This paper presents an asynchronous design technique, an enabler for the emerging technology of flexible microelectronics that feature low-temperature processed polysilicon (LTPS) thin-film transistors (TFT) and surface-free technology by laser annealing/ablation (SUFTLA®). The first design instance chosen is an 8-bit microprocessor. LTPS TFTs are good for realizing displays having integrated VLSI circuit at lower costs. However, LTPS TFTs have drawbacks, including substantial deviations in characteristics and the self-heating phenomenon. To solve these problems, the authors adopted the asynchronous circuit design technique and developed an asynchronous design language called Verilog+, which is based on a subset of Verilog HDL® and includes minimal primitives used for describing the communications between modules, and the dedicated tools including a translator called xlator and a synthesizer called ctrlsyn. The flexible 8-bit microprocessor stably operates at 500 kHz, drawing 180 µA from a 5 V power source. The microprocessor's electromagnetic emissions are 21 dB less than those of the synchronous counterpart.

In this paper, a high-speed logic circuitry using bootstrapped and low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) technologies for TFT-LCD panels is proposed. The new circuitry realizes high-speed operation owing to the application of a logic-swing voltage that is wider than the power-supply voltage using bootstrapped technology. As a result, the new logic circuitry can be operated at an operational frequency around 3-10 times higher than that of the conventional circuitry under the conditions of a 0.5 pF load capacitor at the output of a noninverting buffer and +10 V power-supply voltages. The new circuit is named "BST-TFT logic circuitry."