During operation in environments containing hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), such as in offshore and coastal environments, sintered nanoCu in power electronics is susceptible to degradation caused by corrosion. In this study, experimental and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation analyses were conducted to investigate the evolution and mechanism of H₂S-induced corrosion of sintered nanoCu, and bulk Cu was used as the reference. The following results are obtained: (1) Both sintered nanoCu and bulk Cu reacted with O₂ prior to reacting with H₂S, forming Cu₂O, Cu₂S, CuO, and CuS. In addition, sintered nanoCu exhibited more severe corrosion. (2) For both sintered nanoCu and bulk Cu, H₂S-induced corrosion resulted in the deterioration of electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties, and sintered nanoCu experienced a greater extent of deterioration. (3) As was ascertained through Reactive Force Field (ReaxFF) MD simulations, the penetration of H₂S and O₂ combined with the upward migration of Cu resulted in the formation of a corrosion film. In addition, compared to bulk Cu, the H₂S and O₂ penetration in the sintered nanoCu structure was observed to occur to a greater depth, accounting for the more pronounced performance degradation.

In a light-emitting diode (LED) package, silicone encapsulant serves as a chip protector and enables the light to transmit, since it exhibits the advantages of high light transmittance, high refractive index, and high thermal stability. However, its reliability is still challenged under harsh operation conditions. In this study, the optical and mechanical properties of silicone encapsulant, including appearance, light transmittance, Young’s modulus, and tensile strength, were experimentally monitored during the sulfur-rich ageing process. Meanwhile, the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation were used to reveal its degradation mechanism. The results show that 1) in the sulfur (S₈)-rich ageing process, the severe vulcanization reaction occurred in silicone encapsulant assisted only by high temperature and high moisture, with the existence of H₂S as the reaction product of S₈ and H₂O vapor. 2) Vulcanization characterized by the formation of the sulfhydryl (-SH) group lowered both optical and mechanical properties of silicone encapsulant. 3) The hydrolysis reaction featured by the formation of the hydroxyl (-OH) group decreased the mechanical performances of silicone encapsulant but brought slight harm to its optical performances.

In high power electronics packaging, sintered silver nanoparticle joints suffer from thermal-humidity- electrical-chemical joint driven corrosion in extreme environments. In this paper, we conducted aging tests on sintered silver nanoparticles under high-temperature, high-humidity, and high-sulphur conditions. The results show that: (1) the sample under the dry high-sulphur conditions at a high temperature exhibited the highest degree of sulphidation; (2) Reactive force field (ReaxFF) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of sintered silver nanoparticle sulphidation revealed the sulphidation layer was formed by silver atoms upward migration. This work paves the way for further investigation on sintered silver nanoparticles corrosion considering multi-physics coupling effects.

In high-power electronics packaging, nano-silver sintering technology has been widely applied due to its excellent electrical and thermal conductivity and its low-temperature packaging and high-temperature operation. In this study, 50-nm nano-silver particles are sintered at 275°C for 50 min and placed under a dynamic thermomechanical analyzer (DMA Q800) with three strain rates (0.001%s-1, 0.01%s-1, and 0.1%s-1) and seven ambient temperatures (-40°C, 0°C, 25°C, 60°C, 120°C, 150°C, and 185°C). Both the variable-order fractional constitutive model and Anand model are adopted to characterize the tensile behaviors of sintered nano-silver particles. The results show that (1) the tensile strength of sintered nano-silver particle samples declines under the lower strain rate and higher temperature; and (2) both the variable-order fractional model and Anand model can well represent the tensile mechanical properties of sintered nano-silver. According to the root mean square error (RMSE) calculation, the fitting accuracy of the variable-order fractional model is slightly better than that of the Anand model. Furthermore, the variable-order fractional model involves fewer parameters, which makes it easier to fit than the Anand model.

The CaAlSiN₃:Eu²⁺ red phosphor and its silicone/phosphor composite are very promising materials used in the high color rendering white light-emitting diode (LED) packaging. However, the reliabilities of CaAlSiN₃:Eu²⁺ and its composite are still being challenged by phosphor hydrolysis at high humidity application condition. A fundamental understanding of the interface adhesion between silicone and CaAlSiN₃:Eu²⁺ is significant for the developments and applications of this material. In this work, the mechanical properties of silicone/pristine CaAlSiN₃:Eu²⁺ and silicone/hydrolyzed CaAlSiN₃:Eu²⁺ composites are experimentally measured and compared firstly, in which both the tensile strength and Young's modulus of composite are increased after the hydrolysis reaction. Then, the first principles Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations are used to investigate the adhesion behaviors of the silicone molecular on both the pristine and the hydrolyzed CaAlSiN₃[0 1 0] at atomic level. The results show that: (1) The silicone molecular is weakly adsorbed on the pristine CaAlSiN₃[0 1 0] via Van der Waals (vdW) interactions, while silicone molecular is much stronger absorbed on the hydrolyzed CaAlSiN₃[0 1 0] due to the formation of hydrogen bonding at the interface; (2) The transient state calculations indicate that the sliding energy barrier of silicone on the hydrolyzed CaAlSiN₃[0 1 0] is higher than that on the pristine one, as the increased adsorption energy and surface roughness. Generally, the findings in this paper can guide the phosphor selection, storage and process in LED packaging, and also assist in improving the reliability design of LED package used in high moisture condition.

