Two-dimensional materials have shown a great promise for the next-generation electronic materials due to their unique optical, physical, and chemical properties that are distinct from their bulk counterparts. Their atomic-level thickness, the feature for flexible tenability, and exposed huge surface allow various approaches for high-performance nanoscale devices. Especially, this review highlights the recent progress on two-dimensional dielectric nanosheets, which are obtained by cheap and mass-producible solution-based exfoliation process, accompanied by the preparation methods, various deposition methods, and the characteristics of devices using a dielectric nanosheet thin films. We also present a perspective on the advantages offered by this two-dimensional dielectric nanosheets for the upcoming future nanoelectonics.

Direct exposure to toxic and hazardous gases has always been considered as the most pervasive problem worldwide, leading to a gradual increase in the number of asthma patients due to NO_x/SO_x gases inhaling and exposure to 50 ppm formaldehyde gases. Therefore, the development of accurate gas sensors is a key issue for resolving these problems. To address such issues, the development of membranes for selective filtering of target molecules as well as nanocatalyst for enhancing the sensing selectivity is highly crucial. In this review, the research progress for porous membrane materials (e.g. MOFs, and graphene) and nanocatalyst technology for the development of selective and accurate gas sensors will be discussed.

Electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing, a type of direct contactless microfabrication technology, is a versatile fabrication process that enables a wide range of micro/nanopattern arrays by applying a strong electric field between the nozzle and the substrate. In general, the morphology and the thickness of polymers/quantum dot micropatterns show a systematic dependence on the diameter of the nozzle and the ink composition with a fully automated printing machine. The purpose of this report is to provide typical examples of e-jet printed micropatterns of polymers/quantum dots to explain the effect of each process variable on the result of experiments. Here, we demonstrate several operating conditions that allow high-resolution printing of layers of polymers/quantum dots with a precise control over thickness and submicron lateral resolution.

This study investigated microstructures, crystal structures, polarization, dielectric and electromechanical properties of 0.76Bi_1/2Na_1/2TiO₃-0.24SrTiO₃ (BNT-24ST)-based piezoceramcs by adding Li₂CO₃ and B₂O₃ (LB) as sintering aids for low-temperature sintering. All samples were successfully synthesized using conventional solid-state reaction method and sintered at 950, 1,000, 1,050, 1,100 and 1,175℃ for 2 hours. Without LB, specimens required sintering temperatures over 1,175℃ for sufficient densification, while the addition of 0.10-mol LB decreased the sintering temperatures down to 950℃. The average grain size and dielectric properties of BNT-24ST-10LB ceramics were enhanced with increasing sintering temperature. We found that the low-temperature sintered BNT-24ST piezoceramics by adding LB showed the d₃₃*value of 402 pm/V at 4 kV/mm after sintering at 1,050℃, which was better than that of high-temperature fired specimens sintered at 1,175℃ without LB (242 pm/V). We believe that the results of this study promise a candidate for low-cost multilayer ceramic actuator applications.

AGZO thin films were deposited on glass substrates using RF magnetron sputtering system under Ar flow rates, and their structural, electrical, and optical properties were analyzed systematically. As a result of the XRD pattern, the peak of the (002) (2θ≈33.7˚) orientation was observed, and it was found to have a hexagonal wurtzite structure. The sheet resistance of Ar 5 sccm was 3.073×10² Ω/sq and showed the best electrical properties because of the improvement of mobility due to the increase of the grain size and the variation of RMS roughness. In addition, the average transmittance was more than 90% for all samples, which demonstrated good optical properties. It is expected that the TCO characteristics can be improved by controlling Ar flow rates, and this will increase the efficiency of photoelectronic devices such as OLED and solar cells.

In this study, we investigated the optical, electrical and exothermic characteristics of ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer structures prepared with various Ag thicknesses on quartz and PI substrates. The transparent conducting properties of the ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer films depended on the thickness of the mid-layer metal film. The ITO/Ag (14 nm)/ITO showed the highest Haccke’s figure of merit (FOM) of approximately 19.3×10^-3 Ω^-1. In addition, the exothermic property depended on the substrate. For an applied voltage of 3.7 V, the ITO/Ag (14 nm)/ITO multilayers on quartz and PI substrates were heated up to 110℃ and 200℃, respectively. The bending tests demonstrated a comparable flexibility of the ITO/Ag/IT multilayer to other transparent electrodes, indicating the potential of ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer as a flexible transparent conducting heater.

