An object is to provide a semiconductor device of which a manufacturing process is not complicated and by which cost can be suppressed, by forming a thin film transistor using an oxide semiconductor film typified by zinc oxide, and a manufacturing method thereof. For the semiconductor device, a gate electrode is formed over a substrate; a gate insulating film is formed covering the gate electrode; an oxide semiconductor film is formed over the gate insulating film; and a first conductive film and a second conductive film are formed over the oxide semiconductor film. The oxide semiconductor film has at least a crystallized region in a channel region.

Semiconductor device, and manufacturing method thereof

An imaging system for a vehicle includes an imaging sensor and a control. The imaging sensor is operable to capture an image of a scene occurring exteriorly of the vehicle. The control receives the captured image, which comprises an image data set representative of the exterior scene. The control may apply an edge detection algorithm to a reduced image data set of the image data set. The reduced image data set is representative of a target zone of the captured image. The control may be operable to process the reduced image data set more than other image data, which are representative of areas of the captured image outside of the target zone, to detect objects present within the target zone. The imaging system may be associated with a side object detection system, a lane change assist system, a lane departure warning system and/or the like.

Object detection system for vehicle

In fabricating a thin film transistor, an active layer comprising a silicon semiconductor is formed on a substrate having an insulating surface Hydrogen is introduced into The active layer A thin film comprising SiO x N y is formed to cover the active layer and then a gate insulating film comprising a silicon oxide film formed on the thin film comprising SiO x N y  Also, a thin film comprising SiO x N y is formed under the active layer The active layer includes a metal element at a concentration of 1×10 15 to 1×10 19 cm −3 and hydrogen at a concentration of 2×10 19 to 5×10 21 cm −3 

Semiconductor device and method for forming the same

The present invention is directed to nanofiber yarns, ribbons, and sheets; to methods of making said yarns, ribbons, and sheets; and to applications of said yarns, ribbons, and sheets. In some embodiments, the nanotube yarns, ribbons, and sheets comprise carbon nanotubes. Particularly, such carbon nanotube yarns of the present invention provide unique properties and property combinations such as extreme toughness, resistance to failure at knots, high electrical and thermal conductivities, high absorption of energy that occurs reversibly, up to 13% strain-to-failure compared with the few percent strain-to-failure of other fibers with similar toughness, very high resistance to creep, retention of strength even when heated in air at 450°C for one hour, and very high radiation and UV resistance, even when irradiated in air. Furthermore these nanotube yarns can be spun as one micron diameter yarns and plied at will to make two-fold, four-fold, and higher fold yarns. Additional embodiments provide for the spinning of nanofiber sheets having arbitrarily large widths. In still additional embodiments, the present invention is directed to applications and devices that utilize and/or comprise the nanofiber yarns, ribbons, and sheets of the present invention.

Fabrication and application of nanofiber ribbons and sheets and twisted and non-twisted nanofiber yarns

A forward-facing vision system for a vehicle includes a forward-facing camera disposed in a windshield electronics module attached at a windshield of the vehicle and viewing through the windshield. A control includes a processor that, responsive to processing of captured image data, detects taillights of leading vehicles during nighttime conditions and, responsive to processing of captured image data, detects lane markers on a road being traveled by the vehicle. The control, responsive to lane marker detection and a determination that the vehicle is drifting out of a traffic lane, may control a steering system of the vehicle to mitigate such drifting, with the steering system manually controllable by a driver of the vehicle irrespective of control by the control. The processor, based at least in part on detection of lane markers via processing of captured image data, determines curvature of the road being traveled by the vehicle.

Vision system for vehicle

A method of fabricating polycrystalline silicon thin film field effect transistors on low cost alkaline earth alumino-silicate glass substrates which can tolerate device processing temperatures of approximately 800° C.

