(Press-News.org) In an article in the highly ranked interdisciplinary journal PNAS, Loïg Kergoat, a researcher at Linköping University, describes how transistors made of plastic can be controlled with great precision.
The Organic Electronics Research Group at Linköping University (LiU) in Sweden, led by Professor Magnus Berggren, attracted great attention a year ago when Lars Herlogsson showed in his doctoral thesis that it was possible to construct fully functional field-effect transistors out of plastic.
Kergoat, a post-doc in the same research group, now shows that transistors made of plastic can be controlled with great precision.
If a transistor is to be usable in a logic circuit, the threshold voltage, where the transistor switches from off to on, or zero to one, must be well defined. Kergoat has now shown that by changing the material on the gate electrode, the electrode in a transistor that governs the current through both the other electrodes, the threshold voltage can also gradually be shifted.
"Transistors built from organic electronics need to be able to be controlled with weak voltages, preferably as close to zero as possible," Kergoat says.
By changing the electrode material, for example from gold to calcium, the threshold voltage is reduced by as much as 0.9V.
"This means that we can control exactly one of the most important properties of our transistors, which is of great significance now that we're building circuits of various types," Berggren says.
Research was conducted in collaboration between the Organic Electronics Group in the Linköping University Department of Science and Technology and a research group at the Université Paris Diderot, Paris 7, where Berggren was a guest professor between 2009 and 2011.
INFORMATION:
Article: "Tuning the Threshold Voltage in Electrolyte-Gated Organic Field-Effect Transistors", PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, online May 14, 2012, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1120311109
END
The mothers of Britain's 'mixed families' are ensuring their children learn about their heritage and culture, according to a collaborative development project between the University of Southampton and London South Bank University. Findings show even if a child's father hails from a minority background, it will still be the mother who is responsible for teaching them about the father's culture.
"Whether it's ensuring their children know about the history and culture of their ethnic or religious group, overseeing faith instruction, teaching them how to cook traditional ...
Solar power gathered in space could be set to provide the renewable energy of the future thanks to innovative research being carried out by engineers at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
Researchers at the University have already tested equipment in space that would provide a platform for solar panels to collect the energy and allow it to be transferred back to earth through microwaves or lasers.
This unique development would provide a reliable source of power and could allow valuable energy to be sent to remote areas in the world, providing power to disaster ...
Money-saving deals specialist DiscountVouchers.co.uk has sourced new vouchers to help UK consumers save on dining out, shoes, toys and more for May and the coming summer. The bargain deals site is home to money-off deals for over 800 stores and is this week offering new online vouchers redeemable at Pizza Express, Debenhams, Clarks and more.
Savings on goods from top stores like Debenhams, Clarks, BT and more can be a big helping hand for shoppers who want to treat the family while working to a budget this May. Logging on to the DiscountVouchers.co.uk site right now ...
Why diabetics suffer from increased pain and temperature sensitivity is a step closer to being understood and effectively treated.
Research published in the journal Nature Medicine reveals that a multi-national collaboration between scientists from Warwick Medical School in the UK, and universities in Germany, New York, Australia and Eastern Europe, has discovered key information around one of the most distressing side effects of diabetes.
Painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN), which is abnormal and persistent pain experienced by roughly 50% of patients with diabetes, impairs ...
The Oregon Family Abuse Prevention Act aims to protect families around the state from the ravages of domestic violence. One of the tools in the arsenal of legal weapons designed to fight against abuse is the protective order, sometimes known as a "no-contact order."
Like their name implies, protective orders are designed to keep one person a specific distance away from another person or location, thus protecting the one who sought the order from imminent physical harm. The protection they offer is often extended to include children and vulnerable loved ones. ...
Researchers at Warwick Medical School have discovered a way of identifying which women are most at risk of postnatal depression (PND) by checking for specific genetic variants. The findings could lead to the development of a simple, accurate blood test which checks for the likelihood of developing the condition.
Presenting the research to the International Congress of Endocrinology/European Congress of Endocrinology, Professor Dimitris Grammatopoulos, Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Warwick, said that approximately one in seven women who give birth ...
Genes play a greater role in forming character traits - such as self-control, decision making or sociability - than was previously thought, new research suggests.
A study of more than 800 sets of twins found that genetics were more influential in shaping key traits than a person's home environment and surroundings.
Psychologists at the University of Edinburgh who carried out the study, say that genetically influenced characteristics could well be the key to how successful a person is in life.
The study of twins in the US – most aged 50 and over– used a series of ...
Across the United States, approximately 747,408 individuals are listed on sex offender registries. Contrary to popular belief, they are an incredibly heterogeneous group; they come from all walks of life, represent varied demographics and have criminal histories that range from a single relatively minor infraction to a laundry list of antisocial behavior.
Despite their diversity, sex offenders are treated much the same: they are listed on registries for all the public to see, they are prohibited from holding certain jobs or living in particular areas, they are often ...
"The plants developed in the dark as if they were in light," says the Director of the studies Tilman Lamparter, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The seeds and seedlings of thale cress were fed with a synthetic substance named "15Ea-phycocyanobilin". In the plant cell, this substance replaces the natural, photoactive component of the photoreceptor, the "phytochromobilin". Incorporation of 15Ea-PCB activates the photoreceptor and the plant is made believe it is exposed to light. In spite of the darkness, model plants germinate and grow similar to a control group exposed ...
In Illinois, a judgment creditor can obtain a court order to put in place a wage deduction from your earnings. This is commonly referred to as garnishment. This wage deduction takes a percentage of your wages, before you ever see them, and transfers them to your creditor.
Wage Garnishment
This wage deduction, or garnishment, can only be done where there is a valid judgment debt. In Illinois, the creditor then files an action in court to deduct the lesser of either 15 percent of your gross wages for a week or the amount by which disposable weekly earnings exceed 45 ...
