Direct synthesis and characterization of optically transparent conformal zinc oxide nanocrystalline thin films by rapid thermal plasma CVD

We report a rapid, self-catalyzed, solid precursor-based thermal plasma chemical vapor deposition process for depositing a conformal, nonporous, and optically transparent nanocrystalline ZnO thin film at 130 Torr (0.17 atm). Pure solid zinc is inductively heated and melted, followed by ionization by thermal induction argon/oxygen plasma to produce conformal, nonporous nanocrystalline ZnO films at a growth rate of up to 50 nm/min on amorphous and crystalline substrates including Si (100), fused quartz, glass, muscovite, c- and a-plane sapphire (Al2O3), gold, titanium, and polyimide. X-ray diffraction indicates the grains of as-deposited ZnO to be highly textured, with the fastest growth occurring along the c-axis. The individual grains are observed to be faceted by (103) planes which are the slowest growth planes. ZnO nanocrystalline films of nominal thicknesses of 200 nm are deposited at substrate temperatures of 330°C and 160°C on metal/ceramic substrates and polymer substrates, respectively. In addition, 20-nm- and 200-nm-thick films are also deposited on quartz substrates for optical characterization. At optical spectra above 375 nm, the measured optical transmittance of a 200-nm-thick ZnO film is greater than 80%, while that of a 20-nm-thick film is close to 100%. For a 200-nm-thick ZnO film with an average grain size of 100 nm, a four-point probe measurement shows electrical conductivity of up to 910 S/m. Annealing of 200-nm-thick ZnO films in 300 sccm pure argon at temperatures ranging from 750°C to 950°C (at homologous temperatures between 0.46 and 0.54) alters the textures and morphologies of the thin film. Based on scanning electron microscope images, higher annealing temperatures appear to restructure the ZnO nanocrystalline films to form nanorods of ZnO due to a combination of grain boundary diffusion and bulk diffusion

IMECE2008-68893 FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NANO-STRUCTURING POLYMERIC SURFACES FOR MEMS APPLICATIONS

ABSTRACT Using external stimuli to control surface properties, such as surface topology or wettability, has been of great interest. This paper presents the fabrication, mechanism, and analysis of an active method that modulates surface nano-topology and wettability of polymeric films. The polymeric film possesses the unique property of electrical potential-induced wettability conversion: when its doping level is electrically altered, the interstitial ions are incorporated or released, causing the polymer network to stretch and thereby changing its surface morphology

The Electrochemical Behavior of Carbon Fiber Microelectrodes Modified with Carbon Nanotubes Using a Two-Step Electroless Plating/Chemical Vapor Deposition Process

Carbon fiber microelectrode (CFME) has been extensively applied in the biosensor and chemical sensor domains. In order to improve the electrochemical activity and sensitivity of the CFME, a new CFME modified with carbon nanotubes (CNTs), denoted as CNTs/CFME, was fabricated and investigated. First, carbon fiber (CF) monofilaments grafted with CNTs (simplified as CNTs/CFs) were fabricated in two key steps: (i) nickel electroless plating, followed by (ii) chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Second, a single CNTs/CF monofilament was selected and encapsulated into a CNTs/CFME with a simple packaging method. The morphologies of as-prepared CNTs/CFs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The electrochemical properties of CNTs/CFMEs were measured in potassium ferrocyanide solution (K4Fe(CN)6), by using a cyclic voltammetry (CV) and a chronoamperometry method. Compared with a bare CFME, a CNTs/CFME showed better CV curves with a higher distinguishable redox peak and response current; the higher the CNT content was, the better the CV curves were. Because the as-grown CNTs significantly enhanced the effective electrode area of CNTs/CFME, the contact area between the electrode and reactant was enlarged, further increasing the electrocatalytic active site density. Furthermore, the modified microelectrode displayed almost the same electrochemical behavior after 104 days, exhibiting remarkable stability and outstanding reproducibility

Direct-Write, Self-Aligned Electrospinning on Paper for Controllable Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Structures.

Electrospinning, a process that converts a solution or melt droplet into an ejected jet under a high electric field, is a well-established technique to produce one-dimensional (1D) fibers or two-dimensional (2D) randomly arranged fibrous meshes. Nevertheless, the direct electrospinning of fibers into controllable three-dimensional (3D) architectures is still a nascent technology. Here, we apply near-field electrospinning (NFES) to directly write arbitrarily shaped 3D structures through consistent and spatially controlled fiber-by-fiber stacking of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fibers. An element central to the success of this 3D electrospinning is the use of a printing paper placed on the grounded conductive plate and acting as a fiber collector. Once deposited on the paper, residual solvents from near-field electrospun fibers can infiltrate the paper substrate, enhancing the charge transfer between the deposited fibers and the ground plate via the fibrous network within the paper. Such charge transfer grounds the deposited fibers and turns them into locally fabricated electrical poles, which attract subsequent in-flight fibers to deposit in a self-aligned manner on top of each other. This process enables the design and controlled fabrication of electrospun 3D structures such as grids, walls, hollow cylinders, and other 3D logos. As such, this technique has the potential to advance the existing electrospinning technologies in constructing 3D structures for biomedical, microelectronics, and MEMS/NMES applications

