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In this paper, a detailed reliability analysis of metal-oxide conductive bridge memories (CBRAM) is presented. This paper mostly focuses on electrical characterization of metal-oxide CBRAM devices endurance, using optimized program/erase conditions, and data retention at high temperature. The addition of a thin metal-oxide layer (0.5 nm-thick Al2O3) in the bottom of the GdOx memory stack significantly increases the ROFF and the memory window (more than one decade), with improved endurance performance (up to 105 cycles) with respect to the monolayer CBRAM device. Meanwhile, high thermal stability was also achieved (two decades of window margin are constantly maintained beyond 24 h at 250 °C). The bilayer oxide GdOX/Al2O3 CBRAM is a promising technology for potential future high density memory applications.

Among the diverse and ever-expanding list of candidate technologies to serve the Internet of Everything, the rise of thin-film transistors on plastic as active components for ubiquitous ICs has been nothing short of meteoric. The stage for this explosion of interest was set by a pivotal advantage of the low manufacturing cost and ultrathin form factor, as demonstrated in recent prototypes of thin-film radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. Most RFID tags use inductive antennas, whereas, in this paper, capacitively coupled antenna is presented. Advantages of capacitive-coupled tags are the monolithic integrated antenna, the compact size, the additional security due to very short range of operation, and the localization and orientation abilities. The main circuit block of the tag, a 12-bit code generator, is demonstrated achieving only 160 nW of power dissipation at 0.3 V power supply transmitting data at 810 b/s on a 18 $\mu \text{m}$ -thick plastic substrate. The footprint of the monolithic integrated antenna is 1 cm2 and essentially defines the size of the full tag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts have been made by the researchers to enhance the sensitivity of a humidity sensor by selecting and fabricating different nanostructures thin films and optimizing their pore morphology. However, other characteristics, such as nonlinearity, hysteresis, reproducibility, response and recovery times, and selectivity, are equally important for real time measurement, monitoring, and controlling of humidity. It is reported that a low signal frequency is essential for enhanced sensitivity, but the effect of the signal frequency on other characteristics is rarely investigated. We have investigated the role of the signal frequency on the response characteristics of a nanostructure ceramic thin-film interdigitated electrode humidity sensor for the first time. Our studies show that although the sensitivity is high at low frequency, the performance of the sensor is highly nonlinear and frequency dependent. At high frequency above 100 kHz, the sensitivity is reduced, but other characteristics of the sensors are improved significantly. Improved characteristics are due to the reduced effect of double layer capacitance that plays a significant role for extreme sensitivity at low frequency. The effect of double layer capacitance is rarely considered for evaluating the response characteristics in the literatures. Results show that at 200-kHz frequency, nonlinearity and hysteresis are 9.39% and 16.77%, while at 100 Hz, these values are 5588% and 70.8%, respectively. Improve response characteristics will reduce the complexity of signal conditioning, particularly nonlinearity and hysteresis, the compensation of which is essential for almost all types of humidity sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An interesting ammonia gas sensor based on a p-type NiO thin film, prepared by a radio frequency sputtering process, is studied and demonstrated. As compared with conventional n-type metal-oxide sensors, the studied device shows comparable and good sensing performance, including a high-sensing response ratio of 289%, a lower response time of 31 s, and a lower recovery time of 78 s, under an introduced 1000 ppm NH3/air gas at 250 °C and 350 °C, respectively. In addition, the studied sensor device exhibits a lower detection limit (<5 ppm NH3/air) at 250 °C. Consequently, based on these advantages and inherent benefits of low cost, chemical stability, and easy fabrication, etc., the studied NiO thin-film sensor shows the promise for high-performance ammonia gas sensing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A bidirectional communication protocol allows radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to have readout of multiple tags in the RF field without collision of data. In this paper, we realized bidirectional communication between a reader system and thin-film RFID tag by introducing a novel protocol for the uplink communication. Amplitude modulation on the 13.56-MHz base carrier is used to transmit the uplink clock, whereas the data is modulated by varying pulsewidths on this clock. The technology for the thin-film RFID tags combines metal-oxide n-type transistors with organic p-type transistors resulting in a hybrid complementary technology flow. The design of the RFID tag comprises of two metal-oxide transistor rectifiers and a comparator to decode the data transmitted by the reader and different code generators that send 8 bits or 96 bits to the reader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report on the fabrication of Mo-oxide nanostructures and nanoarchitectures using an atmospheric-microplasma (AMP) system. This AMP system shows a high degree of flexibility and is capable of producing several different nanostructures and nanoarchitectures by varying the process parameters. The low-cost and simplicity of the process are important characteristics for nanomanufacturing, and AMPs offer such advantages. In addition, AMPs have shown the ability of promoting self-organization of nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A monolithic gas sensor array fabricated in industrial CMOS technology combined with post-CMOS micromachining is presented. The device comprises an array of three metal-oxide-coated micro-hotplates with integrated MOS transistor heaters and the needed driving and signal-conditioning circuitry. Three digital PID controllers enable individual temperature regulation for each hotplate. The operating temperature of the SnO2 metal-oxide sensors may amount up to 350°C. A serial interface and the temperature control units have been implemented digitally. Emphasis was put on designing a modular system with the required analog circuitry reduced to a minimum. With its small overall size of 5.5 × 4.5 mm², its digital interface and its good hotplate thermal efficiency of 6 °C/mW, the system represents a significant development on the way to low-cost mobile gas sensor systems. The limit of detection at constant temperatures has been assessed to be below 1 ppm for CO and approximately 100 ppm for CH4. The mainly digital implementation with a maximum sampling rate of 9.3 kHz for all three sensors offers the advantage to apply a power-saving mode and temperature modulation techniques to enhance the analyte discrimination capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A small dipole magnet designed for use in high-radiation environments that uses metal-oxide Cable-In-Conduit-Conductor has been constructed and tested for magnetic properties. The conductor consisted of 42 strands of 0.5 mm diameter wires, in a conduit with outer dimension of 10 mm x 10 mm. The magnet carried about 8 kA. This gives an engineering current density of 80A/mm2. The current density in the cable bundle is approximately 1 kA/mm2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]