Results for “device characterization” — Page 12

DOE OSTI2020

Feedback on Forty-year Long Clean-up Operations of a Contaminated Soil for Environmental Purpose - 20026

One of the CEA facilities in France is the place of miscellaneous mapping and clean-up operations since the 1980's. The final purpose of the conducted work deals with the environmental remediation of the building. In France, the absence of a regulatory framework for the management of sites polluted by radioactive substances, especially as the lack of release thresholds, has led to develop different approaches of soil radiological characterization. The geostatistical approach is part of them. Preliminary investigations are an unavoidable step prior to clearance and remediation. First, historical analysis enables to define site perimeters to investigate as well as to precisely locate expected contaminated parts. For radioactive pollutants, the media (water, soil, air) and transfer routes participate in the definition of the investigation perimeter and thus also need to be identified through a geological study. At the same time, functional analysis leads to choose the best measurement means which could provide useful information when combined with visual inspection. An equipment well adapted to easy-to-measure radionuclides as gamma emitters, such as gamma probe or on-site gamma spectrometry, is usually selected as a non-destructive assay. Coupled with spatial positions, processed on-site radiological data can be mapped. Data processing consists in mapping and kriging before a geostatistical analysis in order to identify the zones of interest to be targeted. Selected zones are not only linked to high level count rates but also to low level ones so that a pollution-free reference is known in the area. This data processing also enables to categorize waste types according to their origin and contamination levels. An expected volume of different waste then follows as well as the waste characterization equipments. In-depth investigations, e.g. core drillings and samplings, naturally ensue to aim at remediation optimization through the assessment of environmental impact. After clean-up operations, non-destructive assays as well as destructive samplings enable to check the effective clearance. Following this methodology in the present remediation work, results of the first non-destructive assay campaign highlighted a long-lived transuranic radionuclides contamination in the concrete flagstone. Successive non-destructive assays were then performed in the defined zones of interest. Count rates measured with a surface probe were first mapped. The best localization of destructive assays, i.e. core drillings at a 1 meter depth, came from this surface mapping followed by a geostatistical analysis. The concrete flagstone was totally removed. Then, the depth of soil to remove under the flagstone was optimized from the results of radiological activities measured in core drillings samples. A new surface mapping was then drawn after this partial soil excavation. The sand and demolition rubble samples, homogeneously constituted from the flagstone fragments, were analyzed by gamma spectrometry. Meanwhile, waste drums and other containers were also measured by gamma spectrometry and passive neutron measurement devices. All these results have brought miscellaneous pieces of information. In this context, major issues appear in terms of physical constraints such as the premises tininess as well as of soil sampling techniques and in terms of measurement performances assessment and the representativeness of homogeneous samples. The choice of radiological soil and waste characterization devices is described in the light of enhanced performances by keeping in mind radiation protection requirements and a willing to always optimize waste categories (very low level waste) and volume. The improvement of the characterization methods appears through this forty-year long work while sharing the feedback of encountered difficulties. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2020

Characterization of Amplification Properties of the Superconducting-Ferromagnetic Transistor

Here we report on the measurement results of the superconducting-ferromagnetic transistors (SFTs). The devices were made at Northwestern University and Hypres (SeeQC), Inc. (Nevirkovets et al., 2014; 2015). SFT is a multiterminal device with the SIS'FIFS (or SFIFS'IS) structure (where S, I, and F denote a superconductor, an insulator, and a ferromagnetic material, respectively) exploiting intense quasiparticle injection in order to modify the nonlinear I-V curve of a superconducting tunnel junction. SFT is capable of providing voltage, current, and power amplification while having good input/output isolation. We characterized the devices using different measurement techniques. We measured S parameters of the single- and double-acceptor devices at frequencies up to 5 MHz. Importantly, we confirmed that the isolation between the input and output of the device is quite good. However, the techniques typically employed to characterize semiconductor devices do not allow for revealing the full potential of our low-resistive SFT devices, especially those having two acceptors. In the latter case, we also tested the devices using the battery-powered current sources with floating grounds. Analyzing double-acceptor I-V curves recorded at different levels of injection currents, for an optimal load, we deduced a small-signal voltage gain of 33 and a power gain of 2.4. We suggest that further improvement of the SFT device parameters is possible in optimized devices, so that the device potentially may serve as a preamplifier for readout of output signals of cryogenic detectors and be useful as an element of other superconductor-based circuits. In addition, we used scanning transmission electron microscopy to identify some problems in the fabrication of the devices without any planarization.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2023

