Zinc oxide is a well-known wide band gap semiconductor material (3.4 eV at room temperature, in the crystalline form), which has many applications, such as for transparent conductors, varistors, surface acoustic waves, gas sensors, piezoelectric transducers and UV detectors. More recently, it is attracting considerable attention for its possible application to thin film transistors. In this paper, we present some of the recent results already obtained as well as the ones that are being developed in our laboratory. The main advantage presented by these new thin film transistors is the combination of high channel mobility and transparency produced at room temperature which makes these thin film transistors a very promising low cost device for the next generation of invisible and flexible electronics. Moreover, the processing technology used to fabricate this device is relatively simple and it is compatible with inexpensive plastic/flexible substrate technology. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper presents an application for the automatic design of ring VCOs. In this application a VCO model based on the Npower transistor model is considered as a away of granting the accuracy of results for submicron technologies. In order to easily integrate any VCO previously designed into a PLL automatic design tool, a corresponding linear model of the VCO is automatically generated, yielding a simple and precise characterization for higher level system design. The design of a 150 MHz VCO using a seven stage ring topology is presented. The validity of the design obtained is checked against Hspice simulation of the circuit.

A new silylated $\alpha$-diimine ligand, bis[N,N′-(4-tert-butyl- diphenylsilyl-2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imino]acenaphthene 3, and its corresponding Ni(II) complex, {\{}bis[N,N′-(4-tert-butyl-diphenylsilyl-2,6- diisopropylphenyl)imino]acenaphthene{\}}dibromonickel 4, have been synthesized and characterized. The crystal structures of 3 and 4 were determined by X-ray crystallography. In the solid state, complex 4 is a dimer with two bridging Br ligands linking the two nickel centers, which have square pyramidal geometries. Complex 4, activated either by diethylaluminum chloride (DEAC) or methylaluminoxane (MAO) produces very active catalyst systems for the polymerization of ethylene and moderately active for the polymerization of propylene. The activity values are in the order of magnitude of 107 g PE (mol Ni [E] h)-1 for the polymerization of ethylene and of 105 g PP (mol Ni [P] h)-1 for the polymerization of propylene. NMR analysis shows that branched polyethylenes (PE) are obtained at room or higher temperatures and almost linear PE is obtained at 0°C with 4/DEAC. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.