2D and nanostructured metal sulfide materials are promising in the advancement of several gas sensing applications due to the abundant choice of materials with easily tunable electronic, optical, physical, and chemical properties. These applications are particularly attractive for gas sensing in environmental monitoring and breath analysis. This review gives a systematic description of various gas sensors based on 2D and nanostructured metal sulfide materials. Firstly, the crystal structures of metal sulfides are introduced. Secondly, the gas sensing mechanisms of different metal sulfides based on density functional theory analysis are summarised. Various gas-sensing concepts of metal sulfide-based devices, including chemiresistors, functionalized metal sulfides, Schottky junctions, heterojunctions, field-effect transistors, and optical and surface acoustic wave sensors, are compared and presented. It then discusses the extensive applications of metal sulfide-based sensors for different gas molecules, including volatile organic compounds (i.e., acetone, benzene, methane, formaldehyde, ethanol, and liquefied petroleum gas) and inorganic gas (i.e., CO2, O2, NH3, H2S, SO2, NOx, CH4, H2, and humidity). Finally, a strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT) analysis is proposed for future development and commercialization in this field. This journal is

In this paper, degradation mechanisms of optical materials, used in the light emitting diode (LED)-based products, are reviewed. The LED lighting is one of the fastest technology shifts in human history. Lighting accounts for almost 20% of the global electrical energy use, inferring that replacement of traditional lighting sources with LEDs with higher efficiencies will have major positive implications for the global energy consumption. Organic optical materials are key components in LEDs in the sense that they control the functionality of the device and they have decisive effects on the durability and reliability of LEDs. This paper aims at describing the influences of chemical structure and service conditions on the degradation mechanisms of organic optical materials in LEDs which lead to the lumen depreciation, discolouration, and colour shift of the LED light output. The contributions of different degradation mechanisms of optical and package materials in LED-based products to the lumen depreciation and colour shift are methodically reviewed.

In this study, the structural, electronic and optical properties of a tungsten disulfide (WS₂) hybrid with indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) heterostructures were investigated based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations. According to the results of binding energy, charge density difference and electron localization function of heterostructures, we found that the WS₂ and IGZO monolayers were bound to each other via non-covalent interactions with large binding energy. The calculated results illustrate that the AAii stacking pattern has an indirect band gap of 1.643 eV, while AAi and AB stacking patterns have maximum direct-gaps of 1.102 eV and 1.234 eV, respectively. Under an external E-field and mechanical strain, the response of the energy gap of the WS₂/IGZO heterostructure monotonically decreased over a wide range, even with a semiconductor-metal transition. In addition, we investigated the optical properties of the heterostructure and found that it exhibits a much broad spectral responsivity (from visible light to deep UV light) and a more pronounced optical absorption than WS₂ and IGZO monolayers. Moreover, the tensile strain could weaken the photoresponse of the heterostructure to the UV light and enhance the response for the visible light; under compressive strain, the heterostructure showed a strong absorption peak in the UV light. Meanwhile, a red-shift was observed under an external strain. All these unique and tunable properties indicate that the WS₂/IGZO heterostructure is a good candidate for nanoelectronic and photoelectronic devices, such as field-effect transistors, flexible sensors, photodetectors and photonic devices.

In this paper, a physics of failure-based prediction method is combined with statistical models to consider the impact of current crowding and current droop effects on the reliability of LED arrays. Electronic-thermal models of LEDs are utilized to obtain the operation conditions under the influences of current crowding and current droop. A Markov chain-based model is used to calculate the probability distribution of each failure mode, including the lumen decay and catastrophic failure. Two types of LEDs were selected for a numerical study. The proposed prediction method provides the realistic reliability prediction results. It is found that the properties of LEDs have a great impact on their hazard rates of LED arrays. The equivalent resistance, third-order non-radiative coefficient, and radiative coefficient of LEDs are critical to the reliability of an LED array.

The inherent luminous characteristics and stability of LED packages during the operation period are highly dependent on their junction temperatures and driving currents. In this paper, the luminous flux of LED packages operated under a wide range of driving currents and junction temperatures are investigated to develop a luminous flux response surface model. The coefficients of the proposed model are further extracted to compare the luminous efficacy decay mechanisms of LED packages with different packaging structures. Furthermore, a spectral power distribution (SPD) method modeled by the Gaussian function is proposed to analyze the long-term degradation mechanisms of all selected LED packages. The results of this study show that: (1) The luminous flux of phosphor converted white LED decreases to accompany with the increase of junction temperature, while that of bare blue LED die keeps relatively stable; (2) The proposed general luminous flux response surface model can be used to predict the luminous flux of LEDs with different packaging technologies accurately, and it can be known from the proposed model that the influences of driving current and temperature on LED chip and phosphor vary with different packaging structures; and (3) The driving current and temperature dependent sensitivities and degradation mechanisms of LED packages can be investigated by using both the luminous flux response surface model and the spectral power distribution method.

The effects of graphene stacking are investigated by comparing the results of methane adsorption energy, electronic performance, and the doping feasibility of five dopants (i.e., B, N, Al, Si, and P) via first-principles theory. Both zigzag and armchair graphenes are considered. It is found that the zigzag graphene with Bernal stacking has the largest adsorption energy on methane, while the armchair graphene with Order stacking is opposite. In addition, both the Order and Bernal stacked graphenes possess a positive linear relationship between adsorption energy and layer number. Furthermore, they always have larger adsorption energy in zigzag graphene. For electronic properties, the results show that the stacking effects on band gap are significant, but it does not cause big changes to band structure and density of states. In the comparison of distance, the average interlamellar spacing of the Order stacked graphene is the largest. Moreover, the adsorption effect is the result of the interactions between graphene and methane combined with the change of graphene’s structure. Lastly, the armchair graphene with Order stacking possesses the lowest formation energy in these five dopants. It could be the best choice for doping to improve the methane adsorption.