Syllable processing is organized in discrete subregions of the human superior temporal gyrus.

Modular organization at approximately 1 mm scale could be fundamental to cortical processing, but its presence in human association cortex is unknown. Using custom-built, high-density electrode arrays placed on the cortical surface of 7 patients undergoing awake craniotomy for tumor excision, we investigated receptive speech processing in the left (dominant) human posterior superior temporal gyrus. Responses to consonant-vowel syllables and noise-vocoded controls recorded with 1,024 channel micro-grids at 200 µm pitch demonstrated roughly circular domains approximately 1.7 mm in diameter, with sharp boundaries observed in 128 channel linear arrays at 50 µm pitch, possibly consistent with a columnar organization. Peak latencies to syllables in different modules were bimodally distributed centered at 252 and 386 ms. Adjacent modules were sharply delineated from each other by their distinct time courses and stimulus selectivity. We suggest that receptive language cortex may be organized in discrete processing modules.

Strain engineering and epitaxial stabilization of halide perovskites.

Strain engineering is a powerful tool with which to enhance semiconductor device performance1,2. Halide perovskites have shown great promise in device applications owing to their remarkable electronic and optoelectronic properties3-5. Although applying strain to halide perovskites has been frequently attempted, including using hydrostatic pressurization6-8, electrostriction9, annealing10-12, van der Waals force13, thermal expansion mismatch14, and heat-induced substrate phase transition15, the controllable and device-compatible strain engineering of halide perovskites by chemical epitaxy remains a challenge, owing to the absence of suitable lattice-mismatched epitaxial substrates. Here we report the strained epitaxial growth of halide perovskite single-crystal thin films on lattice-mismatched halide perovskite substrates. We investigated strain engineering of α-formamidinium lead iodide (α-FAPbI3) using both experimental techniques and theoretical calculations. By tailoring the substrate composition-and therefore its lattice parameter-a compressive strain as high as 2.4 per cent is applied to the epitaxial α-FAPbI3 thin film. We demonstrate that this strain effectively changes the crystal structure, reduces the bandgap and increases the hole mobility of α-FAPbI3. Strained epitaxy is also shown to have a substantial stabilization effect on the α-FAPbI3 phase owing to the synergistic effects of epitaxial stabilization and strain neutralization. As an example, strain engineering is applied to enhance the performance of an α-FAPbI3-based photodetector.

A fabrication process for flexible single-crystal perovskite devices.

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have electronic and optoelectronic properties that make them appealing in many device applications1-4. Although many approaches focus on polycrystalline materials5-7, single-crystal hybrid perovskites show improved carrier transport and enhanced stability over their polycrystalline counterparts, due to their orientation-dependent transport behaviour8-10 and lower defect concentrations11,12. However, the fabrication of single-crystal hybrid perovskites, and controlling their morphology and composition, are challenging12. Here we report a solution-based lithography-assisted epitaxial-growth-and-transfer method for fabricating single-crystal hybrid perovskites on arbitrary substrates, with precise control of their thickness (from about 600 nanometres to about 100 micrometres), area (continuous thin films up to about 5.5 centimetres by 5.5 centimetres), and composition gradient in the thickness direction (for example, from methylammonium lead iodide, MAPbI3, to MAPb0.5Sn0.5I3). The transferred single-crystal hybrid perovskites are of comparable quality to those directly grown on epitaxial substrates, and are mechanically flexible depending on the thickness. Lead-tin gradient alloying allows the formation of a graded electronic bandgap, which increases the carrier mobility and impedes carrier recombination. Devices based on these single-crystal hybrid perovskites show not only high stability against various degradation factors but also good performance (for example, solar cells based on lead-tin-gradient structures with an average efficiency of 18.77 per cent).

Electrochemical and electrophysiological considerations for clinical high channel count neural interfaces.

