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Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-29T08:36:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-12-01 Paper electronics has emerged as an ecofriendly, light, low-cost, and recyclable material for the fabrication of flexible and printed transistors. In this study, we present fully printed organic electrochemical transistors using an active layer of PEDOT:PSS, carbon electrodes, cellulose-based electrolyte, and three different papers as substrates: bond, vegetal, and Lumi Silk, relating the electrical properties to the different morphologies of the paper surfaces. Each paper presents different regularity, diffusion capabilities, and roughness, with significant influence on the transistor performance. The more organized and smooth the surface, the better the electrical characteristics, the best of these being the Lumi Silk, with higher I on/I off ratio of 46, on-current of 8.3 10-5 A, V on of 1.3 V, and power gain of 43.5 dB associated with ultra-low hysteresis of 0.1 V, high transconductance of -57.3 μS, and suitablity for flexible electronics and sensors applications. S o Paulo State University - UNESP Faculty of Science and Technology (FCT) Physics Department, SP Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP-UNINOVA Faculty of Science and Technology (FCT) CENIMAT/I3N Department of Materials Science S o Paulo State University - UNESP Faculty of Science and Technology (FCT) Physics Department, SP

Light-reflecting characteristics play a crucial role in optically rewritable liquid crystal display (electronic paper). By using a special optimizer software, light-reflecting characteristics of the twisted nematic cell were calculated. The achieved values of the normalized reflection coefficients range within ∼ 0.03 - 0.43, which is comparable or better than other commercial technologies. The calculated contrast ratio of the device is 10 : 1. A 2D image, which can be displayed on the electronic paper was obtained. Comparison of the simulated background color and contrast ratio is very similar with the results, which were obtained in experimental cells of other studies. Our calculations indicate that angular dependence of the reflectance coefficient is almost uniform within a wide range of viewing angles.

This paper presents the integration process of an ultra-thin PZT/Si chip on paper and that it functions as a simple speaker by applying a voltage in the audible frequency range. The PZT/Si chip used is only 5-μm-thick, so it does not interfere with the flexibility of the substrate, and it can be integrated on paper because it does not use a high-temperature process in the electrode connection process. We have revealed that a paper with an ultra-thin PZT/Si chip of only 1 × 5 mm2 in size generates a fully audible sound pressure level (SPL) of about 40 dB. It was rounded to a radius of curvature of 1 cm without breaking. The overall SPL was about the same even when the paper substrate dimension was reduced to 50 mm square. This technology is expected to be applied to electronic components such as surround speakers or haptics in electronic paper.

We developed new teaching materials, electrical resistors and capacitors, using carbon nanotube (CNT) paper and carbon fibre (CF) paper to foster students’ creative thinking, thereby deepening and extending learning. Using a CNT-paper electrical resistor, it is possible to elucidate the dependence of the resistance value on the length and width. The resistance value is proportional to the length and inversely proportional to the width of the paper. In the case of the CF-paper capacitor, it is also possible to clarify the dependence of the capacitance value on the area and the distance between papers. The capacitance value is proportional to the areas of the papers and inversely proportional to the distance between them. Based on the results of our experiments using the new teaching materials, we confirmed that the measured values were in good agreement with the values predicted by theoretical calculations. Using these materials, it becomes possible for students to visually and actively learn about electrical resistance and capacitance through experiments by themselves and in discussion with other students, in contrast to the traditional teaching methods practiced in many schools worldwide. We found that teaching methods using these materials are a useful and easy way to teach the basic concepts of resistance and capacitance with geometric factors in classrooms.

Two-step activation of paper batteries has been successfully demonstrated to provide quick activation and to supply high power to credit card-sized biosystems on a plastic chip. A stack of a magnesium layer (an anode), a fluid guide (absorbent paper), a highly doped filter paper with copper chloride (a cathode) and a copper layer as a current collector is laminated between two transparent plastic films into a high power biofluid- and water-activated battery. The battery is activated by two-step activation: (1) after placing a drop of biofluid/water-based solution on the fluid inlet, the surface tension first drives the fluid to soak the fluid guide; (2) the fluid in the fluid guide then penetrates into the heavily doped filter paper with copper chloride to start the battery reaction. The fabricated half credit card-sized battery was activated by saliva, urine and tap water and delivered a maximum voltage of 1.56 V within 10 s after activation and a maximum power of 15.6 mW. When 10 k? and 1 K? loads are used, the service time with water, urine and saliva is measured as more than 2 h. An in-series battery of 3 V has been successfully tested to power two LEDs (light emitting diodes) and an electric driving circuit. As such, this high power paper battery could be integrated with on-demand credit card-sized biosystems such as healthcare test kits, biochips, lab-on-a-chip, DNA chips, protein chips or even test chips for water quality checking or chemical checking.

