Advances in thin film materials and process technologies continue to fuel new areas of application in large area electronics. However, this does not come without new issues related to device-circuit stability and uniformity over large areas, placing an even greater need for new driving algorithms, biasing techniques, and fully compensated circuit architectures. Indeed, each application is unique and mandates specific circuit and system design techniques to deal with materials and process deficiencies. As this branch of electronics continues to evolve, the need for a consolidated source of design methodologies has become even more compelling. Unlike classical circuit design approaches where trends are toward transistor scaling and high integration densities, the move in large-area electronics is toward increased functionality, in which device sizes are not a serious limitation. This book is written to address these challenges and provide system-level solutions to electronically compensate for these deficiencies.

Although the circuit and system implementation examples given are based primarily on amorphous silicon technology, the design techniques and solutions described are unique, and applicable to a wide variety of disordered materials, ranging from polysilicon and metal oxides to organic families. These are complemented by real-world examples related to active-matrix organic light emitting diode displays, bio-array sensors, and flat-panel biomedical imagers. We address mixed-phase thin film and crystalline silicon electronics and, in particular, the design and interface techniques for high and low voltage circuits in the respective design spaces. The content is concise but diverse, starting with an introduction to displays, flat panel imagers, and associated backplane technologies, followed by design specifications and considerations addressing compensation and driving schemes. Here we introduce hybrid voltage-current programming, enhanced-settling current programming, and charge-based driving schemes for high-resolution pixelated architectures.