Characterization of Microwave Loss Using Multimode Superconducting Resonators

Measuring the losses arising from different materials and interfaces is crucial to improving the coherence of superconducting quantum circuits. Although this has been of interest for a long time, current studies can either only provide bounds to those losses, or require several devices for a complete characterization. In this work, we introduce a method to measure the microwave losses of materials and interfaces with a single multi-mode superconducting resonator. We demonstrate a formalism for analyzing the loss sensitivity of multi-mode systems and discuss the design strategies of multi-mode resonators for material loss studies. We present two types of multi-mode superconducting resonators for the study of bulk superconductors: the forky whispering-gallery-mode resonator (FWGMR) and the ellipsoidal cavity. We use these resonators to measure the surface dielectric, conductor, and seam losses of high-purity (5N5) aluminum and aluminum alloy (6061), as well as how they are affected by chemical etching, diamond turning, and thin-film coating. Here, we find that chemical etching and diamond turning reduce both the surface dielectric and conductive losses of high-purity aluminum, but provide no appreciable improvement to the seam. Coating the surfaces of diamond-turned aluminum alloys with e-beam evaporated or sputtered aluminum thinfilms significantly reduces all three losses under study. In addition, we study the effect of chemical etching on the surface of high-purity aluminum using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and find that the chemical etching process creates a thinner and more uniform oxide layer, consistent with the observed improvement in the surface dielectric loss.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Evaluation of radiation hardness of High-Voltage silicon vertical JFETs

In the future ATLAS Inner Tracker, each silicon strip module will be equipped with a switch able to separate the high voltage supply from the sensor in case the latter becomes faulty. The switch, placed in between the HV supply and the sensor, needs to sustain a high voltage in its OFF state, to offer a low resistance path for the sensor leakage current in the ON state, and be radiation hard up to 1.2 * 10 15 neq/cm 2 along with other requirements. While GaN JFETs have been selected as suitable rad-hard switch, a silicon vertical HV-JFET was developed by Brookhaven National Laboratory as an alternative option. Pre-irradiation results showed the functionality of the device and proved that the silicon HV-JFET satisfied the pre-irradiation requirements for the switch. To assess its suitability after irradiation, a few p-type HV-JFETs have been neutron irradiated at Jozef Stefan Institute (JSI, Ljubljana, Slovenia). Overall, this paper reports the static characterization of these irradiated devices and the TCAD numerical simulations used to get an insight of the physics governing the post-irradiation behaviour.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2024

Thermal Transport and Mechanical Stress Mapping of a Compression Bonded GaN/Diamond Interface for Vertical Power Devices

Bonding diamond to the back side of gallium nitride (GaN) electronics has been shown to improve thermal management in lateral devices; however, engineering challenges remain with the bonding process and characterizing the bond quality for vertical device architectures. Here, in this study, integration of these two materials is achieved by room-temperature compression bonding centimeter-scale GaN and a diamond die via an intermetallic bonding layer of Ti/Au. Recent attempts at GaN/diamond bonding have utilized a modified surface activation bonding (SAB) method, which requires Ar fast atom bombardment immediately followed by bonding within the same tool under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions. The method presented here does not require a dedicated SAB tool yet still achieves bonding via a room-temperature metal–metal compression process. Imaging of the buried interface and the total bonding area is achieved via transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and confocal acoustic scanning microscopy (C-SAM), respectively. The thermal transport quality of the bond is extracted from spatially resolved frequency-domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) with the bonded areas boasting a thermal boundary conductance of >100 MW/m 2 ·K. Additionally, Raman maps of GaN near the GaN–diamond interface reveal a low level of compressive stress, <80 MPa, in well-bonded regions. FDTR and Raman were coutilized to map these buried interfaces and revealed some poor thermally bonded areas bordered by high-stress regions, highlighting the importance of spatial sampling for a complete picture of bond quality. Overall, this work demonstrates a novel method for thermal management in vertical GaN devices that maintains low intrinsic stresses while boasting high thermal boundary conductances.