Electrostatic discharge, as a common natural phenomenon in daily life, seriously threatens the reliability of integrated circuit products. In order to ensure the yield of the chip, the protection circuit on the chip has become an essential and important module in the circuit design. With the continuous development of integrated circuit technology, chips are developing towards the direction of smaller area, faster speed and higher level of integration, while traditional devices such as simple diodes, tubes and SCR on integrated circuit can no longer complete the protection task of chips under advanced technology. Through the research and discussion of this paper, the methods and strategies of electrostatic discharge protection design of integrated circuits and how to choose the best electrostatic discharge protection scheme for different integrated circuits are basically mastered.

The new principle of electronic paper that can display two-dimensional (2D) or even stereoscopic three-dimensional (3D) images was developed by us. We review the structure of the display unit that is the light printable rewritable matter with polarization dependent gray scale. It consists of one or two liquid crystal displays based on optical rewritable (ORW) technology. ORW display uses bare plastic or polarizers as substrates, while no conductor is required. Continuous grey image on ORW e-paper maintains proper performance even when the device is bent. The image is changed by light printer. We discuss and experimentally verify the possible design of the light printer device based on polarization rotation. Alternative designs based on twist nematic (TN) or ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLC) operational element are also suggested. Simple construction provides durability and low cost of the ORW e-paper concept, while amazing possibility of 3D picture on ORW electronic paper is principally proved.

The first urine-activated laminated paper batteries have been demonstrated and reported in this paper. A simple and cheap fabrication process for the paper batteries has been developed which is compatible with the existing plastic laminating technologies or plastic molding technologies. In this battery, a magnesium (Mg) layer and copper chloride (CuCl) in the filter paper are used as the anode and the cathode, respectively. A stack consisting of a Mg layer, CuCl-doped filter paper and a copper (Cu) layer sandwiched between two plastic layers is laminated into the paper batteries by passing through the heating roller at 120 °C. The paper battery is tested and it can deliver a power greater than 1.5 mW. In addition, these urine-activated laminated paper batteries could be integrated with bioMEMS devices such as home-based health test kits providing a power source for the electronic circuit.

Electron grid therapy is expected to be a valid treatment for bulky superficial tumors. It is difficult, however, to fit irradiation fields to bulky superficial tumor shapes for conventional electron grid therapy with a cerrobend grid collimator. In this study, we investigated whether a grid collimator using tungsten functional paper (TFP), with its radiation shielding ability, could be used for electron grid therapy. Dose distributions were measured using 9 MeV electron grid beams from a cerrobend grid collimator. For the simulation study, the same grid irradiation fields were shaped using a TFP grid collimator (thicknesses of 0.15, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, and 1.2 cm) by laying them on a phantom. We then determined the dose distributions using Monte Carlo calculations and compared the cerrobend and TFP electron grid beams regarding dose distributions, including the depths of the maximum dose (d max), 90% dose (d 90), and 80% dose (d 80), and the ratios of the doses in the areas with and without shielding (valley to peak ratios). The equivalent dosimetric thickness was obtained with the TFP grid collimator that was equivalent to the dose distribution of the cerrobend grid collimator. For the cerrobend electron grid beams, the d max, d 90, and d 80 were 1.0, 2.1, and 2.5 cm, respectively, and the valley to peak ratios at those depths were 0.48, 0.66, and 0.73, respectively. The equivalent dosimetric thickness of TFP was 0.52 cm. The d max, d 90, and d 80 for the 0.52 cm thick TFP electron grid beams were 1.1, 1.9, and 2.3 cm, respectively, and the valley to peak ratios at those depths were 0.49, 0.63, and 0.71, respectively. The TFP grid collimator flexibly delivered excellent dose distributions by simply attaching it to the patient's skin. It could thus be used for electron grid therapy instead of the cerrobend grid collimator.