Electrophysiological recording and stimulation are the gold standard for functional mapping during surgical and therapeutic interventions as well as capturing cellular activity in the intact human brain. A critical component probing human brain activity is the interface material at the electrode contact that electrochemically transduces brain signals to and from free charge carriers in the measurement system. Here, we summarize state-of-the-art electrode array systems in the context of translation for use in recording and stimulating human brain activity. We leverage parametric studies with multiple electrode materials to shed light on the varied levels of suitability to enable high signal-to-noise electrophysiological recordings as well as safe electrophysiological stimulation delivery. We discuss the effects of electrode scaling for recording and stimulation in pursuit of high spatial resolution, channel count electrode interfaces, delineating the electrode-tissue circuit components that dictate the electrode performance. Finally, we summarize recent efforts in the connectorization and packaging for high channel count electrode arrays and provide a brief account of efforts toward wireless neuronal monitoring systems.

A Comprehensive Large Signal, Small Signal, and Noise Model for IGZO Thin Film Transistor Circuits.

We report a new physics-based model for dual-gate amorphous-indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) which we developed and fine-tuned through experimental implementation and benchtop characterization. We fabricated and characterized a variety of test patterns, including a-IGZO TFTs with varying gate widths (100-1000 µm) and channel lengths (5-50 µm), transmission-line-measurement patterns and ground-signal-ground (GSG) radio frequency (RF) patterns. We modeled the contact resistance as a function of bias, channel area, and temperature, and captured all operating regimes, used physics-based modeling adjusted for empirical data to capture the TFT characteristics including ambipolar subthreshold currents, graded interbias-regime current changes, threshold and flat-band voltages, the interface trap density, the gate leakage currents, the noise, and the relevant small signal parameters. To design high-precision circuits for biosensing, we validated the dc, small signal, and noise characteristics of the model. We simulated and fabricated a two-stage common source amplifier circuit with a common drain output buffer and compared the measured and simulated gain and phase performance, finding an excellent fit over a frequency range spanning 10 kHz-10 MHz.

Scalable Thousand Channel Penetrating Microneedle Arrays on Flex for Multimodal and Large Area Coverage BrainMachine Interfaces.

The Utah array powers cutting-edge projects for restoration of neurological function, such as BrainGate, but the underlying electrode technology has itself advanced little in the last three decades. Here, advanced dual-side lithographic microfabrication processes is exploited to demonstrate a 1024-channel penetrating silicon microneedle array (SiMNA) that is scalable in its recording capabilities and cortical coverage and is suitable for clinical translation. The SiMNA is the first penetrating microneedle array with a flexible backing that affords compliancy to brain movements. In addition, the SiMNA is optically transparent permitting simultaneous optical and electrophysiological interrogation of neuronal activity. The SiMNA is used to demonstrate reliable recordings of spontaneous and evoked field potentials and of single unit activity in chronically implanted mice for up to 196 days in response to optogenetic and to whisker air-puff stimuli. Significantly, the 1024-channel SiMNA establishes detailed spatiotemporal mapping of broadband brain activity in rats. This novel scalable and biocompatible SiMNA with its multimodal capability and sensitivity to broadband brain activity will accelerate the progress in fundamental neurophysiological investigations and establishes a new milestone for penetrating and large area coverage microelectrode arrays for brain-machine interfaces.

Ultra-Sharp Nanowire Arrays Natively Permeate, Record, and Stimulate Intracellular Activity in Neuronal and Cardiac Networks.

We report innovative scalable, vertical, ultra-sharp nanowire arrays that are individually addressable to enable long-term, native recordings of intracellular potentials. Stable amplitudes of intracellular potentials from 3D tissue-like networks of neurons and cardiomyocytes are obtained. Individual electrical addressability is necessary for high-fidelity intracellular electrophysiological recordings. This study paves the way toward predictive, high-throughput, and low-cost electrophysiological drug screening platforms.

Microscale Physiological Events on the Human Cortical Surface.

