Development of Inorganic Solar Cells by Nanotechnology

Inorganic solar cells, as durable photovoltaic devices for harvesting electric energy from sun light,have received tremendous attention due to the fear of exhausting the earth's energy resources and damaging the living environment due to greenhouse gases. Some recent developments in nanotechnology have opened up new avenues for more relevant inorganic solar cells produced by new photovoltaic conversion concepts and effective solar energy harvesting nanostructures. In this review, the multiple exciton generation effect solar cells, hot carrier solar cells, one dimensional material constructed asymmetrical schottky barrier arrays, noble nanoparticle induced plasmonic enhancement, and light trapping nanostructured semiconductor solar cells are highlighted.

Design and fabrication process of electromagnetically actuated valveless micropump with two parallel flexible diaphragms

A parallel dynamic passive valveless micropump was designed, which consists of three layers-valve, diaphragm and electromagnetic coil. The valve was wetly etched in a silicon wafer, the diaphragm was a PDMS （polydimethyl siloxane） film spun on a silicon wafer with embedded permanent magnet posts, and the coil was electroplated on a silicon substrate. Under the actuation of the magnetic field generated by coils, the flexible diaphragm could be displaced upwards and downwards. After analyzing magnetic and mechanical characteristic of the flexible membrane and direction-dependence of the nozzle, a micropump was designed. And the relative length （L/d） of the micropump nozzle was taken 4. A 7 × 7 array of permanent magnetic posts was embedded in the PDMS film. Two diaphragms worked in an anti-step mode, which could relieve the liquid shock and increase the discharge of the micropump. The ANSYS and Matlab were adopted to analyze the actuation effect of the coil and the flow characteristic of the micropump. Results show that when actuated under a 0.3 A, 100 Hz current, the displacement of the diaphragm is more than 30 μm, and the discharge of the micropump is about 6 μL/s.

A MEMS stronglink with multi-try function used for PC startup in authentication system

The stronglink with multi-try function based on MEMS technology and the PC startup in authentication system have been designed and fabricated. The generation principle and structure of UQS code are introduced, which consists of two groups of metal counter-meshing gears, two pawl/ratchet mechanisms, two driving micromotors and two resetting micromotors. The energy-coupling element is a photoelectric sensor with a circular and notched plate. It is fabricated using the UV-LiGA process and precision mechanical engineering. The PC startup authentication system is controlled by BIOS program, which is written into the chip according with special format. The program in BIOS output signals controls the running of stronglink to finish the process of authentication. The device can run more than 10000 times before a stop. The driving voltage is 12 V, and the normal decoding time is 3 s.

Improved electrical resistance-pressure strain sensitivity of carbon nanotube network/polydimethylsiloxane composite using filtration and transfer process

The electrical resistance-pressure strain sensitivity of carbon nanotube network (NTN)/polymer composite is investigated. In this research, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is used as the polymer matrix. The composite of NTN embedded in PDMS matrix has been fabricated by using filtration and transfer process. The thickness of NTN/PDMS composite can be controlled. Electrical re- sistance and pressure strain of the NTN/PDMS composite are measured simultaneously. Electrical resistance of NTN/PDMS composite has been obtained as a function of pressure strain. The NTN/PDMS composite exhibits linear change in electrical re- sistance as a result of pressure strain and has improved electrical resistance-pressure strain sensitivity. The NTN/PDMS composite has 90.6% resistance change at 6% pressure strain. The electrical resistance-pressure strain sensitivity of NTN/PDMS composite using filtration and transfer process is 2.13 times of the traditional NTN/PDMS composite. The characteristic in electrical resis- tance change implies that NTN/PDMS composite can be used as pressure strain sensors and applied to sensor systems.

Field Emission from Carbon Nanotube/Tin Composite

Powder metallurgy was used to fabricate carbon nanotube(CNT) field emission cathodes.CNTs and tin(Sn) powder were blended,compacted and sintered.After polishing and etching,CNTs were exposed and protruded from the metal surface.CNTs were embedded into the Sn matrix,which acted as stable field emitters. The J-E curves show excellent field emission properties,such as low turn-on field of 2.8 V/μm,high emission current density and good current stability.

A Micro-Electro-Mechanical System-Based Bulk Acoustic Wave Piezoelectric Disk Resonator for Detecting z-axis Rotation Rate

This paper presents a bulk acoustic wave piezoelectric disk resonator based on a special pair of degenerative modes, to detect z-axis angular velocity. A single piezoelectric disk is operated in its appropriate modes in the k Hz frequency range to achieve this function. This design combines the bulk acoustic wave drive/sense mode with lead zirconate titanate resonator which improves device's performance and simplifies its structural complexity. The operation principle of piezoelectric disk resonator is given and validated by finite element method,and the scale factor of piezoelectric disk resonator is 0.977 μV/[(°) · s-1] without any amplification section.The results of impedance analysis for the prototype in the air, which is fabricated on lead zirconate titanate wafer by Micro-Electro-Mechanical System process, show that the resonant frequency of the piezoelectric disk resonator is about 190 k Hz. Moreover, the measured frequency split between drive and sense mode is about290 Hz without any tuning methods. At last, a closed-loop driving and detecting circuit system is designed and its modulation/demodulation method is studied, preliminary experiments show that this device is not sensitive to acceleration, but is sensitive to angular velocity, its performance parameters need follow-up experiments.

Memory characteristics of an MOS capacitor structure with double-layer semiconductor and metal heterogeneous nanocrystals

An MOS （metal oxide semiconductor） capacitor structure with double-layer heterogeneous nanocrystals consisting of semiconductor and metal embedded in a gate oxide for nonvolatile memory applications has been fabricated and characterized. By combining vacuum electron-beam co-evaporated Si nanocrystals and self-assembled Ni nanocrystals in a SiO2 matrix, an MOS capacitor with double-layer heterogeneous nanocrystals can have larger charge storage capacity and improved retention characteristics compared to one with single-layer nanocrystals. The upper metal nanocrystals as an additional charge trap layer enable the direct tunneling mechanism to enhance the flat voltage shift and prolong the retention time.