Raman↗

DOE OSTI2022

Investigating Local Carrier Dynamics in PERC Patterned CdTe Solar Cells

Remarkable progress has been achieved in CdTe photovoltaics (PVs) to further improve cell performance while reducing manufacturing costs. Researchers optimized the front contact that leads the short-circuit current density (J sc ) over 31mA/cm 2 (e.g., (Zn, Mg)O buffer layer and/or alloying CdTe with Se). Reese et al. reported an open-circuit voltage (V oc ) over 1 V with group-V doped single crystal, showing the feasibility of increasing V oc in CdTe PV that is fixed to less than 900 mV in most cases. Recent studies suggested that the V oc improvement in polycrystalline CdTe PVs requires well-passivated back contact. One possible strategy is to use CdMgTe alloy (E g > 1.8 eV), where the band-gap offset (ΔE CB ≈ 0.2 eV) reflects minority carrier electrons, thereby decreasing surface recombination. Another strategy is to utilize a stable Al 2 O 3 layer as an electron reflector; experimental works confirmed the improved performance with a conformal Al 2 O 3 layer. In this configuration, the precise control of Al 2 O 3 (≈1 nm) over the entire CdTe layer is essential because the J sc greatly depends on the tunneling current. While promising, both CdMgTe and Al 2 O 3 passivation on CdTe introduce unfavorable valence band offset that blocks the hole transport. Kephart et al. proposed a patterned passixc vation layer (≈ 20 nm Al 2 O 3 ) with point contacts (≈ 3 μm in diameter) that extract hole carriers. This configuration is similar to the passive emitter and rear contact (PERC) design that has been extensively studied in Si PVs. While remarkably high carrier lifetime and photoluminescence (> 10 X) were measured, consistent improvement in V oc and efficiency in this CdTe PERC were not yet observed. At this time, it is unclear how the surface potential is distributed in the presence of patterned Al 2 O 3 reflectors and how this additional field impacts the PV performance for Cu-doped and group-V doped CdTe PERC devices. To tackle this challenge, we develop robust nanofabrication and characterization platform to study CdTe PERC devices consisting of a patterned Al 2 O 3 layer on CdSe( 1-x )Te x (Cu-doped, GrV-doped; x = 0 to 1; CST). First Solar supplies high-quality CST materials. The dark and light I-Vs under 1-sun illumination are extracted for a series of each set of devices. We perform quantitative and qualitative PV analysis for a series of Cu-doped and Gr-V doped PERC devices, showing notably different V oc changes for GrV-doped compared to Cu-doped PERC devices. This project attempts to produce individual contacts on single grains and grain boundaries to measure lateral transport. As a model system, we use a CdSe( 1-x )Te x film on glass prepared by a colossal grain growth (CGG) technique at National Renewable Research Laboratories (NREL). Our preliminary results confirm that intergranular transport is hindered by the electrical barrier formed near grain boundaries. The PERC fabrication and the lateral transport measurement platform developed in this project can easily be applied to other types of advanced CdSe( 1-x )Te x architectures to better understand local photocarrier transport, in turn, providing the fundamental knowledge to improve the performance of CdTe PVs.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Multi-amplifier Sensing Charge-coupled Devices for Next Generation Spectroscopy

We present characterization results and performance of a prototype Multiple-Amplifier Sensing (MAS) silicon charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor with 16 channels potentially suitable for faint object astronomical spectroscopy and low-signal, photon-limited imaging. The MAS CCD is designed to reach sub-electron readout noise by repeatedly measuring charge through a line of amplifiers during the serial transfer shifts. Using synchronized readout electronics based on the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument CCD controller, we report a read noise of 1.03 e$^{−}$ rms pix$^{−1}$ at a speed of 26 μs pix$^{−1}$ with a single-sample readout scheme where charge in a pixel is measured only once for each output stage. At these operating parameters, we find the amplifier-to-amplifier charge transfer efficiency (ACTE) to be >0.9995 at low counts for all amplifiers but one for which the ACTE is 0.997. This charge transfer efficiency falls above 50,000 electrons for the read-noise optimized voltage configuration we chose for the serial clocks and gates. The amplifier linearity across a broad dynamic range from ∼300 to 35,000 e$^{−}$ was also measured to be ±2.5%. We describe key operating parameters to optimize on these characteristics and describe the specific applications for which the MAS CCD may be a suitable detector candidate.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2026

