Joint Seminar by ECE Dept, SID(HK Chapter) and SKL of ADT - Emerging Applications of Thin-Film Transistors Beyond Displays
3:00pm - 4:00pm
Rm4504 (Lift 25/26), HKUST

Abstract


Being a fundamental technology that drives large area electronics such as flat panel displays, thin-film transistor (TFT) technology has experienced a rapid growth over the last decade due to a vast adoption of consumer electronics such as smart phones and TVs. In the display either AMLCDs or AMOLEDs, a TFT acts as a switch or forms a pixel driving circuit. It is an electronically-active device without sensing/transducing functionality or intelligence. Architecture wise, it often consists of three terminals of gate, source and drain like a MOSFET.


Recently, the potential of TFTs in non-display applications has been take a serious revisit mainly due to emerging new markets such as IOTs, wearable electronics and human-machine interface. These non-display applications can become new driven force for large area electronics in the coming era. In order to enable such applications, the TFT requires a design change and . We hereby propose a dual-gate field-coupled TFT architecture where its top gate is field-sensitive and its bottom gate is for control. The optical, mechanical, and thermal fields can be coupled and the output of the dual-gate TFT depends on strength of the external stimuli. In this talk, I will address some emerging applications including optical sensing and imaging, tactile sensing and electronic skin, wearable health monitoring, energy harvesting and etc. Conventional material systems forming the TFTs including amorphous silicon, low temperature polysilicon, and oxide semiconductors will be discussed.

Event Format
Speakers / Performers:
Prof. Kai WANG
Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University

Kai Wang is currently a full professor in the School of Electronics and Information Technology at Sun Yat-Sen University in China and also an adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in the US. He received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China in 2000, and M.A. Sc. degree in Microelectronics & Solid State Electronics from Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China in 2003. He earned his Ph. D. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada in 2008 and was thereafter appointed as a NSERC postdoctoral fellow in Thunder Bay Health Science Centre,Thunder Bay, Canada where he had been conducting research on biomedical X-ray imaging until he joined Apple Inc. in Cupertino, California in August 2011. At Apple Inc., he was involved in touch sensor development for various Apple products such as iPad and Apple Watch.

His current research focuses on emerging applications of thin-film transistors including flat-panel X-ray imaging, fingerprint biometrics, tactile sensors, energy harvesting, sensor interfaces and etc. He has published over 70+ journal papers/conference proceedings and coauthored 20 patents (9 awarded). He had served as an Associate Editor of IEEE/OSA Journal of Display Technology from 2013 to 2016 and is an active member of IEEE, SPIE and SID.

Language
English
Recommended For
Alumni
Faculty and staff
PG students
Organizer
Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering
Contact

Venus Pang (eevenus@ust.hk)

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