Despite ongoing advances in our understanding of local single-cellular and network-level activity of neuronal populations in the human brain, extraordinarily little is known about their "intermediate" microscale local circuit dynamics. Here, we utilized ultra-high-density microelectrode arrays and a rare opportunity to perform intracranial recordings across multiple cortical areas in human participants to discover three distinct classes of cortical activity that are not locked to ongoing natural brain rhythmic activity. The first included fast waveforms similar to extracellular single-unit activity. The other two types were discrete events with slower waveform dynamics and were found preferentially in upper cortical layers. These second and third types were also observed in rodents, nonhuman primates, and semi-chronic recordings from humans via laminar and Utah array microelectrodes. The rates of all three events were selectively modulated by auditory and electrical stimuli, pharmacological manipulation, and cold saline application and had small causal co-occurrences. These results suggest that the proper combination of high-resolution microelectrodes and analytic techniques can capture neuronal dynamics that lay between somatic action potentials and aggregate population activity. Understanding intermediate microscale dynamics in relation to single-cell and network dynamics may reveal important details about activity in the full cortical circuit.

Intrinsically Linear Transistor for Millimeter-Wave Low Noise Amplifiers.

Transistors are the backbone of any electronic and telecommunication system but all known transistors are intrinsically nonlinear introducing signal distortion. Here, we demonstrate a novel transistor with the best linearity achieved to date, attained by sequential turn-on of multiple channels composed of a planar top-gate and several trigate Fin field-effect transistors (FETs), using AlGaN/GaN structures. A highly linearized transconductance plateau of >6 V resulted in a record linearity figure of merit OIP3/PDC of 15.9 dB at 5 GHz and a reduced third-order intermodulation power by 400× in reference to a conventional planar device. The proposed architecture also features an exceptional performance at 30 GHz with an OIP3/PDC of ≥8.2 dB and a minimum noise figure of 2.2 dB. The device demonstrated on a scalable Si substrate paves the way for GaN low noise amplifiers (LNAs) to be utilized in telecommunication systems, and is also translatable to other material systems.

Correlation Structure in Micro-ECoG Recordings is Described by Spatially Coherent Components.

Electrocorticography (ECoG) is becoming more prevalent due to improvements in fabrication and recording technology as well as its ease of implantation compared to intracortical electrophysiology, larger cortical coverage, and potential advantages for use in long term chronic implantation. Given the flexibility in the design of ECoG grids, which is only increasing, it remains an open question what geometry of the electrodes is optimal for an application. Conductive polymer, PEDOT:PSS, coated microelectrodes have an advantage that they can be made very small without losing low impedance. This makes them suitable for evaluating the required granularity of ECoG recording in humans and experimental animals. We used two-dimensional (2D) micro-ECoG grids to record intra-operatively in humans and during acute implantations in mouse with separation distance between neighboring electrodes (i.e., pitch) of 0.4 mm and 0.2/0.25 mm respectively. To assess the spatial properties of the signals, we used the average correlation between electrodes as a function of the pitch. In agreement with prior studies, we find a strong frequency dependence in the spatial scale of correlation. By applying independent component analysis (ICA), we find that the spatial pattern of correlation is largely due to contributions from multiple spatially extended, time-locked sources present at any given time. Our analysis indicates the presence of spatially structured activity down to the sub-millimeter spatial scale in ECoG despite the effects of volume conduction, justifying the use of dense micro-ECoG grids.

Physics-Based Device Models and Progress Review for Active Piezoelectric Semiconductor Devices.

Piezoelectric devices transduce mechanical energy to electrical energy by elastic deformation, which distorts local dipoles in crystalline materials. Amongst electromechanical sensors, piezoelectric devices are advantageous because of their scalability, light weight, low power consumption, and readily built-in amplification and ability for multiplexing, which are essential for wearables, medical devices, and robotics. This paper reviews recent progress in active piezoelectric devices. We classify these piezoelectric devices according to the material dimensionality and present physics-based device models to describe and quantify the piezoelectric response for one-dimensional nanowires, emerging two-dimensional materials, and three-dimensional thin films. Different transduction mechanisms and state-of-the-art devices for each type of material are reviewed. Perspectives on the future applications of active piezoelectric devices are discussed.