From IMT Device Measurements to Network-Level Consequences: When Learning Suppresses Beyond-LIF Neuron Dynamics

Emerging neuromorphic devices such as insulator--metal transition (IMT) devices exhibit complex temporal dynamics, including slow internal state memory, hysteresis, and burst-like firing, which are poorly captured by conventional leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neurons. However, it remains unclear when such dynamics influence learning and inference at the network level, particularly under commonly used unsupervised plasticity rules. We present a controlled, full-stack co-design study spanning experimental characterization of individual IMT devices, compact neuron model development, and large-scale spiking network simulations with identical architectures and learning rules. Rather than optimizing benchmark accuracy, our goal is to diagnose when neuron-level dynamics survive learning and competition, and when they are suppressed, to inform the co-design of devices, networks, and learning rules that can exploit beyond-LIF complexity.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2020

Efficient, Predictive Tomography of Multi-Qubit Quantum Processors

After decades of R&D, quantum computers comprising more than 2 qubits are appearing. If this progress is to continue, the research community requires a capability for precise characterization (“tomography”) of these enlarged devices, which will enable benchmarking, improvement, and finally certification as mission-ready. As world leaders in characterization -- our gate set tomography (GST) method is the current state of the art – the project team is keenly aware that every existing protocol is either (1) catastrophically inefficient for more than 2 qubits, or (2) not rich enough to predict device behavior. GST scales poorly, while the popular randomized benchmarking technique only measures a single aggregated error probability. This project explored a new insight: that the combinatorial explosion plaguing standard GST could be avoided by using an ansatz of few-qubit interactions to build a complete, efficient model for multi-qubit errors. We developed this approach, prototyped it, and tested it on a cutting-edge quantum processor developed by Rigetti Quantum Computing (RQC), a US-based startup. We implemented our new models within Sandia’s PyGSTi open-source code, and tested them experimentally on the RQC device by probing crosstalk. We found two major results: first, our schema worked and is viable for further development; second, while the Rigetti device is indeed a “real” 8-qubit quantum processor, its behavior fluctuated significantly over time while we were experimenting with it and this drift made it difficult to fit our models of crosstalk to the data.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2022

GaN HEMT Fabrication for Radiation-Hardened Sensing and Communications Electronics

Gallium nitride (GaN), a wide bandgap semiconductor, has vast potential to address two environment conditions associated with the application of electronics to nuclear power: elevated temperatures, and high levels of radiation. A process was developed at The Ohio State University (OSU) to enable fabrication of complex digital and analog electronics circuits for application to nuclear power environments such as locations near or in the reactor core or in spent nuclear fuel casks. Radio frequency (RF)-grade GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices were fabricated as part of this process. These were fabricated as depletion mode and enhancement mode devices. They have been electrically characterized and have demonstrated the expected performance. Behavioral models (Verilog-A) were developed from these device measurements to enable electrical simulation of GaN HEMT devices and circuits using common electronics simulation tools based on Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE). A similar set of GaN HEMT devices is being developed to provide lower speed devices for logic and analog functions. These accomplishments position this technology for effective application to sensor interfacing, signal processing, and data communications in nuclear power plants, including operation in or near the reactor core.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

SENSEI: Characterization of Single-Electron Events Using a Skipper Charge-Coupled Device

