A versatile metal nanowiring platform enables the fabrication of Ag nanowires (AgNW) at a desired position and orientation in an individually controlled manner. A printed, flexible AgNW has a diameter of 695 nm, a resistivity of 5.7 μΩ cm, and good thermal stability in air. Based on an Ag nanowiring platform, an all-NW transistors array, as well as various optoelectronic applications, are successfully demonstrated.

Organic nanowires (ONWs) are flexible, stretchable, and have good electrical properties, and therefore have great potential for use in next-generation textile and wearable electronics. Analysis of trends in ONWs supports their great potential for various stretchable and flexible electronic applications such as flexible displays and flexible photovoltaics. Numerous methods can be used to prepare ONWs, but the practical industrial application of ONWs has not been achieved because of the lack of reliable techniques for controlling and patterning of individual nanowires. Therefore, an "individually controllable" technique to fabricate ONWs is essential for practical device applications. In this paper, three types of fabrication methods of ONWs are reviewed: non-alignment methods, massive-alignment methods, and individual-alignment methods. Recent research on electronic and photonic device applications of ONWs is then reviewed. Finally, suggestions for future research are put forward.

PurposeWhile the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-18 (IL-18) is known to activate natural killer (NK) cells, its precise role in cancer is controversial. In this study, we investigated the role of tumor-derived IL-18 on peripheral blood NK cells in breast cancer patients.ResultsIn breast cancer cell lines, IL-18 was expressed and secreted in the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell lines MDA-MB-231 and HCC-70 but not in MCF-7 cells. The immature and non-cytotoxic CD56dimCD16dim/− NK cell fraction was increased following co-culture with MDA-MB-231 cells, and this increase was not observed with tumor cells transfected with siRNA for IL-18 or in MCF-7 cells. In addition, tumor-derived IL-18 increased PD-1 expression on CD56dimCD16dim/− NK cells, although no effect on PD-L1 expression in tumor cells was observed. Among EBC patients, serum IL-18 levels were significantly increased in those with a TNBC subtype compared to levels from patients with other subtypes, and the IL-18 levels were strongly associated with poor survival. Similarly, serum IL-18 and CD56dimCD16dim/− NK cells were also increased in patients with metastatic TNBC who had progressive disease following cytotoxic chemotherapy.Experimental DesignWe performed in vitro experiments in breast cancer cell lines, measured cytokine levels by RT-qPCR, western blot, and ELISA, and analyzed NK cell subsets by flow cytometry. For clinical validation, we collected and analyzed blood sample from patients with early breast cancer (EBC, N = 545) and metastatic breast cancer (MBC, N = 42).ConclusionsOur data revealed that tumor-derived IL-18 is associated with bad prognosis in patients with TNBC. Tumor-derived IL-18 increased the immunosuppressive CD56dimCD16dim/− NK cell fraction and induced PD-1 expression on these NK cells.

A individually position-addressable large-scale-aligned Cu nanofiber (NF) array is fabricated using electro-hydrodynamic nanowire printing. The printed single-stranded Cu NF has a diameter of about 710 nm and resistivity of 14.1 μΩ cm and is effectively used as source/drain nanoelectrode in pentacene transistors, which show a 25-fold increased hole mobility than that of a device with Cu thin-film electrodes.

A novel flexible encapsulation method (Flex Lami-capsulation) is reported, which can be applied in the roll-to-roll process for mass production of organic electronic devices. Flex Lami-capsulation is very simple, fast, and getter-free, and is as effective as glass encapsulation. Use of this method is feasible in large-area flexible displays and does not have the drawbacks of conventional encapsulation methods.

This paper presents the electrical contact behaviors of gold-to-gold thin-film contacts under high current conditions and describes the major factors that influence these contact behaviors for radio frequency microelectromechanical system switches. The fundamental phenomena in the contact resistance versus contact force curve were investigated with a contact measurement setup, which we devised. Based on the experimental results, the contact resistance behavior with increasing contact force can be divided into three regions: first, an unstable contact regime before the minimum contact force is reached; second, a stable contact regime where the plastic deformation of the asperities explains the behavior and, finally, a saturated regime where the thickness effect of the film on a hard substrate becomes evident. The minimum contact force required for a stable contact depended on the roughness of the surface and the current flow through the contact. The smooth surface of the Au film and the metal softening caused by a high current flow of 100 mA had the effect of lowering the minimum contact force. After the minimum contact force is exceeded, the contact resistance initially follows the asperity plastic deformation behavior, where the contact resistance is related to the resistivity and hardness of the contact material. In the higher contact force regime, the decrease in the contact resistance becomes almost negligible. With increasing contact force, the effective contact area is limited by the effect of the film thickness on a hard substrate. From these results, we found the principal factors influencing the contact behaviors of the Au-to-Au contacts to be the resistivity, hardness and softening temperature of the contact materials and the design factors such as the surface roughness, the film thickness and the substrate.

No abstract

Strong and productive partnerships between buyers and suppliers are important for effective outsourcing. Such partnerships should be based on mutual understanding, which can be hampered by a perception gap between the supply chain partners with respect to what are the critical factors for a successful buyer‐supplier relationship. The nature of such a perception gap is explored by looking into the partnership between a Korean semiconductor manufacturer and its suppliers. Results indicate that there exist statistically significant differences in some of the perceptions both between the manufacturer and its suppliers and among the suppliers according to their production capability and product requirement.