Vibration-Induced Errors in MEMS Tuning Fork Gyroscopes with Imbalance

This paper discusses the vibration-induced error in non-ideal MEMS tuning fork gyroscopes (TFGs). Ideal TFGs which are thought to be immune to vibrations do not exist, and imbalance between two gyros of TFGs is an inevitable phenomenon. Three types of fabrication imperfections (i.e., stiffness imbalance, mass imbalance, and damping imbalance) are studied, considering different imbalance radios. We focus on the coupling types of two gyros of TFGs in both drive and sense directions, and the vibration sensitivities of four TFG designs with imbalance are simulated and compared. It is found that non-ideal TFGs with two gyros coupled both in drive and sense directions (type CC TFGs) are the most insensitive to vibrations with frequencies close to the TFG operating frequencies. However, sense-axis vibrations with in-phase resonant frequencies of a coupled gyros system result in severe error outputs to TFGs with two gyros coupled in the sense direction, which is mainly attributed to the sense capacitance nonlinearity. With increasing stiffness coupled ratio of the coupled gyros system, the sensitivity to vibrations with operating frequencies is cut down, yet sensitivity to vibrations with in-phase frequencies is amplified

Titanium Disulfide Coated Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Electrodes Enable High Energy Density Symmetric Pseudocapacitors.

While electrochemical supercapacitors often show high power density and long operation lifetimes, they are plagued by limited energy density. Pseudocapacitive materials, in contrast, operate by fast surface redox reactions and are shown to enhance energy storage of supercapacitors. Furthermore, several reported systems exhibit high capacitance but restricted electrochemical voltage windows, usually no more than 1 V in aqueous electrolytes. Here, it is demonstrated that vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) with uniformly coated, pseudocapacitive titanium disulfide (TiS2 ) composite electrodes can extend the stable working range to over 3 V to achieve a high capacitance of 195 F g-1 in an Li-rich electrolyte. A symmetric cell demonstrates an energy density of 60.9 Wh kg-1 -the highest among symmetric pseudocapacitors using metal oxides, conducting polymers, 2D transition metal carbides (MXene), and other transition metal dichalcogenides. Nanostructures prepared by an atomic layer deposition/sulfurization process facilitate ion transportation and surface reactions to result in a high power density of 1250 W kg-1 with stable operation over 10 000 cycles. A flexible solid-state supercapacitor prepared by transferring the TiS2 -VACNT composite film onto Kapton tape is demonstrated to power a 2.2 V light emitting diode (LED) for 1 min

Titanium Disulfide Coated Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Electrodes Enable High Energy Density Symmetric Pseudocapacitors.

While electrochemical supercapacitors often show high power density and long operation lifetimes, they are plagued by limited energy density. Pseudocapacitive materials, in contrast, operate by fast surface redox reactions and are shown to enhance energy storage of supercapacitors. Furthermore, several reported systems exhibit high capacitance but restricted electrochemical voltage windows, usually no more than 1 V in aqueous electrolytes. Here, it is demonstrated that vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) with uniformly coated, pseudocapacitive titanium disulfide (TiS2 ) composite electrodes can extend the stable working range to over 3 V to achieve a high capacitance of 195 F g-1 in an Li-rich electrolyte. A symmetric cell demonstrates an energy density of 60.9 Wh kg-1 -the highest among symmetric pseudocapacitors using metal oxides, conducting polymers, 2D transition metal carbides (MXene), and other transition metal dichalcogenides. Nanostructures prepared by an atomic layer deposition/sulfurization process facilitate ion transportation and surface reactions to result in a high power density of 1250 W kg-1 with stable operation over 10 000 cycles. A flexible solid-state supercapacitor prepared by transferring the TiS2 -VACNT composite film onto Kapton tape is demonstrated to power a 2.2 V light emitting diode (LED) for 1 min

High-Linearity Flexible Pressure Sensor Based on the Gaussian-Curve-Shaped Microstructure for Human Physiological Signal Monitoring

Flexible pressure sensors with high-performance show broad application prospects in health monitoring, wearable electronic devices, intelligent robot sensing, and other fields. Although flexible pressure sensors have made significant progress in sensitivity and detection range, most of them still exhibit strong nonlinearity, which leads to significant troubles in signal acquisition and thus limits their popularity in practical applications. It remains a serious challenge for the flexible pressure sensor to achieve high linearity while maintaining high sensitivity. Herein, a doped sensing membrane with a uniformly distributed Gaussian-curve-shaped micropattern array was developed using the micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) process, and a flexible sensor structure with the doped film as the core was designed and constructed. The prototype sensor has a high sensitivity of 1.77 kPa–1 and a linearity of 0.99 in the full detection range of 20 Pa to 30 kPa. In addition, its excellent performance also includes fast response/recovery times (∼25/50 ms) and long-term endurance (>10,000 cycles at 15 kPa). The prototype sensor has been successfully demonstrated in human pulse monitoring, speech recognition, and gesture recognition. The 2 × 6 sensor array can detect the spatial pressure distribution. Thus, such a microstructure shape design will open a new way to fabricate a high-linearity pressure sensor for potential applications in health monitoring, human–machine interaction, etc