Selective Formation of Porous Pt Nanorods for Highly Electrochemically Efficient Neural Electrode Interfaces.

The enhanced electrochemical activity of nanostructured materials is readily exploited in energy devices, but their utility in scalable and human-compatible implantable neural interfaces can significantly advance the performance of clinical and research electrodes. We utilize low-temperature selective dealloying to develop scalable and biocompatible one-dimensional platinum nanorod (PtNR) arrays that exhibit superb electrochemical properties at various length scales, stability, and biocompatibility for high performance neurotechnologies. PtNR arrays record brain activity with cellular resolution from the cortical surfaces in birds and nonhuman primates. Significantly, strong modulation of surface recorded single unit activity by auditory stimuli is demonstrated in European Starling birds as well as the modulation of local field potentials in the visual cortex by light stimuli in a nonhuman primate and responses to electrical stimulation in mice. PtNRs record behaviorally and physiologically relevant neuronal dynamics from the surface of the brain with high spatiotemporal resolution, which paves the way for less invasive brain-machine interfaces.

Sub-millimeter ECoG pitch in human enables higher fidelity cognitive neural state estimation.

Electrocorticography (ECoG), electrophysiological recording from the pial surface of the brain, is a critical measurement technique for clinical neurophysiology, basic neurophysiology studies, and demonstrates great promise for the development of neural prosthetic devices for assistive applications and the treatment of neurological disorders. Recent advances in device engineering are poised to enable orders of magnitude increase in the resolution of ECoG without comprised measurement quality. This enhancement in cortical sensing enables the observation of neural dynamics from the cortical surface at the micrometer scale. While these technical capabilities may be enabling, the extent to which finer spatial scale recording enhances functionally relevant neural state inference is unclear. We examine this question by employing a high-density and low impedance 400 µm pitch microECoG (µECoG) grid to record neural activity from the human cortical surface during cognitive tasks. By applying machine learning techniques to classify task conditions from the envelope of high-frequency band (70-170Hz) neural activity collected from two study participants, we demonstrate that higher density grids can lead to more accurate binary task condition classification. When controlling for grid area and selecting task informative sub-regions of the complete grid, we observed a consistent increase in mean classification accuracy with higher grid density; in particular, 400 µm pitch grids outperforming spatially sub-sampled lower density grids up to 23%. We also introduce a modeling framework to provide intuition for how spatial properties of measurements affect the performance gap between high and low density grids. To our knowledge, this work is the first quantitative demonstration of human sub-millimeter pitch cortical surface recording yielding higher-fidelity state estimation relative to devices at the millimeter-scale, motivating the development and testing of µECoG for basic and clinical neurophysiology as well as towards the realization of high-performance neural prostheses.

Atomic Scale Dynamics of Contact Formation in the Cross-Section of InGaAs Nanowire Channels.

Alloyed and compound contacts between metal and semiconductor transistor channels enable self-aligned gate processes which play a significant role in transistor scaling. At nanoscale dimensions and for nanowire channels, prior experiments focused on reactions along the channel length, but the early stage of reaction in their cross sections remains unknown. Here, we report on the dynamics of the solid-state reaction between metal (Ni) and semiconductor (In0.53Ga0.47As), along the cross-section of nanowires that are 15 nm in width. Unlike planar structures where crystalline nickelide readily forms at conventional, low alloying temperatures, nanowires exhibit a solid-state amorphization step that can undergo a crystal regrowth step at elevated temperatures. In this study, we capture the layer-by-layer reaction mechanism and growth rate anisotropy using in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Our kinetic model depicts this new, in-plane contact formation which could pave the way for engineered nanoscale transistors.