A novel display mode called the mobile fine particle display (MFPD) is proposed. Fine particles doped and dispersed in nematic liquid crystals are used in our MFPD cell. The distribution of fine particles on a plane parallel to the substrate surface can be controlled by changing applied electric field, which is a DC field or an AC field adjusted by applying DC, to obtain optical changes in the MFPD cell. The velocity of fine particles is dependent on the electric force, dielectric force and friction force acting on the particles, and the flow of liquid crystals. The MFPD shows excellent characteristics such as a high reflectivity (approximately 50%), a high contrast ratio (more than 10), and a wide viewing angle. In addition, images displayed on the MFPD can be rewritten by the application of an electric field and be sustained under a no-voltage-application condition for a long time (over 5–7 months). The characteristics of the MFPD indicate that this new type of display is suitable for electronic paper displays.

Flexible inkjet-printed antenna models are designed on paper and transparent polyethylene terephthalate substrate material for vehicular instrument communication applications. The antenna model 1 is designed initially on a low-cost photo paper substrate material and later model 2 is designed on flexible PET substrate for vehicular instrument communication with dimensions of 40×38.5×0.2 mm3. The proposed antenna model on PET substrate is providing the excellent bandwidth of 7.6 GHz with impedance bandwidth of 78%. The proposed antenna is designed to operate in vehicular communication bands, which includes the cellular communication bands, V2X communication bands and other wireless applications like Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long-Term Evolution (LTE2600), Wireless local area network 2.4 GHz (WLAN), World Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), IEEE802.11p protocol based Vehicle-to-everything 5.8 GHz, Dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) and Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments 5GHz (WAVE) communications bands. The prototyped models are fabricated and tested for validation and found perfect matching with the simulation results with respect to reflection coefficient, radiation patterns and gain. The achieved results based on the proposed techniques can be extended for other flexible substrates to design complex advanced antennas and communication modules.

The cell-free DNA in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) is a recent interesting diagnostic marker in patients with periodontal disease. The methods used to collect GCF are very important to get the proper specimen. There are several techniques used for sample collection, such as gingival washing or using a capillary tube, however, these methods are not practical to perform in the clinic since they need well-trained examiner. This study aimed to use absorbent paper strips to collect cell-free DNA fragment in GCF of patients as a diagnostic measure for periodontal diseases comparing to conventional washing technique. Thirty-nine periodontitis and 26 gingivitis teeth were selected from 26 patients according to clinical parameters. The GCF sample was randomly collected from each tooth by either paper strips or washing technique. Then, after one week, the collection of samples from the same tooth was repeated with another technique. The samples were centrifuged to get cell-free DNA in the supernatant and extracted by InstaGene Matrix. The concentration and purity of extracted DNA were determined by NanoDrop spectrophotometer. Three sets of specific primers to the human β-globin gene were used to evaluate the DNA fragment lengths, by amplifying 110 base pair (bp), 536 bp, and 2000 bp products in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The results showed no significant differences in the cell-free DNA fragment concentrations and the prevalence of PCR products between using absorbent paper strips and washing technique in either gingivitis or periodontitis groups. Therefore, with the ease and rapidity of the technique, using the absorbent paper strips for the quantitative and qualitative investigation of cell-free DNA fragment in patients with periodontal diseases instead of washing technique is recommended. Further studies are still required to confirm this finding in a large group of patients as well as in patients with other systemic health problems.

Supercapacitor have attracted much attention due to its fast power supply, long cycle life, simple principle, etc. Supercapacitors are widely used in consumer electronics. Activated carbon is a typical material for electric double layer capacitor. Here, we study the electrochemical performance of an activated carbon (TF-B520) bulky paper electrode made by vacuum filtration method. Cyclic Voltammetry and Constant Current Charge/Discharge were used to test the electrode capacitance and the rate performance. The results showing that TF-B520 activated carbon balky paper electrodes have the highest capacitance of 120F/g at scan rate 1mV/s and good capacitor behaviour at scan rate below 20mV/s and current density below 250mA/g.

The purpose of this study was the development and testing of a near-field communication (NFC) tag for cold chain monitoring. In this paper, we validated the use of large-surface printing technologies to make a high-frequency antenna (13.56 MHz) and carbon-based temperature sensor on an Arjowiggins' Powercoat™ paper substrate. The printed temperature sensor was connected to the output of the analog–digital converter of a commercial microprocessor. A direct temperature reading interface was developed. The main objectives were to demonstrate the potential of screen printing processes for the development of an NFC tag, and to validate the use of a printed resistive sensor for cold chain monitoring. The validation was carried out through the comparison of a reference temperature recorded by a thermocouple regarding the temperature recorded by the external printed sensor in the case of a cold chain break simulation.

