This book on pressure-induced phase transitions in AB2X4 chalcogenide compounds deals with one important AmBnXp material. The interest in these materials is caused by their properties. The results are discussed for three main groups of structural families: cubic-spinel structures, defective tetragonal structures, and other structures like layered and wurtzite-type modifications. A systematic analysis of the behavior of cubic (spinel), tetragonal (defect chalcopyrites and stannites) and other crystal modifications of AB2X4 compounds under hydrostatic pressure is performed. The behavior of AIIAl2S4, AIIGa2S4, AIIAl2Se4 and AIIGa2Se4 compounds with defective tetragonal structures, compounds with layered and wurtzite structures under hydrostatic pressure and the pressure dependence of the band gap, lattice parameters, interatomic distances, vibrational modes and pressure-induced phase transitions is discussed. Many of these compounds, except oxide spinels, undergo a pressure-induced phase transition towards the rocksalt-type structure. The phase transition is preceded by disorder in the cation sublattice. The dependence of the transition pressure to the rocksalt-type structure as a function of the compound ionicity and the size criterion is analyzed. At high pressures, all ordered-vacancy compounds are found to exhibit a band anticrossing between several conduction bands that leads to a strong decrease of its pressure coefficient and consequently to a strong non-linear pressure dependence of the direct bandgap energy. Theoretical studies of phase transitions in several ordered-vacancy compounds reveal that the existence of ordered vacancies alter the cation-anion bond distances and their compressibilities. The book is written for students, Ph D. students and specialists in materials science, phase transitions and new materials.

This volume reviews the latest trends in organic optoelectronic materials. Each comprehensive chapter allows graduate students and newcomers to the field to grasp the basics, whilst also ensuring that they have the most up-to-date overview of the latest research. Topics include: organic conductors and semiconductors; conducting polymers and conjugated polymer semiconductors, as well as their applications in organic field-effect-transistors; organic light-emitting diodes; and organic photovoltaics and transparent conducting electrodes. The molecular structures, synthesis methods, physicochemical and optoelectronic properties of the organic optoelectronic materials are also introduced and described in detail. The authors also elucidate the structures and working mechanisms of organic optoelectronic devices and outline fundamental scientific problems and future research directions. This volume is invaluable to all those interested in organic optoelectronic materials.

X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) is a powerful technique with which to probe the properties of matter, equally applicable to the solid, liquid and gas phases. Semiconductors are arguably our most technologically-relevant group of materials given they form the basis of the electronic and photonic devices that now so widely permeate almost every aspect of our society. The most effective utilisation of these materials today and tomorrow necessitates a detailed knowledge of their structural and vibrational properties. Through a series of comprehensive reviews, this book demonstrates the versatility of XAS for semiconductor materials analysis and presents important research activities in this ever growing field. A short introduction of the technique, aimed primarily at XAS newcomers, is followed by twenty independent chapters dedicated to distinct groups of materials. Topics span dopants in crystalline semiconductors and disorder in amorphous semiconductors to alloys and nanometric material as well as in-situ measurements of the effects of temperature and pressure. Summarizing research in their respective fields, the authors highlight important experimental findings and demonstrate the capabilities and applications of the XAS technique. This book provides a comprehensive review and valuable reference guide for both XAS newcomers and experts involved in semiconductor materials research.

This unique book provides an up-to-date overview of the concepts behind lead-free soldering techniques. Readers will find a description of the physical and mechanical properties of lead-free solders, in addition to lead-free electronics and solder alloys. Additional topics covered include the reliability of lead-free soldering, tin whiskering and electromigration, in addition to emerging technologies and research.

This book presents the latest developments in semiconducting materials and devices, providing up-to-date information on the science, processes, and applications in the field. A wide range of topics are covered, including optoelectronic devices, metal-semiconductor junctions, heterojunctions, MISFETs, LEDs, semiconductor lasers, photodiodes, switching diodes, tunnel diodes, Gunn diodes, solar cells, varactor diodes, IMPATT diodes, and advanced semiconductors. Detailed attention is paid to advanced and futuristic materials. In addition, clear explanations are provided of, for example, electron theories, high-field effects, the Hall effect, transit-time effects, drift and diffusion, breakdown mechanisms, equilibrium and transient conditions, switching, and biasing. The book is designed to meet the needs of undergraduate engineering students and will also be very useful for postgraduate students; it will assist in preparation for examinations at colleges and universities and for other examinations in engineering. Practice questions are therefore presented in both essay and multiple choice format, and many solved examples and unsolved problems are included.