High Density Individually Addressable Nanowire Arrays Record Intracellular Activity from Primary Rodent and Human Stem Cell Derived Neurons.

We report a new hybrid integration scheme that offers for the first time a nanowire-on-lead approach, which enables independent electrical addressability, is scalable, and has superior spatial resolution in vertical nanowire arrays. The fabrication of these nanowire arrays is demonstrated to be scalable down to submicrometer site-to-site spacing and can be combined with standard integrated circuit fabrication technologies. We utilize these arrays to perform electrophysiological recordings from mouse and rat primary neurons and human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived neurons, which revealed high signal-to-noise ratios and sensitivity to subthreshold postsynaptic potentials (PSPs). We measured electrical activity from rodent neurons from 8 days in vitro (DIV) to 14 DIV and from hiPSC-derived neurons at 6 weeks in vitro post culture with signal amplitudes up to 99 mV. Overall, our platform paves the way for longitudinal electrophysiological experiments on synaptic activity in human iPSC based disease models of neuronal networks, critical for understanding the mechanisms of neurological diseases and for developing drugs to treat them.

Recordings and Analysis of Atomic Ledge and Dislocation Movements in InGaAs to Nickelide Nanowire Phase Transformation.

The formation of low resistance and self-aligned contacts with thermally stable alloyed phases is a prerequisite for realizing reliable functionality in ultrascaled semiconductor transistors. Detailed structural analysis of the phase transformation accompanying contact alloying can facilitate contact engineering as transistor channels approach a few atoms across. Original in situ heating transmission electron microscopy studies are carried out to record and analyze the atomic scale dynamics of contact alloy formation between Ni and In0.53 Ga0.47 As nanowire channels. It is observed that the nickelide reacts on the In0.53 Ga0.47 As (111) || Ni2 In0.53 Ga0.47 As (0001) interface with atomic ledge propagation along the Ni2 In0.53 Ga0.47 As [101¯0] direction. Ledges nucleate as a train of strained single-bilayers and propagate in-plane as double-bilayers that are associated with a misfit dislocation of b→=2c3[0001]. The atomic structure is reconstructed to explain this phase transformation that involves collective gliding of three Shockley partials in In0.53 Ga0.47 As lattice to cancel out shear stress and the formation of misfit dislocations to compensate the large lattice mismatch in the newly formed nickelide phase and the In0.53 Ga0.47 As layers. This work demonstrates the applicability of interfacial disconnection (ledge + dislocation) theory in a nanowire channel during thermally induced phase transformation that is typical in metal/III-V semiconductor reactions.

GaP/GaNP Heterojunctions for Efficient Solar-Driven Water Oxidation.

The growth and characterization of an n-GaP/i-GaNP/p+ -GaP thin film heterojunction synthesized using a gas-source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) method, and its application for efficient solar-driven water oxidation is reported. The TiO2 /Ni passivated n-GaP/i-GaNP/p+ -GaP thin film heterojunction provides much higher photoanodic performance in 1 m KOH solution than the TiO2 /Ni-coated n-GaP substrate, leading to much lower onset potential and much higher photocurrent. There is a significant photoanodic potential shift of 764 mV at a photocurrent of 0.34 mA cm-2 , leading to an onset potential of ≈0.4 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) at 0.34 mA cm-2 for the heterojunction. The photocurrent at the water oxidation potential (1.23 V vs RHE) is 1.46 and 7.26 mA cm-2 for the coated n-GaP and n-GaP/i-GaNP/p+ -GaP photoanodes, respectively. The passivated heterojunction offers a maximum applied bias photon-to-current efficiency (ABPE) of 1.9% while the ABPE of the coated n-GaP sample is almost zero. Furthermore, the coated n-GaP/i-GaNP/p+ -GaP heterojunction photoanode provides a broad absorption spectrum up to ≈620 nm with incident photon-to-current efficiencies (IPCEs) of over 40% from ≈400 to ≈560 nm. The high low-bias performance and broad absorption of the wide-bandgap GaP/GaNP heterojunctions render them as a promising photoanode material for tandem photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells to carry out overall solar water splitting.

