Printing on a substrate includes printing a support structure by printing a liquid precursor material and curing the liquid precursor material, printing one or more alignment markers by printing the liquid precursor material outside the support structure and curing the liquid precursor material, positioning a substrate within the support structure, performing a registration of the substrate using the one or more alignment markers, and printing one or more device structures on the substrate while registered by printing and curing the liquid precursor material.

A switching includes a gallium nitride semiconductor and a gate insulation film. The gate insulation film is made of silicon oxide and disposed above the gallium nitride semiconductor layer. An interface between the gallium nitride insulation film and the gate insulation film is either free of a gallium oxide layer or provided with the gallium oxide layer with a thickness of 1 nanometer or smaller.

A microelectronic device is formed by forming at least a portion of a substrate of the microelectronic device by one or more additive processes. The additive processes may be used to form semiconductor material of the substrate. The additive processes may also be used to form dielectric material structures or electrically conductive structures, such as metal structures, of the substrate. The additive processes are used to form structures of the substrate which would be costly or impractical to form using planar processes. In one aspect, the substrate may include multiple doped semiconductor elements, such as wells or buried layers, having different average doping densities, or depths below a component surface of the substrate. In another aspect, the substrate may include dielectric isolation structures with semiconductor material extending at least partway over and under the dielectric isolation structures. Other structures of the substrate are disclosed.

A method of processing a semiconductor wafer includes: forming a first metal layer or metal layer stack on a backside of the semiconductor wafer; forming a plating preventative layer on the first metal layer or metal layer stack, the plating preventative layer being formed at least over a kerf region of the semiconductor wafer and such that part of the first metal layer or metal layer stack is uncovered by the plating preventative layer, wherein the kerf region defines an area for dividing the semiconductor wafer along the kerf region into individual semiconductor dies; and plating a second metal layer or metal layer stack on the part of the first metal layer or metal layer stack uncovered by the plating preventative layer, wherein the plating preventative layer prevents plating of the second metal layer or metal layer stack over the kerf region.

A method for printing on a substrate includes printing a support structure by printing a liquid precursor material and curing the liquid precursor material, printing one or more alignment markers by printing the liquid precursor material outside the support structure and curing the liquid precursor material, positioning a substrate within the support structure, performing a registration of the substrate using the one or more alignment markers, and printing one or more device structures on the substrate while registered by printing and curing the liquid precursor material.

Printable and stretchable thin-film devices and fabrication techniques are provided for forming fully-printed, intrinsically stretchable thin-film transistors and integrated logic circuits using stretchable elastomer substrates such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), semiconducting carbon nanotube network as channel, unsorted carbon nanotube network as source/drain/gate electrodes, and BaTiO.sub.3/PDMS composite as gate dielectric. Printable stretchable dielectric layer ink may be formed by mixing barium titanate nanoparticle (BaTiO.sub.3) with PDMS using 4-methyl-2-pentanone as solvent.

An integrated circuit assembly including an integrated circuit formed on one side of a substrate and a thermal spreading layer composed of a silver ink directly printed on an opposite side of the substrate from the integrated circuit, where the thermal spreading layer removes heat generated by the integrated circuit. The assembly also includes a heat sink thermally attached to the thermal spreading layer opposite to the substrate, where the heat sink is attached to the thermal spreading layer by printing the same material on the heat sink as the thermal spreading layer and pressing the spreading layer to the heat sink.

A packaged electronic device includes an integrated circuit and an electrically non-conductive encapsulation material in contact with the integrated circuit. A thermal conduit extends from an exterior of the package, through the encapsulation material, to the integrated circuit. The thermal conduit has a thermal conductivity higher than the encapsulation material contacting the thermal conduit. The thermal conduit includes a cohered nanoparticle film. The cohered nanoparticle film is formed by a method which includes an additive process.

Provided is a printed circuit board using thermally and electrically conductive layer, and a manufacturing method thereof The manufacturing method for mounting a plurality of elements includes forming an electrode layer on a substrate of a PCB, forming a photo solder resist (PSR) layer in a patterned manner on a first area of the electrode layer; forming a conductive layer on the PSR layer in the patterned manner, the conductive layer being configured to conduct heat and static electricity; and mounting a plurality of elements on a second area of the side of the PCB, the second area being different from the first area.

An ink jet process is used to deposit a material layer to a desired thickness. Layout data is converted to per-cell grayscale values, each representing ink volume to be locally delivered. The grayscale values are used to generate a halftone pattern to deliver variable ink volume (and thickness) to the substrate. The halftoning provides for a relatively continuous layer (e.g., without unintended gaps or holes) while providing for variable volume and, thus, contributes to variable ink/material buildup to achieve desired thickness. The ink is jetted as liquid or aerosol that suspends material used to form the material layer, for example, an organic material used to form an encapsulation layer for a flat panel device. The deposited layer is then cured or otherwise finished to complete the process.