Electronic devices with thin-film circuit elements forming a sampling circuit

Claim 1

An electronic device comprising a pattern of thin-film circuit elements on a substrate which form a sampling circuit of the device, the circuit comprising a sampling transistor between an input node and an output node, said sampling transistor being a thin-film field-effect transistor element having an insulated gate adjacent to a semiconductor thin-film body which is deposited on the substrate and comprises a channel region of the transistor controlled by the insulated gate, the gate being connected to a thin-film control line for switching the transistor on and off so as to sample a signal from the input node and to pass the sampled signal to the output node, the passage of the signal by the transistor in an on state being effected by a flow of charge carriers of a first conductivity type which are majority charge carriers of the channel region, the channel region having a density of trapping states which trap charge carriers of the first conductivity type in the on state of the transistor, and which release the trapped charge carriers of the first conductivity type by thermal emission when the transistor is switched into an off state, the sampling transistor comprising a minority charge carrier injector region which is adjacent the channel region and is connected to a thin-film supply line for forward biasing the injector region with respect to the channel region to provide a supply of charge carriers of a second conductivity type opposite to the first type for injection as minority charge carriers into the channel region during switching off of the transistor, which minority charge carriers neutralize within the channel region the charge carriers of the first conductivity type released by thermal emission.