We use a science-grade skipper charge-coupled device (skipper CCD) operating in a low-radiation background environment to develop a semi-empirical model that characterizes the origin of single-electron events in CCDs. We identify, separate, and quantify three independent contributions to the single-electron events, which were previously bundled together and classified as "dark counts": dark current, amplifier light, and spurious charge. We measure a dark current, which depends on exposure, of (5.89±0.77)×10 -4 e - /pix/day, and an unprecedentedly low spurious charge contribution of (1.52±0.07)×10 -4 e - /pix, which is exposure independent. In addition, we provide a technique to study events produced by light emitted from the amplifier, which allows the detector's operation to be optimized to minimize this effect to a level below the dark-current contribution. Our accurate characterization of the single-electron events allows one to greatly extend the sensitivity of experiments searching for dark matter or coherent neutrino scattering. Moreover, an accurate understanding of the origin of single-electron events is critical to further progress in ongoing research and development efforts of skipper and conventional CCDs.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Predicting failure parameters of semiconductor devices subjected to stress conditions

A method for predicting failure parameters of semiconductor devices can include receiving a set of data that includes (i) characteristics of a sample semiconductor device, and (ii) parameters characterizing a stress condition. The method further includes extracting a plurality of feature values from the set of data and inputting the plurality of feature values into a trained model executing on the one or more processors, wherein the trained model is configured according to an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm based on a previous plurality of feature values, and wherein the trained model is operable to output a failure prediction based on the plurality of feature values. Further, the method includes generating, via the trained model, a predicted failure parameter of the sample semiconductor device due to the stress condition.

Ahmed, Moinuddin↗

DOE OSTI2020

Characterization and Analysis of the Energy-Reporting Accuracy of Connected Devices

Emerging energy-efficient building systems increasingly exhibit greater functionality, often requiring multiple operating modes (e.g. white-tunability for lighting products and data traffic for devices with networked, integrated sensors). This increased functionality makes energy consumption estimates more complex. Given that these functions consume energy, the energy performance of such building systems is dependent on what operating modes they use and how much time they spend in each mode. Devices and systems that can report their own energy consumption mitigate this energy-performance uncertainty. This study explores the energy-reporting accuracy of market-available connected electrical outlets. The study considers two residential-market products (five units each, one outlet per unit) and three commercial-market products (two units each, 18 to 24 outlets per unit) with the ability to report power drawn and/or energy consumed by devices connected to their receptacles. The products were purchased through typical market channels. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted testing in December 2018 at its Connected Lighting Test Bed (CLTB), using a custom-developed test setup and method adapted from industry standards. The setup collected energy-consumption data reported by the outlet devices under test (DUTs) at one-minute intervals and compared that data with measurements taken by a reference meter over a range of test conditions. The residential products reported power draw but not interval or cumulative energy consumption. The commercial products reported both power draw and cumulative energy consumption. Relative reporting error (RRE) was calculated for all measurements, and analysis of the results revealed variations across devices and test conditions. The total number of measurements (50 for each residential product, 60 for each commercial product) offers an appreciable comparison of performance at the make/model level. The average RRE of the residential products derived from reported power draw was -0.02% and -1.20%. The average RRE for two of the three the commercial products derived from reported power draw was worse than those of the residential products (-2.40%, -2.72%, -0.36%). The internal integration of power over time, used to calculate cumulative energy consumption, typically occurs at current and voltage sampling rates much higher than once per minute. This suggests that the average commercial-product RRE derived from reported energy consumption should be very consistent and better than performance based on reported power draw. However, the RRE derived from reported energy consumption varied significantly across the three makes of commercial-market products and was uniformly less accurate than performance based on reported power draw. Subsequent analysis identified a number of root causes for this decrease in performance, most of which were related to reporting resolution. The goals of this study are to generate awareness of building systems capable of reporting their own energy consumption, further interest in the value of energy data for a variety of uses, draw attention to how the accuracy of reported metrics can be characterized, and quantify the performance variation found in marketavailable products. The results of this study and subsequent related work may be relevant to stakeholders in industry-specification and standards-development organizations. The methods this study employs could inform test and measurement procedures and performance classifications for connected outlets, lighting products, and other building systems capable of reporting their own energy consumption. The study concludes with stakeholder recommendations, including the following: • Energy-reporting device and system manufacturers developing products that report energy consumption should characterize the accuracy of reported metrics using a reference meter calibrated by an independent laboratory that was accredited by an ILAC MRA signatory (and whose scope of accreditation explicitly covers energy measurement), and should include this information on product data sheets. • Standards and specification development organizations should develop application-specific performance classifications that end users can understand and relate to their energy-data use needs (e.g., 2% accuracy class for utility streetlight energy billing needs, or 10% accuracy class for ESCO performance verification needs). • Current or potential owners, operators, and specifiers of energy-reporting building systems should rigorously analyze the dependency of current and planned energy-data use cases on accuracy, noting in particular the dependence (or lack thereof) on relative vs. absolute accuracy, and on trueness vs. precision (i.e., repeatability), and should communicate use-case needs to industry standards and specification organizations.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2020

