Vacuum Sealing of MEMS Cavities using Nanoparticle Sintering

Many semiconductor sensors, particularly MEMS sensors such as inertial, temperature, pressure, and resonance sensors need a vacuum environment for optimal performance and sensitivity in addition to the improvement in their long-term reliability. With the rise of heterogeneous integration with the MEMS and ICs being integrated together, process...

Simplified processing of interdigitated-back-contacted silicon heterojunction solar cells

Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells are one of the most promising PV technologies nowadays due to high photoconversion efficiencies and low manufacturing costs. However, standard front/back-contacted (FBC) solar cells feature a front metal grid that brings shading to the front side of the devices, which limits the conversion efficiency of...

Monolithically fabricated flexible graphene-based active implant

Treatment of diseases, illnesses or disorders are always sought without any undesired side-effects and complications. Neurological disorders, such as Epilepsy and Parkinson’s, are currently treated using pharmaceuticals. However, drugs have a low specificity and lose their effectiveness after several years. In addition, prolonged drug usage...

Sensor Integration in PV Devices: State of the Art and Future Opportunities

The on-field performance and lifespan of PV modules are affected by the interaction of numerous parameters, among which temperature, strain, and humidity. Among these parameters, only temperature is occasionally measured in PV installations, and such monitoring is often external to the module. This limits its use and does not provide accurate...

Classification Algorithm for Early Detection of Atrial Fibrillation: The Development of a Supervised Learning Method Using Photoplethysmography Signals for an ARM Processor

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of cardiac arrhythmia occurring in around 0.5% of the world population. AF is characterized by the rapid and irregular beating of the atrial chambers of the heart, which can cause lead to strokes and other heart-failures. To prevent these consequences the early detection of AF is paramount. Using...

High efficiency IBC solar cells with poly-Si implanted passivating contacts

Crystalline silicon (c-Si) interdigitated back contacted (IBC) solar cell with poly-Si passivating contacts is one of the most promising approaches to achieve high conversion efficiency solar cells. The fabrication of IBC silicon-based solar cells provided by poly-Si passivating contacts is investigated in this thesis. The passivating poly-Si...

Graphene Nano-ribbon Patterning and Characterisation Towards Boolean Logic Gates

As CMOS scaling approaches the atomic feature size limit which results in a high power density and current leakage, low reliability and increased time and production cost, the need for new materials and devices is increasing. One of the promising materials to replace silicon based devices is graphene nano-ribbons (GNRs) due to its remarkable...

Modeling the physics of RRAM defects: A model simulating RRAM defects on a macroscopic physical level

Resistive RAM, or RRAM, is one of the emerging non-volatile memory (NVM) technologies, which could be used in the near future to fill the gap in the memory hierarchy between dynamic RAM (DRAM) and Flash, or even completely replace Flash. RRAM operates faster than Flash, but is still non-volatile, which enables it to be used in a dense 3D NVM...

Experimental Study on Electromigration by Using Blech Structure

In the advanced semiconductor industry, modern electronic devices are expected to realize complex functions with minimized size, which requires an increase in the density of on-chip interconnects. To meet this demand, the dimension of interconnects is reduced and it requires the narrowing of metal interconnects to carry the increasing current...

Smart Personal Protective Equipment: On-Board Power Management

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment for Healthcare personnel. This project aims to aid in this shortage by extending the lifetime of the filter material used in a mask. This is done in the form of an SPPE, a Smart Personal Protective Equipment. This face mask has two smart filter heads that are modular and...

Hydrogenated Indium Oxide (IO:H) by Plasma Enhanced Spatial Atomic layer deposition for thin film PV application

Hydrogenated Indium Oxide (IOH) has been recognized as a high performance transparent conductive oxide (TCO) due to its excellent mobility (>100 cm2/Vs) and high transparency (>90%) in the visible and near infrared region of the spectrum. Plasma enhanced spatial atomic layer deposition (PESALD), a new type of deposition process developed...

Diamagnetically Levitated Resonant Mass Sensor: Master of Science Thesis

In the past few decades, there has been a growing demand for low-cost disposable sensors to be utilized in hazardous and toxic environments such as high temperature and chemically aggressive environments, which can lead to irreversible damage to the sensor. Moreover, by cost reduction, they become more attractive for utilization in developing...

A Flexible Transparent Graphene Electrode Array for Spinal Cord Stimulation in Rats

Neural interface in the form of microelectrodes is used to monitor and treat spinal cord injury and other neurological disorders by the means of recording and stimulation. Despite the apparent result of these electrical interventions, understanding of the mechanism behind neural stimulation is still inadequate. The use of optical monitoring...

Characterization and Dynamics of Diamagnetically Levitated Objects

From the earliest days, the phenomenon of levitation has always aroused the curiosity of humankind due to its mysterious and unique nature. Levitation systems are particularly interesting because of their non-contact characteristic which provides the possibility to isolate the levitated object from environmental effects like mechanical friction...