Professor John Shannon
About
Biography
John M Shannon was awarded a DSc (Doctor of Science) from Brunel University London in 1982.
From 1985 to 1994 he was head of Display and Large Area Electronics Groups at Philips Research Laboratories Redhill before sharing his time with the University of Surrey where he is a Professorial Research Fellow within the school of Electronics and Physical Sciences.
Professor Shannon has over 100 papers and 70 patents in the field of semiconductor devices. These include the auto registered MOSFET ( high frequency) , the planar doped diode and the bulk unipolar diode (low noise) for which he received the first Paterson prize for Physics awarded by the institute of Physics London in 1983. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2001.
ResearchResearch interests
Physics and engineering of semiconductor devices.
Recently he has concentrated on the Source-Gated Transistor which was invented in 2001. It is particularly useful for Pico-amp circuits and self powered circuits in highly disordered semiconductors used for large area electronics.
Research interests
Physics and engineering of semiconductor devices.
Recently he has concentrated on the Source-Gated Transistor which was invented in 2001. It is particularly useful for Pico-amp circuits and self powered circuits in highly disordered semiconductors used for large area electronics.
Publications
Amorphous carbon films containing no hydrogen were irradiated with a pulsed UV laser in vacuum. Raman spectroscopy indicates an increase in the quantity of sp(2) clustering with the highest laser energy density and a commensurate reduction in resistivity. The reduction of resistivity is explained to be associated with thermally induced graphitization of amorphous carbon films. The high field transport is consistent with a Poole-Frenkel type transport mechanism via neutral trapping centers related to sp(2) sites which are activated under high fields. Decreasing the resistivity is an important feature for use of carbon as an electronic material. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.
The holy grail in terms of flat panel displays has been an inexpensive process for the production of large area 'hang on the wall' television that is based on an emissive technology. Electron field emission displays, in principle, should be able to give high quality pictures with good colour saturation, and, if suitable technologies for the production of cathodes over large areas were to be made available, at low cost. This requires a process technology where temperatures must be maintained below 450/spl deg/C throughout the entire production cycle to be consistent with the softening temperature of display glass. In this paper we propose three possible routes for nanoscale engineering of large area cathodes using low temperature processing that can be integrated into a display technology. The first process is based on carbon nanotube-polymer composites that can be screen printed over large areas and show electron field emission properties comparable with some of the best aligned nanotube arrays. The second process is based on the large area growth of carbon nanofibres directly onto substrates held at temperatures ranging from room temperature to 300/spl deg/C, thereby making it possible to use inexpensive substrates. The third process is based on the use of excimer laser processing of amorphous silicon for the production of lithography-free large area three terminal nanocrystalline silicon substrates. Each route has its own advantages and flexibility in terms of incorporation into an existing display technology. The harnessing of these synergies will be highlighted together with the properties of the cathodes developed for the differing technologies.