This book offers readers a snapshot of the progression of molecular modeling in the electronics industry and how molecular modeling is currently being used to understand materials to solve relevant issues in this field. The reader is introduced to the evolving role of molecular modeling, especially seen from the perspective of the IEEE community and modeling in electronics. This book also covers the aspects of molecular modeling needed to understand the relationship between structures and mechanical performance of materials. The authors also discuss the transitional topic of multiscale modeling and recent developments on the atomistic scale and current attempts to reach the submicron scale, as well as the role that quantum mechanics can play in performance prediction.

This book will address the advances, applications, research results, and emerging areas of optics, photonics, computational approaches, nano-photonics, bio-photonics, with applications in information systems. The objectives are to bring together novel approaches, analysis, models, and technologies that enhance sensing, measurement, processing, interpretation, and visualization of information. The book will concentrate on new approaches to information systems, including integration of computational algorithms, bio-inspired models, photonics technologies, information security, bio-photonics, and nano-photonics. Applications include bio-photonics, digitally enhanced sensing and imaging systems, multi-dimensional optical imaging and image processing, bio-inspired imaging, 3D visualization, 3D displays, imaging on nano-scale, quantum optics, super resolution imaging, photonics for biological applications, microscopy, information optics, and holographic information systems.

An effective and cost efficient protection of electronic system against ESD stress pulses specified by IEC 61000-4-2 is paramount for any system design. This pioneering book presents the collective knowledge of system designers and system testing experts and state-of-the-art techniques for achieving efficient system-level ESD protection, with minimum impact on the system performance. All categories of system failures ranging from 'hard' to 'soft' types are considered to review simulation and tool applications that can be used. The principal focus of System Level ESD Co-Design is defining and establishing the importance of co-design efforts from both IC supplier and system builder perspectives. ESD designers often face challenges in meeting customers' system-level ESD requirements and, therefore, a clear understanding of the techniques presented here will facilitate effective simulation approaches leading to better solutions without compromising system performance. With contributions from Robert Ashton, Jeffrey Dunnihoo, Micheal Hopkins, Pratik Maheshwari, David Pomerenke, Wolfgang Reinprecht, and Matti Usumaki, readers benefit from hands-on experience and in-depth knowledge in topics ranging from ESD design and the physics of system ESD phenomena to tools and techniques to address soft failures and strategies to design ESD-robust systems that include mobile and automotive applications. The first dedicated resource to system-level ESD co-design, this is an essential reference for industry ESD designers, system builders, IC suppliers and customers and also Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Key features: * Clarifies the concept of system level ESD protection. * Introduces a co-design approach for ESD robust systems. * Details soft and hard ESD fail mechanisms. * Detailed protection strategies for both mobile and automotive applications. * Explains simulation tools and methodology for system level ESD co-design and overviews available test methods and standards. * Highlights economic benefits of system ESD co-design.

The rapid evolution of integrated circuit technology has brought with it many new materials and processing steps at the nano-scale which boost the electrical performance of devices, resulting in faster and more functionally-complex electronics. However, working at this reduced scale can bring second order effects that degrade efficiency and reliability. This book describes methods for the characterization, modelling, and simulation prediction of these second order effects in order to optimise performance, energy efficiency and new uses of nano-scaled semiconductor devices. The devices and materials covered include bulk MOSFETs, silicon-on-insulator FET devices, FinFET devices, tunneling FETs, nanowires, quantum dots, amorphous and SiGe alloys, photodetectors and micro-machined bolometers, and CMOS process-compatible silicon-in-package. The modeling and characterisation methods include computer-aided-design tools; classical, semi-classical, and quantum-semi-classical approaches; impact of technology process on device modeling; measurement and extraction of basic electrical parameters; parasitic effects and de-embedding under non-conventional bias conditions; lifetime and failure mechanisms; bias temperature instability; time-dependent breakdown mechanisms; and new approaches for device characterization including magneto-conductance and magneto-tunneling. Nano-Scaled Semiconductor Devices is essential reading for researchers and advanced students in academia, and industry working on electronic devices, nanotechnology and semiconductor characterization. The book also covers a review on applications with a high societal impact, such as; chain food production, smart and green urban environments, water decontamination, and energy efficiency, which may serve as a reference for governmental and environmental institutions working on green and sustainable world environment initiatives.

The design of embedded systems warrants a new perspective because of the following two reasons: Firstly, slow and energy inefficient memory hierarchies have already become the bottleneck of the embedded systems. It is documented in the literature as the memory wall problem. Secondly, the software running on the contemporary embedded devices is becoming increasingly complex. It is also well understood that no silver bullet exists to solve the memory wall problem. Therefore, this book explores a collaborative approach by proposing novel memory hierarchies and software optimization techniques for the optimal utilization of these memory hierarchies. Linking memory architecture design with memory-architecture aware compilation results in fast, energy-efficient and timing predictable memory accesses.

