Transient electronics represents recent technology that can partially or completely degrade, dissolve, or disintegrate under certain conditions in actively and passively controlled ways. They offer applications as eco-friendly alternatives to existing electronic components, implantable biomedical devices, and software/hardware protection systems. The degradable characteristics of materials and circuits, however, lead to various fabrication issues and difficulties in manufacturing complex systems requiring fine and elaborate design layouts and microfabrication procedures under thermally and chemically harsh conditions. Identifying advanced materials and the development of manufacturing processes compatible with established transient materials have been conducted for several years to address these issues. In this article, we focus on recent trends in manufacturing technologies for transient electronic systems, including direct fabrication of electronics on transient substrates using organic–inorganic electronic materials, screen-printing approaches particularly for conductive traces, microfabrication combined with multiple transfer-printing techniques, and large-scale, foundry-compatible technologies.

Background: The influences of demographics, culture, language, and environmental changes on Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores are considerable.

Methods: Using a sample of 7452 healthy, community-dwelling elderly Koreans, aged 55 to 94 years, who participated in the four ongoing geriatric cohorts in Korea, we investigated demographic influences on MMSE scores and derived normative data for this population. Geropsychiatrists strictly excluded subjects with cognitive disorders according to the protocol of the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Packet (CERAD-K) Clinical Assessment Battery (CERAD-K-C).

Results: Education (standardized β = 0.463), age (standardized β = −0.303), and gender (standardized β = −0.057) had significant effects on MMSE scores (p < 0.001). The score of MMSE increase 0.379 point per 1-year education, decrease 0.188 per 1-year older, and decrease 0.491 in women compared to men. Education explained 30.4% of the scores’ total variance, which was much larger than the variances explained by age (8.4%) or gender (0.3%). Accordingly, we present normative data for the MMSE stratified by education (0, 1–3, 4–6, 7–9, 10–12, and ≥ 13 years), age (60–69, 70–79, and 80–89 years), and gender.

Conclusions: We provide contemporary education-, age-, and gender-stratified norms for the MMSE, derived from a large, community-dwelling elderly Korean population sample, which could be useful in evaluating individual MMSE scores.

Hafnium oxide thin films for use in a gate dielectric were deposited at 300 °C on p-type Si(100) substrates using a Hf[OC(CH3)3]4 precursor in the absence of oxygen by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. A comparison of films deposited in the absence and presence of oxygen indicated that oxygen was an important determinant in the electrical properties of HfO2 films, which were subsequently annealed in N2 and O2 ambients. The capacitance equivalent oxide thickness of the as-deposited Pt/HfO2/Si capacitor was approximately 17 Å and abruptly increased at an annealing temperature of 800 °C in both N2 and O2 ambients. The hysteresis of the as-deposited gate dielectric was quite small, about 40 mV, and that of the gate dielectric annealed at 800 °C in an O2 ambient was reduced to a negligible level, about 20 mV. The interface trap density of the Pt/HfO2/Si capacitors was approximately 1012 eV−1 cm−2 near the silicon midgap. The leakage current densities of the as-deposited Pt/HfO2/Si capacitor and those annealed at 800 °C in N2 and O2 were approximately 8 × 10−4, 8 × 10−5, and 3 × 10−7 A/cm2 at –1 V, respectively.

Ferroelectric SrBi2Ta2O9 (SBT) thin films and Bi2O3 interfacial layers were depositedonto the Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates via liquid-delivery metalorganic chemical vapordeposition. The SBT films with a 5-nm-thick Bi2O3 interfacial layer were well crystallized without c-axis orientation, even at deposition temperature of 540 °C and showed a stronger (115) orientation than those without a Bi2O3 layer with increasing annealing temperature. The remanent polarizations of SBT films with Bi2O3 interfacial layer were significantly improved in comparison with those without Bi2O3 layer. The remanent polarization (2Pr) and coercive field (Ec) of SBT films without and with aBi2O3 interfacial layer annealed at 750 °C were 12 and 21 μC/cm2 and 60 and38 kV/cm, respectively, at an applied voltage of 5 V.