilizing agent. Their thermaldecomposition process has been analyzed in situ by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scan-ning calorimetry (DSC) and evolved gas analysis (EGA), whereas the solid product has been analysedex-situ by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and infrared spectroscopy (IR). Although, except for the APh ink, crys-talline ZnO is already obtained at 300◦C, the films contain an organic residue that evolves at highertemperature in the form of a large variety of nitrogen-containing cyclic compounds. The results indicatethat APr can be a better stabilizing agent than ethanolamine (EA). It gives larger ZnO crystal sizes withsimilar carbon content. However, a common drawback of all the amino stabilizers (EA included) is thatnitrogen atoms have not been completely removed from the ZnO film at the highest temperature of ourexperiments (600◦C)

Caracterización estructural de capas epitaxiadas de InGaAs/InAlAs crecidas sobre substratos (111) de InP

Se ha analizado por microscopía electrónica en transmisión (TEM) la estructura de transistores HEMT basados en un pozo cuántico tensionado de InGaAs/InAlAs crecido sobre un sustrato {111} de InP. Se han observado dislocaciones filiformes y defectos planares que cruzan la capa superior hacia la superficie, así como maclas paralelas a la interficie y grandes complejos defectivos en forma de V que se nuclean unos pocos nanometres por encima de la interficie entre el pozo cuántico y la capa superior que lo confina. La estructura de los defectos es muy diferente de la observada en heteroestructuras similares crecidas sobre sustratos {100}, hecho que sugiere que hay que tener en cuenta consideraciones sobre el proceso mismo de nucleación de los defectos junto con las convencionales relacionadas con el desajuste de redes

Active gating as a method to inhibit the crosstalk of Single Photon Avalanche Diodes in a shared well

This work presents low noise readout circuits for silicon pixel detectors based on Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes. Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes offer a high intrinsic gain as well as an excellent timing accuracy. In addition, they can be compatible with standard CMOS technologies. However, they suffer from a high intrinsic noise, which induces false counts indistinguishable from real events and represents an increase of the readout electronics area to store the false counts. We have developed new front-end electronic circuitry for Geiger mode avalanche photodiodes in a conventional 0.35 µm HV-CMOS technology based on a gated mode of operation that allows low noise operation. The performance of the pixel detector is triggered and synchronized with the particle beam thanks to the gated acquisition. The circuits allow low reverse bias overvoltage operation which also improves the noise figures. Experimental characterization of the fabricated front-end circuit is presented in this work

A Point-of-Care Device for Molecular Diagnosis Based on CMOS SPAD Detectors with Integrated Microfluidics

We describe the integration of techniques and technologies to develop a Point-of-Care for molecular diagnosis PoC-MD, based on a fluorescence lifetime measurement. Our PoC-MD is a low-cost, simple, fast, and easy-to-use general-purpose platform, aimed at carrying out fast diagnostics test through label detection of a variety of biomarkers. It is based on a 1-D array of 10 ultra-sensitive Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) detectors made in a 0.18 μm High-Voltage Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (HV-CMOS) technology. A custom microfluidic polydimethylsiloxane cartridge to insert the sample is straightforwardly positioned on top of the SPAD array without any alignment procedure with the SPAD array. Moreover, the proximity between the sample and the gate-operated SPAD sensor makes unnecessary any lens or optical filters to detect the fluorescence for long lifetime fluorescent dyes, such as quantum dots. Additionally, the use of a low-cost laser diode as pulsed excitation source and a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to implement the control and processing electronics, makes the device flexible and easy to adapt to the target label molecule by only changing the laser diode. Using this device, reliable and sensitive real-time proof-of-concept fluorescence lifetime measurement of quantum dot QdotTM 605 streptavidin conjugate is demonstrated

Characterization of linear-mode avalanche photodiodes in standard CMOS

Linear-mode Avalanche PhotoDiodes (APDs) can be fabricated in standard CMOS processes for obtaining high multiplication gains that allow to determine the number of incident photons with great precision. This idea can be exploited in several application domains, such as image sensors, optical communications and quantum information. In this work, we present a linear-mode APD fabricated in a 0.35 µm CMOS process and report its noise and gain characterization by means of two different experimental set-ups. Good matching is observed between the results obtained by means of the two different methods

Study of a sol-gel precursor and its evolution towards ZnO

The processes involved in the assembly of zinc acetate dihydrate {Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O} and ethanolamine (H2NCH2CH2OH), with or without 2-methoxyethanol as solvent, have been analysed by infrared spectra, mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, powder X-ray diffraction and computational studies. Thermal evolution of the mixtures was characterized by thermoanalytical and structural techniques (thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy). Computational studies together with experiments served to thoroughly describe the precursor and its decomposition. The thermal decomposition of the mixture and its transformation into crystalline ZnO take place in a temperature range between 50 and 450 °C through different processes. With solvent, the processes need temperatures 90 oC higher with respect to the mixture without solvent, and ZnO arises at 250 ºC