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Background: In patients with acute symptomatic stroke, reinforcement of transdural angiogenesis using multiple burr hole (MBH) procedures after EPO (erythropoietin) treatment has rarely been addressed. We aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of cranial MBH procedures under local anesthesia for augmenting transdural revascularization after EPO treatment in patients with stroke with perfusion impairments. Methods: This prospective, randomized, blinded-end point trial recruited patients with acute ischemic stroke with a perfusion impairment of grade ≥2 within 14 days of symptom onset, steno-occlusive mechanisms on imaging examinations, and absence of transdural collaterals on transfemoral cerebral angiography. Patients were randomly assigned to receive MBH + EPO or MBH alone. The primary and secondary outcomes were revascularization success (trans-hemispheric and trans-burr hole) at 6 months and adverse events, respectively. Results: We evaluated 42 of the 44 targeted patients, with 2 patients lost to follow-up. The combined and MBH-only (n=21 each) groups showed no differences in demographic characteristics and baseline perfusion parameters. Significantly, more cases of trans-hemispheric (19/21 [90.5%] versus 12/21 [57.1%]) and trans-burr hole (42/58 [72.4%] versus 30/58 [51.7%]) revascularization and significant improvements in perfusion parameters were observed in the combined group relative to the MBH-only group. No differences in treatment-related complications were observed between groups. Even after adjustment for potential covariates, EPO usage was an independent factor of successful hemispheric revascularization in this study (odds ratio, 6.41 [95% CI, 1.08–38.02]). Conclusions: The combination of MBH and EPO is safe and feasible for reinforcing transdural revascularization in acute steno-occlusive patients with perfusion impairments. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov ; Unique identifier: NCT02603406.

Recently, various studies have been conducted on hydrogen energy as a means of replacing conventional fuels. Polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs) are being studied as a means of producing hydrogen for renewable energy. The PEMWE can be operated over a wider range than other types of water electrolyzers and can be connected to a renewable energy source, such as solar or wind. However, further studies are required because the water accompanying the hydrogen in the cathode presents a problem regarding hydrogen purity and storage. The phenomenon of water transport which is occurred on the PEMWE is analyzed by electro-osmotic drag and diffusion in the membrane. Electro-osmotic drag coefficients which are calculated by mass flow rate of discharged water with hydrogen are compared to the results of previous studies. The results of Electro-osmotic drag coefficient are different from previous studies at each operating condition. This difference is considered to be caused by the capacity of PEMWE such as active area and the number of cell.

Post-cardiac arrest brain injury (PCABI) is a major cause of disability and death in patients with post-cardiac arrest syndrome (PCAS). However, there have been no suitable animal models with characteristic behaviors and cerebral damage adequately mimicking clinical PCABI.We established a chimeric model by increasing transient middle cerebral artery occlusion-mediated ipsilateral hemisphere damage in the 4-vessel occlusion (4VO) model, thereby inducing global forebrain asymmetric hemisphere ischemia. Severity of brain damage was then evaluated by behavioral and histological approaches. Neuroprotection was assessed by performing targeted temperature management (TTM) for two hours.Comatose behaviors were observed in both groups. Compared to the 4VO group, the chimeric group exhibited a higher neurological deficit score (NDS) (70.5 ± 17.6 vs. 139.5 ± 16.8, p = 0.0002), decreased brain cell viability (88.6 ± 18.0% vs. 5.7 ± 2.7%, p 0.0001), and increased inflammation in the cortex (10.3 ± 1.6% vs. 16.9 ± 1.1%, p = 0.0061). After TTM neuroprotection, the chimeric-TTM group showed improvement in NDS (139.5 ± 16.8 vs. 0.0 ± 0.0, p 0.0001), cortex and hippocampus cell viability (5.7 ± 2.7% vs. 72.8 ± 10.0%, p 0.0001; and 2.5 ± 1.5% vs. 75.5 ± 10.3%, p 0.0001, respectively) and inflammation (16.9 ± 1.1% vs. 11.0 ± 2.3%, p = 0.190; and 30.9 ± 1.7% vs. 16.6 ± 1.2%, p 0.0001, respectively) compared to the chimeric group.Unlike the extensive brain damage found in clinical PCAS settings, the existing 4VO models showed only global forebrain damage involving CA1 lesions on both hippocampi. Our model induced global forebrain and additional asymmetric hemisphere ischemic damages, which resulted in simulating PCABI-specific clinical manifestations than conventional models.Our model adequately simulates clinical PCABI and reflects appropriate neuroprotective effects of TTM.