We describe a method for fabricating paper-based microfluidic devices using a commercially available CO2 laser system. The method is versatile and allows for controlled through-cutting and ablative etching of nitrocellulose substrates. In addition, the laser system can cut a variety of components that are useful in the fabrication of paper-based devices, including cellulose wicking pads, glass fiber source pads and Mylar-based substrates for the device housing.

Conventional bricks are the most elementary building materials for houses construction. However, the rapid growth in today's construction industry has obliged the civil engineers in searching for a new building technique that may result in even greater economy, more efficient and durable as an alternative for the conventional brick. Moreover, the high demands for having a speedy and less labour and cost building systems is one of the factor that cause the changes of the masonry conventional systems. These changes have led to improved constructability, performance, and cost as well. Several interlocking bricks has been developed and implemented in building constructions and a number of researches had studied the manufacturing of interlocking brick and its structural behaviour as load bearing and non-load bearing element. This technical paper aims to review the development of interlocking brick and its structural behaviour. In conclusion, the concept of interlocking system has been widely used as a replacement of the conventional system where it has been utilized either as load bearing or non-load bearing masonry system.

We report the realization of a resettable resistive switching device based on a nanostructured film fabricated by supersonic cluster beam deposition of gold clusters on plain paper substrates. Through the application of suitable voltage ramps, we obtain, in the same device, either a complex pattern of resistive switchings, or reproducible and stable switchings between low resistance and high resistance states, with an amplitude up to five orders of magnitude. Our device retains a state of internal resistance following the history of the applied voltage similar to that reported for memristors. The two different switching regimes in the same device are both stable, the transition between them is reversible, and it can be controlled by applying voltage ramps or by mechanical deformation of the substrate. The device behavior can be related to the formation, growth and breaking of junctions between the loosely aggregated gold clusters forming the nanostructured films. The fact that our cluster-assembled device is mechanically resettable suggests that it can be considered as the analog of the coherer: a switching device based on metallic powders used for the first radio communication system.

Reduction of graphene oxide is primarily important because different reduction methods may result in graphene with totally different properties. For systematically exploring the reduction of graphene oxide, studies of the temperature-dependent electrical properties of graphene oxide (GO) are urgently required. In this work, for the first time, broadband dielectric spectroscopy was used to carry out an in situ investigation on the transition of the electrical properties of GO paper from -40 to 150 °C. The results clearly reveal a very interesting four-stage transition of electrical properties of GO paper with increasing temperature: insulator below 10 °C (stage 1), semiconductor at between 10 and 90 °C (stage 2), insulator at between 90 and 100 °C (stage 3), and semiconductor again at above 100 °C (stage 4). Subsequently, the transition mechanism was discussed in combination with detailed dielectric properties, microstructure and thermogravimetric analyses. It is suggested that the temperature-dependent transition of electronic properties of GO is closely associated with the ion mobility, water molecules removal and the reduction of GO in the GO paper. Most importantly, the present work clearly demonstrates the reduction of GO paper starts at above 100 °C.

The effect of exposure to the focused light from the xenon arc lamp on the surface tension of molten enamels was studied with a designed light beam setup as compared to that observed in conventional heating in a resistance furnace. The objects under investigation were enamels No. 261, UES-200 and UES-300. The power density of the light beam was varied in the range of (30-80) W/cm{2}. When exposed to light, the surface tension is shown to be an order of magnitude lower than that obtained in conventional furnace heating.

We focused on the off-state current (I off) of oxide semiconductor thin film transistors (TFT) (In–Ga–Zn-oxide TFTs), which is lower than that of amorphous silicon TFTs and successfully made a prototype of a 6.0-in. extended graphics array (XGA) reflective liquid crystal display (RLCD) panel integrally including a data selection demultiplexer and a scan driver and capable of displaying still images at 1/180 fps. When still images are displayed, the frame frequency can be set low. This means that the frequency of rewrites of image data is markedly reduced. This leads to the reduction in the power consumption of an LCD panel. Our panel can solve the problems of electronic paper displays: high drive voltage and difficulty of displaying moving images. Thus, our panel is suitable for electronic paper displays.