Characterization and Analysis of the Energy-Reporting Accuracy of Connected Devices

Emerging energy-efficient building systems increasingly exhibit greater functionality, often requiring multiple operating modes (e.g. white-tunability for lighting products and data traffic for devices with networked, integrated sensors). This increased functionality makes energy consumption estimates more complex. Given that these functions consume energy, the energy performance of such building systems is dependent on what operating modes they use and how much time they spend in each mode. Devices and systems that can report their own energy consumption mitigate this energy-performance uncertainty. This study explores the energy-reporting accuracy of market-available connected electrical outlets. The study considers two residential-market products (five units each, one outlet per unit) and three commercial-market products (two units each, 18 to 24 outlets per unit) with the ability to report power drawn and/or energy consumed by devices connected to their receptacles. The products were purchased through typical market channels. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted testing in December 2018 at its Connected Lighting Test Bed (CLTB), using a custom-developed test setup and method adapted from industry standards. The setup collected energy-consumption data reported by the outlet devices under test (DUTs) at one-minute intervals and compared that data with measurements taken by a reference meter over a range of test conditions. The residential products reported power draw but not interval or cumulative energy consumption. The commercial products reported both power draw and cumulative energy consumption. Relative reporting error (RRE) was calculated for all measurements, and analysis of the results revealed variations across devices and test conditions. The total number of measurements (50 for each residential product, 60 for each commercial product) offers an appreciable comparison of performance at the make/model level. The average RRE of the residential products derived from reported power draw was -0.02% and -1.20%. The average RRE for two of the three the commercial products derived from reported power draw was worse than those of the residential products (-2.40%, -2.72%, -0.36%). The internal integration of power over time, used to calculate cumulative energy consumption, typically occurs at current and voltage sampling rates much higher than once per minute. This suggests that the average commercial-product RRE derived from reported energy consumption should be very consistent and better than performance based on reported power draw. However, the RRE derived from reported energy consumption varied significantly across the three makes of commercial-market products and was uniformly less accurate than performance based on reported power draw. Subsequent analysis identified a number of root causes for this decrease in performance, most of which were related to reporting resolution. The goals of this study are to generate awareness of building systems capable of reporting their own energy consumption, further interest in the value of energy data for a variety of uses, draw attention to how the accuracy of reported metrics can be characterized, and quantify the performance variation found in marketavailable products. The results of this study and subsequent related work may be relevant to stakeholders in industry-specification and standards-development organizations. The methods this study employs could inform test and measurement procedures and performance classifications for connected outlets, lighting products, and other building systems capable of reporting their own energy consumption. The study concludes with stakeholder recommendations, including the following: • Energy-reporting device and system manufacturers developing products that report energy consumption should characterize the accuracy of reported metrics using a reference meter calibrated by an independent laboratory that was accredited by an ILAC MRA signatory (and whose scope of accreditation explicitly covers energy measurement), and should include this information on product data sheets. • Standards and specification development organizations should develop application-specific performance classifications that end users can understand and relate to their energy-data use needs (e.g., 2% accuracy class for utility streetlight energy billing needs, or 10% accuracy class for ESCO performance verification needs). • Current or potential owners, operators, and specifiers of energy-reporting building systems should rigorously analyze the dependency of current and planned energy-data use cases on accuracy, noting in particular the dependence (or lack thereof) on relative vs. absolute accuracy, and on trueness vs. precision (i.e., repeatability), and should communicate use-case needs to industry standards and specification organizations.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2021