Nuclear receptor-related 1 (Nurr1) protein has been identified as an obligatory transcription factor in midbrain dopaminergic neurogenesis, but the global set of human NURR1 target genes remains unexplored. Here, we identified direct gene targets of NURR1 by analyzing genome-wide differential expression of NURR1 together with NURR1 consensus sites in three human neural stem cell (hNSC) lines. Microarray data were validated by quantitative PCR in hNSCs and mouse embryonic brains and through comparison to published human data, including genome-wide association study hits and the BioGPS gene expression atlas. Our analysis identified ~40 NURR1 direct target genes, many of them involved in essential protein modules such as synapse formation, neuronal cell migration during brain development, and cell cycle progression and DNA replication. Specifically, expression of genes related to synapse formation and neuronal cell migration correlated tightly with NURR1 expression, whereas cell cycle progression correlated negatively with it, precisely recapitulating midbrain dopaminergic development. Overall, this systematic examination of NURR1-controlled regulatory networks provides important insights into this protein’s biological functions in dopamine-based neurogenesis.

Long-time operation and various conditions cause the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to degrade, which results in decreased performance. The degradation of the MEA appears as various symptoms, such as the loss of carbon support and agglomeration of the Pt catalyst. In this paper, damage on the surface of the MEA by long-time operation and various conditions is induced intentionally by high-temperature conditions in a thermostat chamber. The MEA surface damage is photographed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the loss of the carbon support that fixes the platinum catalyst is judged. Image processing is used to analyze damage on the MEA surface, and binarization processing is applied to the image processing method. SEM imagery is taken at magnifications of 100 × and the trends in quantified surface damage on the MEA according to the degradation temperature are analyzed. The correlation between the quantitative damage on the MEA surface and the performance of the PEMFC is checked. As a result, the tendency of decreasing PEMFC performance is derived from increasing quantified damage on the MEA surface.

본 연구는 S여대 교양필수 교과인 글쓰기 수업을 이수한 학생들의 설문조사와 강의평가 내용분석을 통해 학습자의 요구를 고려한 대학 글쓰기교육의 방향을 제안한 경험적 고찰이다. 먼저 기초교양대학 차원에서 진행된 교양필수 교과 전체에 대한 설문조사 결과를 분석하였다. 또한 본 연구자에게 글쓰기 수업을 들었던 학생들의 2016년도 2학기 강의평가 서술식 답변내용을 분석하였다. 이를 통해 대학생들의 글쓰기에 대한 관심과 역량을 개발하는데 특히 어떠한 교수학습방법이 효과적인지를 살펴보고 다섯 가지 방향을 제안하였다. 첫째 학습자의 능력에 맞는 수준별 편차를 고려한 글쓰기 교육을 실시해야 한다. 둘째 학생들이 관심과 진로에 따라 지속적으로 글쓰기를 훈련해 갈 수 있는 트랙별 심화과정을 마련해야 한다. 셋째 학생들의 문제의식을 개발하기 위해 자유로운 학습 분위기와 문제해결형 글쓰기를 지향해야 한다. 넷째 다양한 텍스트와 매체를 활용한 온라인-오프라인 교육이 병행되어야 한다. 다섯째 읽기, 생각나누기, 쓰기, 피드백 활동이 결합된 협동학습 방식의 글쓰기 교육 모듈을 개발해야 한다. 결론적으로 본 연구에서 확인할 수 있었던 점은 교재나 콘텐츠보다 교수자의 관심과 즉각적인 피드백이 학생들의 글쓰기 교육에 대한 학습 동기에 결정적이라는 사실이었다. 학생들의 글쓰기 능력을 키워주는 교육이 되기 위해서는 학습자의 구체적인 필요와 의견을 반영하고 온라인-오프라인에서, 강의실 안팎을 넘나들며 지속적으로 소통하는 교수자의 역할과 학습 과정이 활성화되어야 한다.