Due to the highly light scattering nature of paper, the imaging depth of optical methods such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) is limited. In this work, we study the effect of refractive index matching on improving the imaging depth of OCT in paper. To this end, four different refractive index matching liquids (ethanol, 1-pentanol, glycerol and benzyl alcohol) with a refraction index between 1.359 and 1.538 were used in experiments. Low coherent light transmission was studied in commercial copy paper sheets, and the results indicate that benzyl alcohol offers the best improvement in imaging depth, while also being sufficiently stable for the intended purpose. Constructed cross-sectional images demonstrate visually that the imaging depth of OCT is considerably improved by optical clearing. Both surfaces of paper sheets can be detected along with information about the sheet's inner structure.

Actuators based on cellulose paper with conducting polymer (CP-EAPap) as an electrode material were constructed. The bilayer and trilayer types of actuators were fabricated by depositing conducting polypyrrole on one side and two sides of cellophane paper respectively, which was previously gold coated. By varying the deposition time, the electrode thickness was manipulated. The performance of these two types of actuators was compared with respect to humidity changes and thickness variation. The electrode thickness plays a key role in the displacement behavior of these types of actuators. The best performance at higher humidity is also characteristic of CP-EAPap actuators. The possible mechanism of actuation is addressed in this paper.

This study proposes a new method for the characterization of paper surface and bulk structure: optical coherence tomography (OCT). Although having been used in medicine for years, this technique is still relatively unknown in the paper-making industry. First, we provide a brief description of a conventional PC-controlled measurement system for the OCT imaging of paper. In this set-up, a powerful superluminescent diode is used to illuminate a Michelson interferometer with a free-space configuration, and a piezo-transducer is placed in the optical delay line to modulate the measurement signal for optical heterodyne detection. The set-up is then applied to demonstrate the ability of the technique to visualize the surface structures of widely disparate paper samples using a single device. Next, the paper provides 3D images of a fibre network and of typical copy paper. The results prove that OCT is applicable not only to the 3D imaging of simple wood fibre networks, but also to the imaging of complex commercial paper, provided that an appropriate clearing agent is used. Finally, the effect of filler on the OCT signal slope calculated by averaging several A-scans from the sample is demonstrated, showing that increasing filler content produces a corresponding decrease of decay of the A-scan in depth.

We propose a new display mode using a fast-moving ball actuator (FMBA) for reflective electronic paper displays. To realize ball position stability, we developed a triangular wedge-shaped electrode instead of a conventional plane electrode. Using the wedge-shaped electrode we could achieve position stability of the ball and the operation voltage decreased from 60 to 40 V. Since the microballs move one by one, not collectively, the FMBA is free from agglomeration or lateral diffusion. Using the ball-by-ball display mode, the FMBA can achieve a fast response of less than 0.2 ms, as can be seen in quick-response liquid power displays (QR-LPDs). The FMBA can also provide a high resolution of displays over 6350 pixels per inch (PPI) for a pixel size of less than 4 µm and a ball of diameter of less than 1 µm. It is a major advantage for achieving a minute pixel size owing to the use of ball-by-ball displays.

In this paper a simple and innovative technique to combine n optical frequencies with the aim to produce a virtual laser with superior metrological characteristics is introduced. The algorithms to combine a number of clocks to produce a virtual clock, which is also referred as paper clock, are well known. An example of this is the statistical generation of the UTC time scale by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) using a recursive algorithm (ALGOS). A similar algorithm to combine n optical frequencies, all of them with same nominal value, to produce a "paper laser" whose frequency is known through its difference with respect to the optical frequencies of the ensemble is proposed here. As a demonstration of this, three optical frequencies stabilized to the D2 Cs-133 line, all of them with similar frequency stability were experimentally combined. A paper laser has been produced during hours whose frequency stability is about 3-1/2 times with respect to the original optical frequencies. This technique can be applied to combine ultra-stable optical frequencies to produce a paper laser that can be materialized by correcting one of the real optical frequencies of the ensemble. The robustness and stability of a paper laser is very attractive to produce a time scale from its operation.

