Electromigration-induced local dewetting in Cu films

The continuous downscaling of microelectronics has introduced many reliability issues on interconnect. Electromigration and dewetting are major reliability concerns in high-temperature micro- and nanoscale devices. In this paper, the local dewetting of copper thin film during the electromigration test was first found and investigated. When...

Improved PECVD processed hydrogenated germanium films through temperature induced densification

Amorphous and nano-crystalline germanium is of potential interest for a wide range of electronic, optical, opto-electronic and photovoltaic applications. In this work the influence of deposition temperature on hydrogenated germanium (Ge:H) films was characterized, using over 200 Ge:H and over 70 SiGe:H films. The demonstrated temperature...

Fabrication and Analysis of a-Si:H/μc-Si:H Tandem Solar Cell on Flexible Al Substrates: A Flamingo PV Project

Our world is on its way to re-engineer the daily life based on renewable clean energy. And this multilateral attempt to combat environmental and climate change has its focus perfectly poised to embrace the infinite energy source - solar energy as an alternative. Thin-film photovoltaic technology also referred to as second-generation technology...

In-situ bandaged Josephson junctions for superconducting quantum processors

Shadow evaporation is commonly used to micro-fabricate the key element of superconducting qubits—the Josephson junction. However, in conventional two-angle deposition circuit topology, unwanted stray Josephson junctions are created which contribute to dielectric loss. So far, this could be avoided by shorting the stray junctions with a so...

Single-crystal copper films on sapphire

Single-crystal copper films on sapphire have recently been reported upon in relation to graphene growth on these films. In the present paper the kinetics of the formation of single crystal copper films is investigated. We demonstrate the importance of heating the sapphire substrate in 1000 hPa oxygen, followed by a fast cooling prior to...

Light trapping in Si thin film solar cell

This thesis is structured in six distinct chapters. In Chapter 1 a general introduction is given to address the main challenge in thin-film silicon solar cells and to motivate the need for light trapping. This chapter also describes the main focus of this thesis and the urge to understand the light behaviour inside a periodic waveguide thin film...

Quantum dot solar cells and electrochemical doping of QD films

Quantum dots (QDs) are nano-crystal semiconductors (1-100 nm) in which charge carriers (electrons and holes) are confined in all 3 dimensions by potential barriers that cause them to behave differently from conventional bulk semiconductors. QD research in the past decade has progressed rapidly, allowing<br/>a deeper understanding of the physics...

Band gap grading of a–SiO_x:H and its effect on the performance of thin film solar cells

Solar cells are showing significant promise to become the solution for the growing energy needs of our world. However for this to happen, new disruptive technologies with high efficiency and low cost are needed in the market. One possibility comes from multijunction thin film solar cells based on a-Si alloys and nc-Si. For this purpose a–SiO<sub...

Photoelectrochemical water treatment using solar cells and Earth abundant materials

The worldwide availability of safe and clean drinking water constitutes one of the main challenges of our era. Unfortunately, due to progress-related issues such as global warming, population growth and industrial development, the availability and quality of drinking water is expected to deteriorate in the coming years, posing new threats for...

Air-based contactless positioning of thin substrates: Exploring the outlet restriction variation concept

A new concept in the field of air-based contactless positioning has been explored. The concept is based on the variation of the outlet restriction of an actuator, which controls a net air flow starting from the inlet. The object to be positioned ‘floats’ on a thin air film with a thickness in the order of tens of micrometres. Since the film...

Flexible solutions: Flexible PV-integrated sunshades for the facade

To date, buildings use 40% of the world’s energy and emit 20% of the world’s CO2. Therefore the EU developed the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, that requires all new buildings to be nearly zero-energy by the end of 2020. This is only possible when the buildings themselves produce renewable energy. This requires ample use of...

Thorium effect on the oxidation of uranium: Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS/UPS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) investigation on (U1 − xThx)O2 (x = 0 to 1) thin films

Thin films of U_1− xTh_xO₂ (x = 0 to 1) have been deposited via reactive DC sputter technique and characterized by X-ray/Ultra-violet Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS/UPS), X-ray Powder Diffractometer (XRD) and Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) in order to understand the effect of Thorium on the oxidation mechanism. During...

Oscillations of a string on an elastic foundation with space and time-varying rigidity

The dynamics of a string on an elastic foundation with time- and coordinate-dependent coefficients have been studied. Asymptotic solutions have been constructed for the following cases: for an arbitrary value of the elastic foundation coefficient at small and large time values, and for small and large coefficients of the elastic foundation at...

Amorphous MnO2 thin film cathode for rechargeable lithium batteries

Kinetics of tungsten low-pressure chemical-vapor deposition using WF6 and SiH4 studied by in situ growth-rate measurements