It is challenging to revitalize ischemic penumbra after an acute stroke with intracranial perfusion insufficiency. To evaluate whether cranial burr hole and erythropoietin (EPO) generate effective revascularization, we investigated the efficacy of the augmentation method for reverse arteriogenesis from the healthy extracranial milieu. An intracranial perfusion insufficiency was created through bilateral internal carotid artery ligation (bICAL) in Sprague-Dawley rats. We administered recombinant human EPO (5000 U/kg) or saline intraperitoneally for 3 days after bICAL. Mechanical barrier disruption (MBD) was performed through a cranial burr hole with small dural cracks in the right hemisphere. The ipsilateral hemisphere with MBD grossly showed vascular networks between the extra- and intra-cranial spaces 2 weeks after the MBD procedure. It also showed significantly increased vessels in the intracranial vasculature adjacent to the MBD region (p = 0.0006). The levels of pro-angiogenic and inflammatory factors with prominent markers of vessel permeability were also significantly increased (MBD-only vs. control; Tnf-α, p = 0.0007; Vegf, p = 0.0206). In the EPO-administered group, such elevations in inflammation were significantly mitigated (combined vs. MBD-only; Tnf-α, p = 0.0008). The ipsilateral hemisphere with MBD-EPO (vs. MBD-only) showed significantly increased vessels (RECA-1, p = 0.0182) and their maturation (RECA-1/α-SMA, p = 0.0046), with upregulation of tumor growth factor-β1 (Tgf-β1, p = 0.037) and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (Mmp-2, p = 0.0488). These findings were completely blocked by minocycline (MIC) administration during in vivo (Tgf-β1, p = 0.0009; Mmp-2, p

This study utilizes a numerical analysis of the PEMFC unit cell in which the electrode area is 25 cm 2 . The calculation is carried out by a multiphysics program called COMSOL. Water concentration distribution, hydrogen concentration distribution, and transport phenomena were calculated simultaneously. The resulting data from COMSOL are qualitatively expressed as images in many cases. However, a statistical method was proposed to analyze image data quantitatively and more precisely. The resulting data describing the water distribution and hydrogen concentration were exported and shown to have a normal distribution. The data were clearly identified using maximum, minimum, average, variance, skewness, and kurtosis values. The voltage ranges, where two kurtoses are approximately −1 for data of both the anode hydrogen concentration (AHC) and cathode water concentration (CWC), are similar to the voltage range of the ohmic loss section of PEMFC. In conclusion, the operating reference voltage of PEMFC was selected using the statistical analysis values of the AHC and CWC.

고분자 분리막 연료전지의 성능향상을 위해 분리판 유로설계연구는 필요하다. PEMFC의 성능향상에 대한, 강제대류를 이용한 interdigitated 유로가 최근에 많이 연구되고 있다. 이 논문에서는interdigitated 유로를 배플들이 있는 평행류 채널에 비슷하게 적용하였다. 상용 multiphysicsprogram인 COMSOL을 이용하여 완전차단배플인 FBB가 있는 평행류 채널에 관해 전산해석을수행하였고 3가지 변인들(배플 위치, 유체 방향, 유체 속도)이 사용 되었다. 각각 변인들의 출력은 최대출력의 80%를 고려한 0.5V에서의 결과이다. 최종적으로, 실험설계법 중 완전요인실험법을 바탕으로 여러 수준을 갖는 각 실험인자로부터 결론을 도출하였다. 실험인자들의 주효과와 상호작용 분석은 출력을 향상시키는데 가장 영향을 주는 인자를 찾는데 유용하였다.Abstract: Research on flow channel designs of the separate plates is necessary to improve thePEMFC performance. On concerning the performance improvement of PEMFC, many recentstudies have been made on the interdigitated flow channel using forced convection. In thispaper, the interdigitated flow channel is similarly applied on the parallel flow channel with abaffle or baffles. Numerical analysis is performed by using a commercial multiphysics program,which is called COMSOL, on the parallel channel with the fully blocked baffle(FBB) and thereare three variables, the position of baffle, flow direction and flow velocity. Each power of thevariables is resulted from the fixed 0.5V, the voltage from 80 percents of the maximum power.Finally, based on the full factorial designs(FFD), one of the design of experiments(DOE), each