Industrial control system device classification using network traffic features and neural network embeddings

Characterization of modern cyber–physical Industrial Control System (ICS) devices is critical to the evaluation of their security posture and an understanding of the underlying industrial processes with which they interact. In this work, we address two related ICS device identification tasks: (1) separating ICS from non-ICS devices and (2) identifying specific ICS device types. We propose two distinct methods (one based on the existing IP2Vec method, and a novel traffic-features-based method) for achieving the first task. For transferability of the first task between two datasets, the traffic-features-based method performs significantly better (75% overall accuracy) compared to IP2Vec (22.5% overall accuracy). We further propose a novel method called DNP2Vec to address the second task. DNP2Vec is evaluated on two different datasets and achieves perfect multi-class classification accuracy (100%) for both datasets.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2020

Characterization and Automation of Quantum Electronics for Qubit-based Dark Matter Detector

The hypothetical axion particle is not only a potential solution to the strong CP problem of quantum chromodynamics but also is a compelling cold dark matter candidate. Searching for axions requires sensitivity that is achievable only with superconducting qubits and other quantum-noise limited devices. This work focuses on the characterization of one such device, a Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifier (TWPA). This was accomplished through developing techniques for remote control and operation of various electronics and the TWPA used in qubit-based dark matter searches.

Zaidel, Michael↗

DOE OSTI2023

Unveiling the Morphological and Physical Mechanism of Burn–in Loss Alleviation by Ternary Matrix Toward Stable and Efficient All–Polymer Solar Cells

All–polymer solar cells (All–PSCs) are considered the most promising candidate in achieving both efficient and stable organic photovoltaic devices, yet the field has rarely presented an in–depth understanding of corresponding device stability while efficiency is continuously boosted via the innovation of polymer acceptors. Herein, a ternary matrix is built for all–PSCs with optimized morphology, improved film ductility and importantly, boosted efficiency and better operational stability than its parental binary counterparts, as a platform to study the underlying mechanism. The target system PQM–Cl:PTQ10:PY–IT (0.8:0.2:1.2) exhibits an alleviated burn–in loss of morphology and efficiency under light soaking, which supports its promoted device lifetime. The comprehensive characterizations of fresh and light–soaked active layers lead to a clear illustration of opposite morphological and physical degradation direction of PQM–Cl and PTQ10, thus resulting in a delicate balance at the optimal ternary system. Specifically, the enlarging tendency of PQM–Cl and shrinking preference of PTQ10 in terms of phase separation leads to a stable morphology in their mixing phase; the hole transfer kinetics of PQM–Cl:PY–IT host is stabilized by incorporating PTQ10. Finally, this work succeeds in reaching a deep insight into all–PSC's stability promotion by a rational ternary design, which booms the prospect of gaining high–performance all–PSCs.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Removal of Na + and Ca2 + with Prussian blue analogue electrodes for brackish water desalination

Desalination of brackish water sources is critical to addressing the growing global freshwater demand. One promising approach is electrically driven desalination using intercalation electrodes. While intercalation electrodes have been widely researched for energy storage applications, only a small subset of those materials is suitable for desalination. In this work, we report the synthesis, characterization, and in-device testing of three Prussian blue analogue intercalation compounds: copper, manganese, and zinc hexacyanoferrate with formulas K x M[Fe(CN) 6 ] z ·nH 2 O (M = Cu, Mn, Zn). The desalination performance for each of these materials against carbon electrodes is reported for Na + intercalation and for Ca 2+ intercalation using 1000 ppm NaCl and 1000 ppm CaCl 2 feed solutions, respectively. While the copper and manganese analogs showed promising performance for Na + and Ca 2+ intercalation, the zinc compound was unstable and underwent rapid dissolution. Manganese hexacyanoferrate showed the best desalination performance in terms of salt removal capacities and salt removal rates with NaCl while copper hexacyanoferrate performed the best with CaCl 2 . The manganese analog proved to be the most stable intercalation material, retaining 83% and 72% of its salt removal capacity after 280 cycles in NaCl and CaCl 2 feed solutions respectively.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