Fabrication of polysilicon fets on alkaline earth alumino-silicate glasses

In an infra-red imaging system, infra-red radiation from a scene is optically collected and directed to form an infra-red image of the scene on an array of bi-state diffraction grating elements. Each bi-state diffraction grating element has an activated state providing diffraction of incident infra-red radiation at a predetermined angle from the incident direction and an alternative inactivated state providing no such diffraction at the predetermined angle. Scanning apparatus sequentially activates the bi-state diffraction grating elements temporarily from their inactivated states to their activated states to produce a scanned infra-red image of the scene in IR radiation diffracted by the elements at the predetermined angle, which is collected and directed to an infra-red detector. The detector provides a coded electrical representation of the scanned infra-red image of the scene to further apparatus which generates therefrom a human-detectable signal. The separation of scanning from detection allows a single detector to be used for the detection of multiple pixels and thus reduces the size, complexity and cost of the detector apparatus. The scanning apparatus may also provide a chopping function by delaying the activation of each bi-state diffraction grating element to its activated state for a predetermined time period after a deactivation to the inactivated state of the previous sequentially activated diffraction grating element. The apparatus may combine IR radiation at two wavelengths by providing separate detectors at the angle of diffraction of each wavelength or by mixing diffraction grating elements of different grating pitch providing diffraction of each wavelength at the same angle to a single IR detector. Some embodiments may provide combination of IR and visible light for an enhanced visible image.

Infra-red imaging system using a diffraction grating array

A new polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor (TFT) technology using a potentially low-cost glass substrate is reported. Transistors are made using modified conventional n-channel MOS processes at temperatures of 800°C or less, with a final hydrogen implantation step. These transistors show leakage currents of 2 × 10-11A/µm of channel width, ON-to-OFF current ratios of 1 × 104at V ds = 9.0 V, and good dc stability. This combination of polycrystalline silicon transistors on potentially low-cost glass substrates offers a new option in the choice of active device technology for large-area flat-panel liquid crystal displays (LCD's).

Polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors on a novel 800&#176;C glass substrate

An emissive display comprising: a first substrate including a plurality of controllable anodes; a layer of phosphor on each of the controllable anodes, wherein each phosphor emits light when the anode on which the phosphor is located is activated and electrons bombard the phosphor; a second substrate comprising a light transmissive lens having a display area through which a display is viewed, first and second electrically conductive layers and an insulating layer, wherein the first and second electrically conductive layers and the insulating layer are light transmissive, wherein the insulating layer is between the first and second electrically conductive layers and wherein the first and second electrically conductive layers and the insulating layer are on a side of the lens facing the controllable anodes and phosphor layers, wherein the second electrically conductive layer is located closer to the first substrate than the first electrically conductive layer and comprises a first plurality of holes corresponding to a second plurality of holes in the insulating layer; a plurality of opaque field emitter cones mounted to the first electrically conductive layer in the first and second plurality of holes, emitting electrons to selectively bombard the phosphors layers, wherein the plurality of opaque field emitter cones covers less than ten percent of the display area of the second substrate, wherein the emitted electrons travel through a space between the second electrically conductive layer and the phosphor layer, wherein light emitted from the phosphor layer travels back through said space and through the second substrate to be viewed by a viewer of the display.

Emissive display including field emitters on a transparent substrate

An image sensor comprising an integrated circuit chip that includes both a pixel array and edge detection circuitry hardwired together on the chip. The pixel array provides an addressable, non-destructive readout of the pixel data, with the edge detection circuit providing a hardwired implementation of a pair of n×n masks that are convolved with the pixel array data to thereby generate horizontal and vertical edge data that is combined together and outputted by the image sensor. The masks are implemented as a pair of one-dimensional filters, with one of the filters being a one-dimensional Gaussian filter used to smooth the pixel data along one axis and the other filter providing a first derivative Gaussian function to detect edges along the other, orthogonal axis. The non-destructibility of the readout from the pixel array eliminates the need for buffering large amounts of pixel data and the use of separable, one-dimensional filters permits each mask to be implemented using only n simultaneous outputs from the array, 2n weights, and n−1 buffers for temporary storage of the smoothed pixel data.

John R. Troxell

Papers

Fabrication of polysilicon fets on alkaline earth alumino-silicate glasses

Infra-red imaging system using a diffraction grating array

Polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors on a novel 800°C glass substrate

Emissive display including field emitters on a transparent substrate

Image sensor method and apparatus having hardware implemented edge detection processing

John R. Troxell

Papers

Fabrication of polysilicon fets on alkaline earth alumino-silicate glasses

Infra-red imaging system using a diffraction grating array

Polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors on a novel 800&#176;C glass substrate

Emissive display including field emitters on a transparent substrate

Image sensor method and apparatus having hardware implemented edge detection processing

Polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors on a novel 800°C glass substrate