In this paper, we investigated current (I)- and voltage (V)-sweeping properties in a double-stack structure, Ge₂Sb₂Te₅/Ti/W-doped Ge₈Sb₂Te₁₁, a candidate medium for applications to multilevel phase-change memory. 200-nm-thick Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ and W-doped Ge₈Sb₂Te₁₁ films were deposited on p-type Si(100) substrate using magnetron sputtering system, and the sheet resistance was measured using 4 point-probe method. The sheet resistance of amorphous-phase W-doped Ge₈Sb₂Te₁₁ film was about 1 order larger than that of Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ film. The I- and V-sweeping properties were measured using sourcemeter, pulse generator, and digital multimeter. The speed of amorphous-to-multilevel crystallization was evaluated from a graph of resistance vs. pulse duration (t) at a fixed applied voltage (12 V). All the double-stack cells exhibited a two-step phase change process with the multilevel memory states of high-middle-low resistance (HR-MR-LR). In particular, the stable MR state is required to guarantee the reliability of the multilevel phase-change memory. For the Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ (150 nm)/Ti (20 nm)/WGe₈Sb₂Te₁₁ (50 nm), the phase transformations of HR→MR and MR→LR were observed at t<30ns and t<65ns, respectively. We believe that a high speed and stable multilevel phase-change memory can be optimized by the double-stack structure of proper Ge-Sb-Te films separated by a barrier metal (Ti).

Reliability of CMOS has been severed under aggressive device scaling. Conventional technologies such as lightly doped drain (LDD) and forming gas annealing (FGA) have been applied for better device reliability, but further advances are modest. Alternatively, electro-thermal annealing (ETA) which utilizes Joule heat produced by electrodes in a MOSFET, has been newly introduced for gate dielectric curing. However, concerns about mechanical stability during the electro-thermal annealing, have not been discussed, yet. In this context, this paper demonstrates the mechanical stability of nanosheet FET during the electro-thermal annealing. The effect of mechanical stresses during the electro-thermal annealing was investigated with respect to device design parameters.

The field of liquid crystal display (LCD) is constantly in the spotlight and the process of depositing an alignment layer in the LCD manufacturing process is very important to obtain excellent performance such as low-power driving and high-speed response to improve LCD performance. Therefore, research on liquid crystal (LC) alignment is being actively conducted. When manufacturing LCD, it is necessary to consider the effect of the alignment layer thickness as one of the factors affecting various LCD performances. In addition, previous studies confirmed the LC alignment characteristics correlate with the rotation speed in the spin coating process. Therefore, the electro-optical properties of the LCD were investigated by manufacturing a polyimide alignment layer by varying the rotation speed in the spin coating process in this study. It was confirmed that the thickness of the polyimide alignment layer was controlled according to the spin coating conditions. The average transmittances of anti-parallel LC cells at the spin coating speed of 2,500 rpm and 3,000 rpm are about 60%, which indicates that the LC cell has relatively higher performance. At the spin coating speed of 3,000 rpm, the voltage-transmittance curve of twisted nematic (TN) LC cell was below 1.5 V, which means that the TN LC cell operated at a low power. In addition, high-speed operating characteristics were confirmed with a response time of less than 30 ms. From these derived data, we confirmed that the ideal spin coating speed is 3,000 rpm. And these results provide an optimized polyimide alignment layer process when considering enhanced future LCD manufacturing.

The insulator used for the transmission line is a device that is bonded with a cap, pin, ceramic, and cement to withstand insulation capacity and mechanical load. The insulator design can help to reduce the dispersion of the electric field; thus, the optimization of today’s design, especially as demanded power grows, is critical. The designs of four manufacturers were used to perform a comparative analysis. Under dry circumstances of the new product, an electric field distribution study was done with no pollutants attached. Manufacturer D’s design has the best voltage uniformity of 24.33% and the arc length of 500 mm or more. Manufacturer C’s design has an equalizing voltage of more than 2% higher than that of other manufacturers. The importance of the design of the insulator and the number of connections according to the installation conditions is very efficient for transmission lines that will increase in the future.

