Discovery of Thin Transparent Film Could Improve Electronics and Solar Cell
May 8, 2017 | University of MinnesotaEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
A team of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, have discovered a new nano-scale thin film material with the highest-ever conductivity in its class. The new material could lead to smaller, faster, and more powerful electronics, as well as more efficient solar cells.
Researchers say that what makes this new material so unique is that it has a high conductivity, which helps electronics conduct more electricity and become more powerful. But the material also has a wide bandgap, which means light can easily pass through the material making it optically transparent. In most cases, materials with wide bandgap, usually have either low conductivity or poor transparency.
“The high conductivity and wide bandgap make this an ideal material for making optically transparent conducting films which could be used in a wide variety of electronic devices, including high-power electronics, electronic displays, touch screens and even solar cells in which light needs to pass through the device,” said Bharat Jalan, a University of Minnesota chemical engineering and materials science professor and the lead researcher on the study.
Currently, most of the transparent conductors in our electronics use a chemical element called indium. The price of indium has generally gone up over the last two decades, which has added to the cost of current display technology. As a result, there has been a tremendous effort to find alternative materials that work as well, or even better, than indium-based transparent conductors.
In this study, researchers found a solution. They developed a new transparent conducting thin film using a novel synthesis method, in which they grew a BaSnO3 thin film (a combination of barium, tin and oxygen, called barium stannate), but replaced elemental tin source with a chemical precursor of tin. The chemical precursor of tin has unique, radical properties that enhanced the chemical reactivity and greatly improved the metal oxide formation process. Both barium and tin are significantly cheaper than indium and are abundantly available.
“We were quite surprised at how well this unconventional approach worked the very first time we used the tin chemical precursor,” said University of Minnesota chemical engineering and materials science graduate student Abhinav Prakash, the first author of the paper. “It was a big risk, but it was quite a big breakthrough for us.”
Jalan and Prakash said this new process allowed them to create this material with unprecedented control over thickness, composition, and defect concentration and that this process should be highly suitable for a number of other material systems where the element is hard to oxidize. The new process is also reproducible and scalable.
They further added that it was the structurally superior quality with improved defect concentration that allowed them to discover high conductivity in the material. They said the next step is to continue to reduce the defects at the atomic scale.
“Even though this material has the highest conductivity within the same materials class, there is much room for improvement in addition, to the outstanding potential for discovering new physics if we decrease the defects. That’s our next goal,” Jalan said.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and U.S. Department of Energy.
In addition to Jalan and Prakash, the research team included Peng Xu, University of Minnesota chemical engineering and materials science graduate student; Cynthia S. Lo, Washington University assistant professor; Alireza Faghaninia, former graduate student at Washington University; Sudhanshu Shukla, researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Nanyang Technological University; and Joel W. Ager III, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California Berkeley adjunct professor.
Suggested Items
IPC Bestows Posthumous Hall of Fame Award to Industry Icon Michael Ford
04/18/2024 | IPCIPC honored the late Michael Ford, Aegis Software, for his extraordinary contributions to the global electronics manufacturing industry with the IPC Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame Award at IPC APEX EXPO 2024. IPC’s most prestigious honor, the Hall of Fame Award is given to individuals who have provided exceptional service and advancement to IPC and the electronics industry. Ford, an industry leader and valued IPC volunteer, died suddenly in January 2024.
SEMI Applauds U.S. Chips Act Award for Samsung Electronics Facilities to Strengthen Domestic Semiconductor Supply Chain
04/17/2024 | SEMISEMI, the industry association serving the global electronics design and manufacturing supply chain, applauded the United States Department of Commerce’s announcement of a Preliminary Memorandum of Terms for an award under the CHIPS and Science Act to support the expansion of Samsung Electronics’ presence in Texas and the company’s development and production of leading-edge chips.
Northrop Grumman honors Calumet Electronics with Supplier Excellence Award
04/17/2024 | Calumet ElectronicsNorthrop Grumman Corporation has recognized Calumet Electronics during the company’s 2024 Supplier Excellence Awards for “exceptional performance and unwavering commitment to delivering with excellence.” Calumet is one of 70 suppliers recognized from across the globe. In its award category of “Supplier Strategic Excellence,” Calumet was honored alongside global corporations such as Amazon Web Services, Dell Technologies, and Eaton Corporation.
Ark Electronics Expands Global Manufacturing Factory Network in North America and Europe
04/17/2024 | PRNewswireElectronic Manufacturing Company Ark Electronics recently announced the expansion of its Global Factory Network with the addition of Electronics Manufacturing Service (EMS) capabilities in Mexico and Europe.
Designing Electronics for High Thermal Loads
04/16/2024 | Akber Roy, Rush PCB Inc.Developing proactive thermal management strategies is important in the early stages of the PCB design cycle to minimize costly redesign iterations. Here, I delve into key aspects of electronic design that hold particular relevance for managing heat in electronic systems. Each of these considerations plays a pivotal role in enhancing the reliability and performance of the overall system.