Macroelectronics
- PDF / 1,063,318 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 56 Downloads / 159 Views
Macroelectronics Robert H. Reuss, Darrel G. Hopper, and Jae-Geun Park, Guest Editors Abstract As revolutionary as microelectronics has been as a technology, there are functions that it does not address. Microelectronics focuses on ever-smaller integrated circuits (ICs) in ever-fewer square millimeters of space to increase clock speeds and decrease the power required for computer processing functions. However, applications requiring control, communications, computing, and sensing over a large area are difficult or costprohibitive to achieve because of the material incompatibilities of traditional ICs with structures, materials, and manufacturing technology. Macroelectronics addresses these applications with the aim of providing active control circuitry in situ over areas of many square meters for displays, solar panels, x-ray imagers, surface measurements, structural shape control, vehicle health monitoring, and other large-system applications. The materials challenges of macroelectronics integrated circuits (MEICs) reviewed in this issue include lightweight flexible substrates, thin-film transistors (TFTs) with IC or near-IC performance, modeling, and manufacturing technology. Compatible component materials, flexible substrates, processing conditions, host system composition, and functionality provide grand challenges that are just beginning to be addressed by researchers. Keywords: electronic material, lithography, sensor.
Electronic devices have become increasingly pervasive over the last 50 years. Advances have been driven primarily by microelectronics, based on the well-known Moore’s law that describes the increasing complexity (and therefore performance) as feature size decreases over time. While there are many issues to be addressed, as described by ITRS roadmap,1 the mainstream microelectronics industry continues to provide ever-increasing performance and functionality. However, other forms of electronics have also become important, as they address problems that conventional microelectronics cannot. The most significant of these is the display industry, which now rivals the integrated-circuit (IC) industry in terms of revenue. The technical drivers for these two major industries are essentially opposite. While the IC industry strives to make the smallest possible devices in the smallest possible area, the display industry is interested in large devices over the largest possible area. This drive to distribute the devices over large areas can be considered “macroelectronics,” because neither the active devices nor the area they cover needs to be “micro” in scale. Commercially viable macroelectronics began in 1988 with thin-film-transistor– based liquid-crystal displays (TFT-LCDs). Direct-view active-matrix liquid-crystal MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 31 • JUNE 2006
displays (AMLCDs) based on inorganic TFTs on glass substrates represent the first commercial success of macroelectronics. Sales of AMLCDs have superseded the cathode-ray tube in both revenue (2002) and units (2004) to become the dominant display technolog