Piezoelectric energy harvesting technologies, which can be used to convert the electricity from the mechanical energy, have been developed in order to assist or power the wearable electronics. To realize non-toxic and biocompatible electronics, the lead-free (Ba_0.85Ca_0.15)(Ti_0.90Zr_0.10)O₃ (BCTZ) nanoparticles (NPs) are being studied with a great attention as flexible energy harvesting device. Herein, piezoelectric hybrid nanocomposites were fabricated using BCTZ NPs-embedded poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] matrix to improve the performance of flexible energy harvester. Output performance of the fabricated energy device was investigated by the well-optimized measurement system during the periodically bending and releasing motions. The generated open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current of the piezoelectric hybrid nanocomposite-based energy harvester reached up to ~15 V and ~1.1 μA, respectively; moreover, the instantaneous power of 3.5 μW is determined from load voltage and current at the external load of 20 MΩ. This research is expected to cultivate a new approach to high-performance wearable self-powering electronics.

ZnO-based transparent conductive films have been widely studied to achieve high performance optoelectronic devices such as next generation flexible and transparent display systems. In order to achieve a transparent flexible ZnO-based device, a low temperature growth technique using a flexible polymer substrate is required. In this work, high quality flexible ZnO films were grown on colorless polyimide substrate using atomic layer deposition (ALD). Transparent ZnO films grown from 80 to 200℃ were fabricated with a metal-semiconductor-metal structure photodetectors (PDs). As the growth temperature of ZnO film increases, the photocurrent of UV PDs increases, while the sensitivity of that decreases. In addition, it is found that the response times of the PDs become shorter as the growth temperature increases. Based on these results, we suggest that high-quality ZnO film can be grown below 200℃ in an atomic layer deposition system, and can be applied to transparent and flexible UV PDs with very fast response time and high photocurrent.

Despite otherwise advantageous properties, the performance and reliability of devices manufactured in ß-Ga₂O₃ on semi-insulating Ga₂O₃ substrates may degrade because of poorly mitigated self-heating, which results from the low thermal conductivity of Ga₂O₃ substrates. In this work, we investigate and compare self-heating and device performance of β-Ga₂O₃ MESFETs on substrates of semi-insulating Ga₂O₃ and 4H-SiC. Electron mobility in β-Ga₂O₃ is negatively affected by increasing lattice temperature, which consequently also negatively influences device conductance. The superior thermal conductivity of 4H-SiC substrates resulted in reduced ß-Ga₂O₃ lattice temperatures and, thus, mitigates MESFET drain current degradation. This, in turn, allows practically reduced device dimensions without deteriorating the performance and improved device reliability.

We report highly efficient quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) with TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) as an alternative electron transport layer (ETL) and poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as an insulating layer. TiO₂ NPs were applied as ETLs of inverted structured QLEDs and the effect of the addition of PMMA between ETL and emission layer (EML) on device characteristics was studied in detail. A thin PMMA layer supported to make the charge balance in the EML of QLEDs due to its insulating property, which limits electron injection effectively. Green QLEDs with a PMMA layer produced the maximum luminance of 112,488 cd/㎡ and a current efficiency of 25.92 cd/A. We expect the extended application of TiO₂ NPs as the electron transport layer in inverted structured QLEDs device in the near future.

Liquid-based Triboelectric nanogenerator (L-TENG) is one of the alternatives to solid-based Triboelectric nanogenerator (S-TENG) because of the absence of surface damage which can decrease the durability of the generator. However, the L-TENG also has an obvious drawback of significantly lower output than that of S-TENG. This article produces water-sloshing-based electricity generating device (W-ED) with a new design of L-TENG that improves electrical output in portable form. The dual-electrode system, consisting of closed-loop circuit and inner electrode which enables water to contact directly in the bottle, can generate the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current of up to 348 V and 5.1 mA, respectively. By investigating the motion of water for each frequency, we propose that W-ED is suitable device for a variety of human motions. We expect that W-ED can be applied in small electrical devices or sensors in daily-use items.