This book mainly focuses on the study of the high-temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 by vacuum, ultra-violet, laser-based, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). A new form of electron coupling has been identified in Bi2212, which occurs in the superconducting state. For the first time, the Bogoliubov quasiparticle dispersion with a clear band back-bending has been observed with two peaks in the momentum distribution curve in the superconducting state at a low temperature. Readers will find useful information about the technique of angle-resolved photoemission and the study of high-temperature superconductors using this technique. Dr. Wentao Zhang received his PhD from the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

This thesis combines quantum electrical engineering with electron spin resonance, with an emphasis on unraveling emerging collective spin phenomena. The presented experiments, with first demonstrations of the cavity protection effect, spectral hole burning and bistability in microwave photonics, cover new ground in the field of hybrid quantum systems. The thesis starts at a basic level, explaining the nature of collective effects in great detail. It develops the concept of Dicke states spin-by-spin, and introduces it to circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED), applying it to a strongly coupled hybrid quantum system studied in a broad regime of several different scenarios. It also provides experimental demonstrations including strong coupling, Rabi oscillations, nonlinear dynamics, the cavity protection effect, spectral hole burning, amplitude bistability and spin echo spectroscopy.

Laser materials processing has made tremendous progress and is now at the forefront of industrial and medical applications. The book describes recent advances in smart and nanoscaled materials going well beyond the traditional cutting and welding applications. As no analytical methods are described the examples are really going into the details of what nowadways is possible by employing lasers for sophisticated materials processing giving rise to achievements not possible by conventional materials processing.

This book provides a comprehensive monograph on gate stacks in semiconductor technology. It covers the major latest developments and basics and will be useful as a reference work for researchers, engineers and graduate students alike. The reader will get a clear view of what has been done so far, what is the state-of-the-art and which are the main challenges ahead before we come any closer to a viable Ge and III-V MOS technology.

This book is based on nearly a decade of materials and electronics research at the leading research institution on the nitride topic in Europe. It is a comprehensive monograph and tutorial that will be of interest to graduate students of electrical engineering, communication engineering, and physics; to materials, device, and circuit engineers in research and industry; to all scientists with a general interest in advanced electronics.

Today's solar cell multi-GW market is dominated by crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafer technology, however new cell concepts are entering the market. One very promising solar cell design to answer these needs is the silicon hetero-junction solar cell, of which the emitter and back surface field are basically produced by a low temperature growth of ultra-thin layers of amorphous silicon. In this design, amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) constitutes both emitter" and base-contact/back surface field" on both sides of a thin crystalline silicon wafer-base (c-Si) where the electrons and holes are photogenerated; at the same time, a-Si: H passivates the c-Si surface. Recently, cell efficiencies above 23% have been demonstrated for such solar cells.

In this book, the editors present an overview of the state-of-the-art in physics and technology of amorphous-crystalline heterostructure silicon solar cells. The heterojunction concept is introduced, processes and resulting properties of the materials used in the cell andtheir heterointerfaces are discussed and characterization techniques and simulation tools are presented.

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This thesis focuses on two areas - the development of miniature plastic lasers that can be powered by LEDs, and the application of these lasers as highly sensitive sensors for vapours of nitroaromatic explosives (e.g. TNT). Polymer lasers are extremely compact visible lasers; the research described in the thesis is groundbreaking, driving forward the technology and physical understanding to allow these lasers to be routinely pumped by a single high-power LED. A notable advance in the work is the demonstration of nanoimprinted polymer lasers, which exhibit the world's lowest pump threshold densities by two orders of magnitude. The thesis also advances the application of these compact, novel lasers as highly sensitive detectors of explosive vapours, demonstrating that rapid detection can be achieved when microporous polymers are used. This work also demonstrates a prototype CMOS-based microsystem sensor for explosive vapours, exploiting a new detection approach.

High-level synthesis - also called behavioral and architectural-level synthesis - is a key design technology to realize systems on chip/package of various kinds, whether single or multi-processors, homogeneousor heterogeneous, for the emb- ded systems market or not. Actually, as technology progresses and systems become increasingly complex, the use of high-level abstractions and synthesis methods becomes more and more a necessity. Indeed, the productivityof designers increases with the abstraction level, as demonstrated by practices in both the software and hardware domains. The use of high-level models allows designers with systems, rather than circuit, backgroundto be productive, thus matching the trend of industry whichisdeliveringanincreasinglylargernumberofintegratedsystemsascompared to integrated circuits. The potentials of high-level synthesis relate to leaving implementation details to the design algorithms and tools, including the ability to determine the precise timing of operations, data transfers, and storage. High-level optimization, coupled with high-levelsynthesis, canprovidedesignerswith the optimalconcurrencystr- ture for a data ow and corresponding technological constraints, thus providing the balancing act in the trade-offbetween latency and resource usage. For complex s- tems, the design space exploration, i.e., the systematic search for the Pareto-optimal points, can only be done by automated high-level synthesis and optimization tools. Nevertheless, high-level synthesis has been showing a long gestation period. Despite early resultsin the 1980s, it is still not commonpracticein hardwaredes