We recently reported that hNSCs (human neural stem cells) have the interesting characteristic of migration towards an intracranial glioma. However, the molecules and mechanisms responsible for tumour tropism are unclear. In the present study, we used microarray and proteomics analyses to identify a novel chemoattractant molecule, TIMP-1 (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1), secreted from human brain tumour tissues. We demonstrate that TIMP-1 significantly enhances hNSC adhesion and migration in a cell culture system. These effects were critically dependent on CD63, as shRNA-mediated ablation of CD63 expression attenuated the response. TIMP-1 significantly increased the number of FAs (focal adhesions) and cytoskeletal reorganization for cell migration in hNSCs, whereas knockdown of CD63 resulted in decreased hNSC spreading, FAs and migration, even after TIMP-1 treatment. In addition, TIMP-1 binding to CD63 activated β1 integrin-mediated signalling through Akt and FAK phosphorylation, leading to pattern changes in distribution of vinculin and F-actin (filamentous actin). Furthermore, inactivation of β1 integrin by use of a blocking antibody or inhibition of PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) signalling impaired the migration of hNSCs towards TIMP-1. Collectively, our results underline TIMP-1 as a novel and effective key regulator of CD63 and β1 integrin-mediated signalling, which regulates hNSC adhesion and migration.

PURPOSE: The purposes of the study were to develop and test a model which explains the relationship among factors affecting behavioral problems in elementary school children.METHODS: The participants for the study were 368 elementary school children and their mothers at 3 elementary schools in one city. Data analysis was done using the SPSS 17.0 program for t-test, -test, and ANOVA and the AMOS 17.0 program for theoretical model testing.RESULTS: The theoretical model showed a significant goodness of fit to the empirical data (Goodness of Fit Index: .96, Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index: .93 Comparative Fit Index: .95, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation: .06, Standardized Root Mean Square Residual: .02). Six paths were found to be statistically significant including from child rearing attitude to self-esteem, stress, stress coping and behavioral problems, and from self-esteem to stress and behavioral problems. Child rearing attitude showed a significant effect to behavioral problems by total effect.Self-esteem affected behavioral problems by total and direct effects.CONCLUSION: Child rearing attitude and self-esteem of children are important factors affecting behavioral problems in elementary school children.

The hysteresis phenomenon of both a-Si and poly-Si TFT has been studied in order to investigate the hystersis phenomenon effect on residual image of AMOLED display. The transfer characteristics of both a-Si:H TFT and poly-Si TFT were varied according to the gate voltage sweep direction due to the different initial interface trapped charges in the gate insulator. The threshold voltage in a-Si:H TFT was altered by 0.23V due to hysteresis of device according to gate sweep direction while that in poly-Si TFT was varied by 0.21V due to the different gate insulator. In order to suppress hystersis effect on OLED current error we proposed and fabricated a new pixel circuit. By applying the reset voltage in pixel circuit, the data voltage sweep direction could be fixed and hysteresis effect on OLED current error was successfully suppressed. We showed that the OLED current error was successfully suppressed by experiment.

We have investigated the degradation phenomenon of short channel (L

This paper is a report on the effect of a single perpendicular grain boundary on the hot-carrier and high current stability in high performance polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistors (TFTs). Under a hot carrier stress condition (Vg = Vth + 1 V, Vd = 12 V), the poly-Si TFT with a single grain boundary is superior to the poly-Si without any grain boundary because of the smaller free carriers available for electric conduction. The shift of transconductance in poly-Si TFT with a single grain boundary is less than 5% after hot carrier stress during a period of 1000 s. The shift of transconductance is about 25% in the case of the poly-Si TFTs without a grain boundary in the channel. On high current stress, the poly-Si TFT without the grain boundary is less degraded than the poly-Si TFT with the grain boundary because the concentrated electric field near the drain junction is lower.

Organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) which employ indium tin oxide (ITO) as source and drain electrodes instead of gold are fabricated. A double gate dielectric layer was used, which consists of benzocyclobutane (BCB) and silicon nitride (SiNx). The pentacene TFT has lateral dimensions 192 μm×6 μm. The OTFT with the ITO bottom electrode shows a saturation mobility of 0.05~0.09 cm2 V−1 s−1 and an on-off current ratio of the order of 105 in a gate voltage span between 0 and −40 V. The TFT fabrication process steps had the beneficial side effect of changing the ITO surface from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. This change allows pentacene films with larger grains, observed up to 0.5 μm, to be grown on TFT compared to as-deposited ITO film onto which high quality films cannot be grown.