A reuse fabrication module that uses micro electroremoving as a precision machining process with a new design of the cam-form tool to remove defective indium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin film from the optical PET surfaces of a digital paper display is presented. A small diameter of the cathode of the cam-form tool corresponds to a higher removal rate for the ITO nanostructure. A small edge radius of the anode and a small gap width between the cathode and the ITO surface takes less time for the same amount of ITO removal. A higher feed rate of the optical PET diaphragm combines with enough electric power to drive fast micro-electroremoving. The high rotational speed of the cam-form tool can improve the effect of dreg discharge and is advantageous to associate with the fast feed rate of the optical PET diaphragm.

Drawings were made on various types of paper using lead pencils of grades from 4H through 10B. Raman spectroscopy verified both G and D peaks on all the drawings on PC print paper, PC photopaper, kent paper, and paper for silver halide print. After irradiation with a scanning femtosecond laser, silver halide paper drawn on with a 10B lead pencil maintained its surface flatness compared with the other types of paper. Raman spectroscopy on silver print paper showed a high-intensity G peak and a low-intensity D peak. After irradiating the scanning femtosecond laser on silver halide paper drawn on with a 10B lead pencil, Raman spectroscopy showed a high-intensity G peak and less intense of D peak together with a 2D peak around 2,700 cm−1 corresponding to the existence of multigraphene.

Using commercial standard paper as a substrate has a significant cost reduction implication over other more expensive substrate materials by approximately a factor of 100 (Shenton et al 2015 EMRS Spring Meeting; Zheng et al 2013 Nat. Sci. Rep. 3 1786). Discussed here is a novel process which allows photolithography and etching of simple metal films deposited on paper substrates, but requires no additional facilities to achieve it. This allows a significant reduction in feature size down to the micron scale over devices made using more conventional printing solutions which are of the order of tens of microns. The technique has great potential for making cheap disposable devices with additional functionality, which could include flexibility and foldability, simple disposability, porosity and low weight requirements. The potential for commercial applications and scale up is also discussed.

We have developed a circuit board using materials that are inexpensive and familiar to elementary school students. Most of the responses from students who made this board were relatively positive and we observed them enjoy making the boards at a Science Festival in Japan and in elementary school. As an application, we also developed a tiny torch using similar materials and a similar method. The method of making the board and the torch are explained in detail, and the characteristics of the board are presented along with students' impressions.

The main physical principles of the operation of ring gas lasers in the laser-gyroscope regime are examined. The influence of nonreciprocal effects on the operational parameters of ring gas lasers and the methods of controlling, with the aid of the nonreciprocal magneto-optical Zeeman effect, the parameters of these lasers used in gyroscopes are discussed.

For conventional thin-film transistors (TFTs), bottom-gate or top-gate configuration is always adopted because the channel current is generally controlled by vertical capacitive coupling. In this article, depending on huge lateral electric-double-layer (EDL) capacitor induced by spatial movement of protons in phosphosilicate glass (PSG) solid electrolyte dielectrics, coplanar-gate indium-zinc-oxide (IZO)-TFTs based on the lateral capacitive coupling were fabricated on bare paper substrates. The PSG solid electrolyte films here were used at the same time as gate dielectrics and smooth buffer layers. These TFTs showed a low-voltage operation of only 1 V with a large field-effect mobility of 13.4 cm(2) V-1.s, a high current on/off ratio of 6 x 10(6) and a small subthreshold swing of 75 mV/decade. Furthermore, with introducing another coplanar gate, AND logic operation was also demonstrated on the coplanar dual-gate TFTs. These simple lateral-coupling coplanar-gate IZO-TFTs on bare paper substrates are very promising for low-cost portable sensors and bio-electronics.

Low-voltage (1.5 V) indium zinc oxide (IZO)-based electric-double-layer (EDL) thin-film transistors (TFTs) gated by nanogranular proton conducting SiO2 electrolyte films are fabricated on paper substrates. Both enhancement-mode and depletion-mode operation are obtained by tuning the thickness of the IZO channel layer. Furthermore, such flexible IZO protonic/electronic hybrid EDL TFTs can be used as artificial synapses, and synaptic stimulation response and short-term synaptic plasticity function are demonstrated. The protonic/electronic hybrid EDL TFTs on paper substrates proposed here are promising for low-power flexible paper electronics, artificial synapses and bioelectronics.