This book explores the relationship between electronic correlations, dimensionality, inhomogeneities, and superconductivity in low-dimensional systems by studying single crystals of the quasi-one-dimensional Na2- Mo6Se6, composed of MoSe filaments weakly coupled by Na atoms and subject to intrinsic disorder ( > 0). It shows that the Na2- Mo6Se6 displays strong electronic correlations in its normal state, whereas a superconducting ground state emerges from Anderson localized electrons. Two novel behaviors of the superconducting state are observed: first, a disorder induced enhancement of the superconducting transition temperature; second, a reentrant phase coherence with increasing temperature, magnetic field, and current. It also analyzes the intrinsic properties of Na2- Mo6Se6 are analyzed to offer a thorough understanding of these phenomena. The emergence of superconductivity in such low-dimensional systems provides a fruitful playground to explore electronic order and correlations.

Quantum dots as nanomaterials have been extensively investigated in the past several decades from growth to characterization to applications. As the basis of future developments in the field, this book collects a series of state-of-the-art chapters on the current status of quantum dot devices and how these devices take advantage of quantum features. Written by 56 leading experts from 14 countries, the chapters cover numerous quantum dot applications, including lasers, LEDs, detectors, amplifiers, switches, transistors, and solar cells. "Quantum Dot Devices" is appropriate for researchers of all levels of experience with an interest in epitaxial and/or colloidal quantum dots. It provides the beginner with the necessary overview of this exciting field and those more experienced with a comprehensive reference source."

This book details the chemistry of visible light-induced photocatalysis using different classes of nanocomposites. Starting with a general introduction and explanation of basic principles and mechanisms of (visible) light-induced photocatalysis in the first two chapters (not omitting a plaidoyer for furthering research and development in this promising field), the following chapters detail the different types and classes of nanocomposites currently used in light-induced photocatalytic applications, including e.g. metal and mixed metal-oxide nanoparticles and -composites, nanoporous materials, polymeric and carbon-based nanocomposites. They explain the characteristics and importance of the different types of nanocomposites, as well as their synthesis and fabrication.In the end of the book an outlook on the unique applications of novel nanocomposites is offered, for example in water treatment and disinfection and removal of pollutants from wastewater, self-cleaning window panes based on photoactive materials, and many more. The book also addresses the challenges in present photocatalytic research, and therefore is a must-read for everybody interested in the developing field of nanocomposites and visible light-induced photocatalysis.

Due to the ever increasing electric fields in scaled CMOS devices, reliability is becoming a showstopper for further scaled technology nodes. Although several groups have already demonstrated functional Si channel devices with aggressively scaled Equivalent Oxide Thickness (EOT) down to 5A, a 10 year reliable device operation cannot be guaranteed anymore due to severe Negative Bias Temperature Instability.

This book focuses on the reliability of the novel (Si)Ge channel quantum well pMOSFET technology. This technology is being considered for possible implementation in next CMOS technology nodes, thanks to its benefit in terms of carrier mobility and device threshold voltage tuning. We observe that it also opens a degree of freedom for device reliability optimization. By properly tuning the device gate stack, sufficiently reliable ultra-thin EOT devices with a 10 years lifetime at operating conditions are demonstrated.

The extensive experimental datasets collected on a variety of processed 300mm wafers and presented here show the reliability improvement to be process - and architecture-independent and, as such, readily transferable to advanced device architectures as Tri-Gate (finFET) devices. We propose a physical model to understand the intrinsically superior reliability of the MOS system consisting of a Ge-based channel and a SiO2/HfO2 dielectric stack.

The improved reliability properties here discussed strongly support (Si)Ge technology as a clear frontrunner for future CMOS technology nodes."

This volume provides a comprehensive study of the field Reconfigurable Computing. It provides an entry point to the novice willing to move in the research field reconfigurable computing, FPGA and system on programmable chip design. The book can also be used as teaching reference for a graduate course in computer engineering, or as reference to advance electrical and computer engineers. It provides a very strong theoretical and practical background to the field of reconfigurable computing, from the early Estrin's machine to the very modern architecture like coarse-grained reconfigurable device and the embedded logic devices. Apart from the introduction and the conclusion, the main chapters of the book are Architecture of reconfigurable systems, Design and implementation, High-Level Synthesis for Reconfigurable Devices, Temporal placement, On-line and Dynamic Interconnection, Designing a reconfigurable application on Xilinx Virtex FPGA, System on programmable chip, Applications.