An L-shaped dual-gate device structure, which reduces kink current in polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs), has been proposed and fabricated. In the proposed device, the poly-Si TFTs have a lateral grain growth in channels such as TFTs fabricated by sequential lateral solidification (SLS) or CW laser crystallization. The current flow of dual TFTs is strongly affected by grain boundaries showing lateral grain growth. The L-shaped dual gate structure is employed for asymmetry between dual channels. One of the channels is located in a parallel direction of grain growth and the other is located vertically. It is verified by experiment that the proposed L-shaped dual-gate TFT reduced the kink current of poly-Si TFT and showed improved reliability by fixed current flow in the saturation mode.

We have proposed and successfully fabricated a new serial current mirror pixel design for an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode which consists of four polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) and one capacitor. The non uniformity of OLED current (IOLED) due to the nature of a poly-Si TFT is considerably suppressed. Our experimental results show that the non uniformity of IOLED due to threshold voltage and mobility variation is around 7% whereas that of IOLED is about 25% in the conventional 2-TFT pixel. When supply voltage decreases from 10 V to 9.5 V, the non uniformity of OLED current is suppressed to 2.2% whereas that of OLED current is 35% in the 2-TFT pixel. The proposed pixel can successfully compensate the variation of the electrical characteristics of the poly-Si TFTs as well as provide uniform OLED current despite the supply voltage drop.

Polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) with an asymmetric dual-gate, consisting of a long-gate TFT and a short-gate TFT in series, suppress kink current and increase output resistance. The long-gate TFT operates in a linear regime and confines the total current flow by its current operation region. The entire device does not suffer from kinks in spite of a high drain bias. Experimental results show that an asymmetric design of the dual-gate structure improves kink-free characteristics compared with conventional single- and dual-gate TFTs. The hot-carrier stress reliability of the short-gate TFT is not severely degraded due to kink current suppression.

A new voltage‐scaled compensation pixel which employs 3 p‐type poly‐Si TFTs and 2 capacitors without additional control line has been proposed and verified. The proposed pixel does not employ the VTH memorizing and cancellation, but scales down the inevitable VTH variation of poly‐Si TFT. Also the troublesome narrow input range of VDATA is increased and the VDD supply voltage drop is suppressed. In our experimental results, the OLED current error is successfully compensated by easily controlling the proposed voltage scaling effects.

We propose a new pixel design for active matrix organic light emitting diode (AM‐OLED) displays using hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin‐film transistors (a‐Si:H TFTs). The pixel circuit is compos...

We propose a novel four-mask low-temperature polycrystalline-silicon PMOS structure. In this letter, we obtain the utmost simplified thin-film transistor (TFT) structure by eliminating the storage doping, passivation, and anode photomask steps. The proposed four-mask structure has a self-aligned terrace structure whose lightly doped drain (LDD) and gate-overlapped LDD are formed with only one photomask step. The on current of the four-mask PMOS TFT with an advanced terrace structure is similar to that of the conventional seven-mask TFT, while the off current of the new structure is lower than that of the conventional seven-mask TFT.

We propose a new pixel structure employing solid-phase crystallized silicon thin-film transistors which suppresses the leakage current effects on active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays. The pixel structure has been fabricated on a glass substrate employing the field-enhanced rapid thermal annealing technology. In the proposed pixel, the charge holding capability is considerably enhanced due to the capacitor located between two series-connected switch transistors. Our experimental results shows that the average variation range of the OLED current is suppressed less than 0.5% while the conventional one exceeded 4%.

P-type low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) thin-film transistor (TFT) integrated driver circuits are proposed for low-cost chip-on-glass (COG) panel. In order to reduce the process cost of panel, gate driver employing level-shifter, shift register and DC–DC converter is integrated by p-type polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) TFTs. The gate drivers are composed of the level-up and level-down voltage shifters and the robust two-clock shift registers. The DC–DC converters are designed using diode-connected type charge pumps and regulators. The proposed p-type circuits were verified successfully by the simulations and the measurements.