Printed electronics is a rapidly developing field where many components can already be manufactured on flexible substrates by printing or by other high speed manufacturing methods. However, the functionality of even the most inexpensive microcontroller or other integrated circuit is, at the present time and for the foreseeable future, out of reach by means of fully printed components. Therefore, it is of interest to investigate hybrid printed electronics, where regular electrical components are mounted on flexible substrates to achieve high functionality at a low cost. Moreover, the use of paper as a substrate for printed electronics is of growing interest because it is an environmentally friendly and renewable material and is, additionally, the main material used for many packages in which electronics functionalities could be integrated. One of the challenges for such hybrid printed electronics is the mounting of the components and the interconnection between layers on flexible substrates with printed conductive tracks that should provide as low a resistance as possible while still being able to be used in a high speed manufacturing process. In this article, several conductive adhesives are evaluated as well as soldering for mounting surface mounted components on a paper circuit board with ink-jet printed tracks and, in addition, a double sided Arduino compatible circuit board is manufactured and programmed.

Nanogranular Al2O3 films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition show a high proton conductivity of ~ 1.25 × 10−4 S/cm and a huge electric-double-layer (EDL) capacitance of ~4.8μF/cm2 at room temperature. Using nanogranular Al2O3 proton conducting films as gate dielectrics, junctionless indium-zincoxide (IZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) with a coplanar-gate configuration are fabricated. The unique feature of such junctionless TFTs is that the channel and source/drain electrodes are the same thin IZO film without any source/drain junction. Due to the strong EDL capacitive coupling triggered by mobile protons in nanogranular Al2O3, these TFTs show a low-voltage operation of 1.5V and a high performance with a large field-effect mobility (>18cm2/Vs), a small subthreshold swing ( 106). Our results demonstrate that such junctionless TFTs gated by Al2O3 proton conducting films have great potential applications in low-power and low-cost electronics.

We propose applying carbon-nanotube-composite Japanese washi paper (CNT-washi) to a secure authentication system. CNT-washi is easily made by a simple fabrication method. We used three-dimensional Raman spectrum mapping patterns from CNT-washi as a special "key" for a secure authentication system. CNTs automatically form complex patterns in the paper, and it is very difficult to copy these patterns owing to their nanometer size. We observed Raman spectra at divided areas of each CNT-washi sample and prepared mapping patterns. The observed pattern of a sample was different from those of the other samples because the variety or concentration of the CNTs differs between samples. We calculated correlation coefficients between the mapping data of the prepared samples. Experimental results indicate that the patterns of our CNT-washi can be used as a "key" for authentication systems.

A paper for offset printing was exposed to radio frequency discharge plasma and radio frequency electromagnetic field. Optical response and structural features of paper before and after the treatment have been investigated by several techniques: digital laser speckle photography, laser Stokes polarimetry and attenuated total reflectance (ATR). The changes of statistical distributions of speckle patterns has been observed for plasma treated paper as a result of increase of correlative dimensions of structural heterogeneity of modified paper. It is shown also that the radio wave treatment leads to anisotropy reduction in the paper structure that is more apparent if the magnetic field lines are oriented transversely to the plane of a paper sheet.

The demand for high-quality recycled pulp products has increased the need for an efficient deinking process. Assessing process efficiency via residual ink on test sheets has so far been limited to the sheet surface due to the poor transparency of paper. A refractive index matching method was studied to obtain a quantitative measure of particles within the volume of a paper sheet. In actual measurements a glass plate with etched lines from 8.5 ?m to 281.1 ?m wide was placed beneath the layers of cleared paper, and visible lines were counted with a microscope. Three different paper grades were tested with transparentizing agents. A diffusion theory-based regression model was used to find a correlation between transparency, paper grammage and paper thickness. These equations enable the determination of the size of an object detectable from a paper with a certain transparentizing agent or the parameters of a test sheet needed to detect objects of a known size. Anise oil was found to be the better of the two agents used, and they both had better transparentizing ability than air or water. The transparent paper grammage of the paper grades was determined for all the tested media. Paper's transparency was found to depend more on paper's thickness than grammage.

