During the last two decades, the Institute of Microtechnology (IMT) has contributed in two important fields to future thin-film silicon solar cell processing and design: (1) In 1987, IMT introduced the so-called ‘‘very high frequency glow discharge (VHF-GD)’’ technique, a method that leads to a considerable enhancement in the deposition rate of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon layers. As ...

We examined CD133 distribution in a human hepatoblastoma cell line (HuH-6 clone 5). We directly observed the cultured cells on a pressure-resistant thin film (silicon nitride thin film) in a buffer solution by using the newly developed atmospheric scanning electron microscope (ASEM), which features an open sample dish with a silicon nitride thin film window at its base, through which the scanni...

as we know sol-gel is one of the most important techniques for thin film preparation. in this paper, high transmission silica thin films have been prepared by dip-coating process from a new silicon-alkoxide solution. the prepared sol was stable for 45 days which is very important to characterize the coating process. the optical properties as a function of aging time, withdrawal rate, and heat t...

Solar cells are becoming a highly promising alternative energy source for various markets. In the last five years or so a tremendous amount of research effort has been put into increasing the efficiency of solar cell technology and reducing its manufacturing cost. It is believed that success in both of these areas will further propel its use in various markets. The two major structures commerci...

Silicon is an attractive alloy-type anode material because of its highest known capacity (4200 mAh/g). However, lithium insertion into and extraction from silicon are accompanied by a huge volume change, up to 300%, which induces a strong strain on silicon and causes pulverization and rapid capacity fading due to the loss of the electrical contact between part of silicon and current collector. ...

Film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs) are widely applied in mass bio-sensing and pressure sensors, owing to their extreme sensitivity and integration ability, and ability to miniaturize circuits. A volatile organic compound (VOC) sensor with a polymer-coated diaphragm, using FBARs as a strain sensing element is proposed and optimized. This vapor sensor is based on organic vapor-induced changes ...

Amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H) is known to be a perspective material for negative electrodes of modern lithium-ion batteries. The electrochemical lithium insertion into thin-film a-Si:H electrodes is studied using chronopotentiometry, cyclic voltammetry (CV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The electrodes were grown on stainless-steel substrates by glow discharge at t...

We are standing at the beginning of the industrialization of flexible thin-film transistor (TFT) backplanes. The two important research directions for the TFTs are (i) processability on flexible substrates and (ii) sufficient field-effect mobilities of electrons and holes to support complementary metal insulator semiconductor operation. The most important group of TFT capable semiconductors are...

The simplest semiconductor junction that is used in solar cells for separating photogenerated charge carriers is the p-n junction, an interface between the p-type region and ntype region of one semiconductor. Therefore, the basic semiconductor property of a material, the possibility to vary its conductivity by doping, has to be demonstrated first before the material can be considered as a suita...