A new polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor (poly-Si TFTs) called 'Defect-Free Junction TFT (DFJ-TFT)', which exhibits improved stability under hot carrier stress, has been proposed and fabricated. In order to remove residual junction defects due to ion implantation, source/drain doping was carried out prior to gate formation. During excimer laser annealing (ELA), large lateral grains are grown near the junction of the proposed TFT due to the different melting conditions between implanted source/drain region and non-implanted channel region. Our TEM image shows that there are large grains near the source/drain junction instead of residual implanted damage. The DFJ-TFT exhibits improved reliability compared with conventional TFT under hot carrier stress.

Purpose: Developmental care has been recognized as a very important component for the development and health promotion of preterm infants. However, research on how to assess developmental nursing competency has not been studied as expected. This study was done to develop and evaluate a new scale to measure nursing competency for developmental support of preterm infants. Methods: Concept analysis was done with using the Hybrid model of Schwartz-Barcott and Kim (2000), from which a preliminary new scale (30 items) was developed. To test the validity and reliability of the new scale being developed, data were collected from 122 NICU nurses at 4 hospitals in 3 cities in the Republic of Korea, from December, 2014 to March, 2015. Results: The final version of the Developmental Support Competency Scale for Nurses (DSCS-N) caring for premature infants was a 4-point Likert type scale, consisting of 19 items, and categorized as 6 factors, explaining 62.5% of the total variance. Each of the factors were named as follows; ‘environmental support’ (4 items), ‘parental support’ (3 items), ‘interaction’ (3 items), ‘critical thinking’ (3 items), ‘professional development’ (3 items), and ‘partnership’ (3 items). The Cronbach’s α coefficient for the scale was .83 and the reliability of the subscales ranged from .60~.76. Conclusion: The psychometric evaluation of the new scale demonstrated an acceptable validity and reliability. Findings indicate that the DSCS-N can be used as the tool to test the effect of educational programs for nurses and contribute to advance developmental care for preterm infants.

In this paper, the authors have proposed and fabricated a new bi-directional T-shaped triple-gate structure for reduction of kink current in poly-Si TFTs fabricated by SLS crystallization method. The mobility of TFT parallel channel direction with laser crystallization direction is 169.87cm2/Vs and the mobility of TFT perpendicular channel direction with laser crystallization direction is 64.28cm2/Vs respectively. The different channel structure is used in the proposed device instead of using asymmetric gate channel length, and then the proposed bi-directional T-shaped Triple-gate structure could be fabricated by normal LTPS process without any limitation of device design rules.

We propose and fabricate highly efficient current scaling AMOLED panel employing excimer laser annealed poly-Si TFTs, which successfully compensate the non-uniformity of IOLED due to the grain boundaries and residual image caused by a hysteresis phenomenon in poly-Si TFT. The proposed 2.4 inch panel employing a new current mirror pixel circuit successfully reduces a nonuniformity of the luminance from 41% to 9.1%, and eliminates residual image, compared with conventional 2-TFT pixel array. The proposed pixel circuit can also increase the data current by 57% and decrease the pixel charging time by 21%, compared with a traditional current mirror pixel

Nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) thin film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated using ICP-CVD at 150degC. The fabricated nc-Si TFT exhibits high field effect mobility exceeding 22cm2/Vs and a low sub-threshold slope of 0.45V/dec. The nc-Si film deposited 150degC as an active layer of the TFT shows good crystallinity more than 70% and the gate insulator SiO2 film deposited by ICP-CVD at 150degC shows good electrical characteristics such as flat band voltage of -1.8V and breakdown voltage of 6.2MV/cm

We have proposed nitrous oxide (N2O) plasma pre-treatment in order to reduce the oxide charge densities as well as to increase the breakdown field of silicon dioxide film for flexible display. Our experimental results show that the proposed treatment improved both the flat-band voltage from –3V to –1.8V and the breakdown voltage of gate oxide from 7MV/cm to 9.5MV/cm, respectively. The proposed treatment also improved poly-Si TFT characteristics such as low sub-threshold swing of 0.43V/dec.