The legitimacy of the approach, proposed by Yu N Parkhomenko for dealing with the operation of solid-state lasers with dispersive cavities, is discussed. Additional information is provided on the neodymium glass laser, used in the present author's experiment. Comment on A Yu N Parkhomenko 1998 Quantum Electron. 28 1102. (discussion)

This paper describes an apparatus designed for investigating the usefulness of an optical method for measuring the formation of paper (areal distribution of mass in a small scale). The investigation is based on comparing light transmittance values (optical method) with values of grammage-estimated by absorption of beta radiation-on exactly the same spots of the sheet using an aperture 1 mm in diameter. The measurements are performed coaxially through the same collimator orifice of a stationary specimen. The information of the optical method is separated from that of the beta measurement using a very thin mirror in the collimator, which turns the light 90 degrees aside and lets the beta radiation through. The precision of the optical measurement is 0.02% of the meter reading (coefficient of variation). The precision of grammage measurement depends on the number of pulses counted, being 0.47% of the meter reading at a pulse level of 50000 counts/point (coefficient of variation).

An automatically recording densitometer is described depending on the use of a photomultiplier operated at constant anode current. The application of this instrument to evaluation of electrophoresis data from filter paper strips is discussed. Some advantages of the circuit are outlined.

Active control of chirality in the terahertz frequency range is of great importance in many scientific areas, which include research into fundamental optical phenomena, investigation of novel materials, spectroscopy, imaging, wireless communications and chemistry. The lack of efficient, integrated and fast-reconfigurable polarization modulators has hindered, so far, the full exploitation of applications in all the aforementioned fields. Metamaterials are artificial resonant elements possessing unique remarkable properties such as high efficiency and miniaturization capability. The interplay of metallic metamaterial arrays with electrostatically tunable monolayer graphene has been demonstrated to be a valid approach for the realization of a novel class of THz devices. In this work, the realization of active chiral graphene/metamaterial modulator is presented. The versatility of this experimental approach allowed the device integration with broadband sources such as terahertz time domain spectrometers as well as with quantum cascade lasers. A continuous rotation of the polarization plane > 30° has been reported with a reconfiguration speed > 5 MHz. These results pave the way to the integration of fast terahertz polarization modulators in all the applications where these devices are in great demand.

The results are given of investigations of direct laser printing methods. These are based on the effects of the interaction of high-power laser radiation with thin films of printing ink, deposited on paper and on other media. The characteristics of the printing processes were determined experimentally and their resolving power and printing rate were estimated. It was found that it should be possible to use CO2 and YAG:Nd3+ lasers for printing out data from a computer.

This paper presents the use of a deformable mirror (DM) configured to rapidly refocus a microscope employing a high numerical aperture objective lens. An Alpao DM97-15 membrane DM was used to refocus a 40x/0.80 NA water-immersion objective through a defocus range of -50 to 50 microns at 26.3 sweeps per second. We achieved imaging with a mean Strehl metric of > 0.6 over a field of view in the sample of 200 x 200 microns over a defocus range of 77 microns. We describe an optimisation procedure where the mirror is swept continuously in order to avoid known problems of hysteresis associated with the membrane DM employed. This work demonstrates that a DM-based refocusing system could in the future be used in light-sheet fluorescence microscopes to achieve video-rate volumetric imaging. Keywords: adaptive optics, remote refocusing, light-sheet fluorescence microscopy, deformable mirror

The composition of livestock and human feces are relatively complex. In addition to being rich in organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, there are also a large number of pathogenic bacteria, parasite eggs, antibiotics, and large doses of heavy metal additives. Livestock and human feces are good organic fertilizers, but if they are used without effective treatment, they will cause great damage to the environment. Because heat pumps have the advantages of low power consumption, environmental friendliness, easy automatic control, good quality of dried products, and saving drying time, heat pumps have been used to dry seafood, grains, and other materials. This paper set chicken manure as the research object, designed a set of heat pump drying devices to reduce and harmlessly treat the chicken manure, and used FLUENT software to simulate the drying oven, and drew the conclusion that the chicken manure can be dried evenly according to the set conditions in the drying oven.

Cold-Formed Steel (CFS) section for several decades was not considered as a structural member in building and civil engineering constructions due to inadequate technical information available about its usage, despite the potentials it demonstrated as proven by current research studies. Therefore, this paper aimed at demonstrating the structural capability of CFS section as a sustainable structural member in building and civil engineering constructions. Some research studies conducted reported in this paper shows the possibility of CFS section to be utilized as a structural member in the construction industries. Results from the research studies reported shows that flexural capacities were found to be increased when the CFS section was integrated compositely. In conclusion, and as demonstrated in this paper based on the studies reported, the CFS section can be employed as a sustainable structural member in small and medium size buildings, civil engineering and in lightweight industrial constructions.