Professor Sarah Swisher

Thin film transistors (TFTs) are the active components in LCD displays, flexible displays, and flexible medical devices. The materials used in thin film transistors are different from conventional semiconductor materials - silicon, GaAs or GaN - which are used for all the major industrial applications for low and high power electronics. These conventional materials are in a category of materials known as crystalline materials. The materials have a very high range of order and electrons have a very high mobility. Because of the very high mobility, these materials have a high current flow when used in transistors. Thin film transistors use materials that are not crystalline but are either amorphous or polycrystalline. Modeling these devices requires numerical modeling of unique phenomenon such as inclusion of grain boundaries due to trapped charges, and inclusion of shallow and deep traps that modulate the charge flow in these devices. This group models these unique phenomena using numerical and physical models.