Gibbs-Thomson Effect in Planar Nanowires: Orientation and Doping Modulated Growth.

Epitaxy-enabled bottom-up synthesis of self-assembled planar nanowires via the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism is an emerging and promising approach toward large-scale direct integration of nanowire-based devices without postgrowth alignment. Here, by examining large assemblies of indium tin oxide nanowires on yttria-stabilized zirconia substrate, we demonstrate for the first time that the growth dynamics of planar nanowires follows a modified version of the Gibbs-Thomson mechanism, which has been known for the past decades to govern the correlations between thermodynamic supersaturation, growth speed, and nanowire morphology. Furthermore, the substrate orientation strongly influences the growth characteristics of epitaxial planar nanowires as opposed to impact at only the initial nucleation stage in the growth of vertical nanowires. The rich nanowire morphology can be described by a surface-energy-dependent growth model within the Gibbs-Thomson framework, which is further modulated by the tin doping concentration. Our experiments also reveal that the cutoff nanowire diameter depends on the substrate orientation and decreases with increasing tin doping concentration. These results enable a deeper understanding and control over the growth of planar nanowires, and the insights will help advance the fabrication of self-assembled nanowire devices.

Size and Orientation Effects on the Kinetics and Structure of Nickelide Contacts to InGaAs Fin Structures.

The rapid development of ultrascaled III-V compound semiconductor devices urges the detailed investigation of metal-semiconductor contacts at nanoscale where crystal orientation, size, and structural phase play dominant roles in device performance. Here, we report the first study on the solid-state reaction between metal (Ni) and ternary III-V semiconductor (In0.53Ga0.47As) nanochannels to reveal the reaction kinetics, formed crystal structure, and interfacial properties. We observe a size-dependent Ni surface diffusion dominant kinetic process that gradually departs to a volume diffusion process as the Fin width increases, as properly depicted with our Fin-specific growth model. The interfacial relationship was found to be Ni4InGaAs2 (0001) ∥ In0.53Ga0.47As (111) with a single Ni4InGaAs2 phase whose [0001] axis exhibit a peculiar rotation away from the nickelide/InGaAs interface due to surface energy minimization. This crystalline interfacial relationship is responsible for introducing a uniaxial height expansion of 33% ± 5% in the formed nickelide segments. Further, the nickelide formation resulted in both in-plane and out-of-plane compressive strains in the Fin channels, significantly altering the In0.53Ga0.47As energy band-edge structure near the interface with a peak bandgap energy of ∼1.26 eV. These timely observations advance our understanding and development for self-aligned contacts to III-V nanochannels and for engineering new processes that can maximize their device performance.

Facet-Selective Nucleation and Conformal Epitaxy of Ge Shells on Si Nanowires.

Knowledge of nanoscale heteroepitaxy is continually evolving as advances in material synthesis reveal new mechanisms that have not been theoretically predicted and are different than what is known about planar structures. In addition to a wide range of potential applications, core/shell nanowire structures offer a useful template to investigate heteroepitaxy at the atomistic scale. We show that the growth of a Ge shell on a Si core can be tuned from the theoretically predicted island growth mode to a conformal, crystalline, and smooth shell by careful adjustment of growth parameters in a narrow growth window that has not been explored before. In the latter growth mode, Ge adatoms preferentially nucleate islands on the {113} facets of the Si core, which outgrow over the {220} facets. Islands on the low-energy {111} facets appear to have a nucleation delay compared to the {113} islands; however, they eventually coalesce to form a crystalline conformal shell. Synthesis of epitaxial and conformal Si/Ge/Si core/multishell structures enables us to fabricate unique cylindrical ring nanowire field-effect transistors, which we demonstrate to have steeper on/off characteristics than conventional core/shell nanowire transistors.