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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Engineering of silicon/HfO{sub 2} interface by variable energy proton irradiation

Surfaces and interfaces between materials are of paramount importance for various phenomena, such as painting a house, catalyst driven chemical reactions, intricate life processes, corrosion of materials, and fabrication of various semiconductor devices. Interface of silicon or other such substrates with any of the oxides has profound effect on the performance of metal oxide field effect transistors and other similar devices. Since a surface is an abrupt termination of a periodic crystal, surface atoms will have some unsaturated valence electrons and these unsaturated bonds at the semiconductor surface make it chemically highly reactive. Other than annealing, there is not much that can be done to manage these unsaturated bonds. This study was initiated to explore the possibility of repairing these unsaturated dangling bonds that are formed at the silicon and oxide interface during the deposition of oxide layer above silicon, by the use of proton irradiation. In order to improve the interface characteristics, we present a method to modify the interface of silicon and hafnium dioxide after its fabrication, through proton irradiation. Results of the study are promising and probably this method might be used along with other methods such as annealing to modify the interface, after its fabrication.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Large bipolaron density at organic semiconductor/electrode interfaces

Bipolaron states, in which two electrons or two holes occupy a single molecule or conjugated polymer segment, are typically considered to be negligible in organic semiconductor devices due to Coulomb repulsion between the two charges. Here we use charge modulation spectroscopy to reveal a bipolaron sheet density >10 10 cm –2 at the interface between an indium tin oxide anode and the common small molecule organic semiconductor N,N'-Bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N'-diphenylbenzidine. We find that the magnetocurrent response of hole-only devices correlates closely with changes in the bipolaron concentration, supporting the bipolaron model of unipolar organic magnetoresistance and suggesting that it may be more of an interface than a bulk phenomenon. These results are understood on the basis of a quantitative interface energy level alignment model, which indicates that bipolarons are generally expected to be significant near contacts in the Fermi level pinning regime and thus may be more prevalent in organic electronic devices than previously thought.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Electron spin-based information shuttling for a computer system

A silicon metal-oxide semiconductor device transports a spin-polarized single electron. An array of silicon quantum dot electrodes is arranged atop a silicon dioxide layer of a silicon metal-oxide semiconductor. The array comprises at least a first electrode and a second electrode adjacent to the first electrode. A transport control logic for individually controls a voltage applied to the electrodes. The transport control logic is configured to gradually decrease a voltage at the first electrode while gradually increasing a voltage at the second electrode. Localization of the single electron is adiabatically transferred from the first electrode to the second electrode while maintaining a desired energy gap between a ground state and a first excited state of the single electron.

Gamble, IV, John King↗
DOE OSTI2022

In-situ tunable giant electrical anisotropy in a grating gated AlGaN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas.

Materials with in-plane electrical anisotropy have great potential for designing artificial synaptic devices. However, natural materials with strong intrinsic in-plane electrical anisotropy are rare. We introduce a simple strategy to produce extremely large electrical anisotropy via grating gating of a semiconductor two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) of AlGaN/GaN. We show that periodically modulated electric potential in the 2DEG induces in-plane electrical anisotropy, which is significantly enhanced in a magnetic field, leading to an ultra large electrical anisotropy. This is induced by a giant positive magnetoresistance and a giant negative magnetoresistance under two orthogonally oriented in-plane current flows, respectively. This giant electrical anisotropy is in situ tunable by tailoring both the grating gate voltage and the magnetic field. Our semiconductor device with controllable giant electrical anisotropy will stimulate new device applications, such as multi-terminal memtransistors and bionic synapses.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modeling and Design of Micro Flux Monitors for Neutron Fluence Measurements

Measuring neutron flux is critical to understanding the characteristics of nuclear reactors and can provide information on the energy spectrum, total neutron fluence, and operational history of a facility. Such measurements are typically performed by irradiating high-purity materials in an operating reactor for a known length of time. By measuring and identifying activation products in the irradiated materials and referencing the energy-dependent cross section of each isotope, the neutron energy spectrum and total fluence can be determined. Historical techniques use a variety of small, individually pressed foils or wires for dosimeter devices, which can result in excessively high levels of radioactivity and complications in handling after irradiation. The present work describes a new neutron dosimetry concept, named the micro flux monitor, that uses semiconductor device fabrication processes to deposit thin films of flux monitoring materials in precise geometries onto a SiC wafer. This approach allows multiple dosimetry materials to be located on a single device, simplifying irradiation and subsequent analysis. The geometry, and therefore mass, of each material can be custom-tailored for a specific application—considering the expected neutron flux, duration of irradiation, and device retrieval time of a facility. Additionally, hundreds of identical dosimetry monitors can be produced simultaneously, reducing fabrication costs. Finally, the extremely thin metal dimensions of these devices could improve the fidelity of neutron fluence measurements by reducing neutron self-shielding and gamma self-attenuation effects.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Highly Reliable Superhydrophobic Protection for Organic Field-Effect Transistors by Fluoroalkylsilane-Coated TiO 2 Nanoparticles

One of the long-standing problems in the field of organic electronics is their instability in an open environment, especially their poor water resistance. For the reliable operation of organic devices, introducing an effective protection layer using organo-compatible materials and processes is highly desirable. In this paper, we report a facile method for the depositing of an organo-compatible superhydrophobic protection layer on organic semiconductors under ambient conditions. The protection layer exhibiting excellent water-repellent and self-cleaning properties was deposited onto organic semiconductors directly using a dip-coating process in a highly fluorinated solution with fluoroalkylsilane-coated titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanoparticles. The proposed protection layer did not damage the underlying organic semiconductors and had good resistance against mechanical-, thermal-, light-stress-, and water-based threats. The protected organic field-effect transistors exhibited more-reliable electrical properties, even when exposed to strong solvents, due to its superhydrophobicity. This study provides a practical solution with which to enhance the reliability of environmentally sensitive organic semiconductor devices in the natural environment.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

Patterning approach for detecting defect in device manufacturing

Compact handheld devices which were a dream in the past are now a reality; this has been enabled by miniaturization of circuit architectures including power devices. Scaling down of the design feature sizes does come with a price with an increase in systematic defects during chip manufacturing. There are generally two methods of inline defect detection adopted to monitor the semiconductor device fabrication—optical inspection and electron beam inspection. The optical inspection uses ultra-violet and deep ultra-violet (UV/DUV) light to find patterning defects on the wafer. While the electron-beam inspection uses electron charge and discharge measurement to find electrical connection defects, both are a costly procedure in terms of resources and time. The physical limit of feature resolution of the optical source is now making the defect inspection job difficult in miniaturized application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). This study is designed to test the patterning optimization approach on both inspection platforms. Using hotspot analysis weak locations are identified in the full chip design, and then they are verified in the inline wafer inspection. The criterion for hot-spot determination is also discussed in this paper.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Four-terminal circuit element with photonic core

A four-terminal circuit element is described that includes a photonic core inside of the circuit element that uses a wide bandgap semiconductor material that exhibits photoconductivity and allows current flow through the material in response to the light that is incident on the wide bandgap material. The four-terminal circuit element can be configured based on various hardware structures using a single piece or multiple pieces or layers of a wide bandgap semiconductor material to achieve various designed electrical properties such as high switching voltages by using the photoconductive feature beyond the breakdown voltages of semiconductor devices or circuits operated based on electrical bias or control designs. The photonic core aspect of the four-terminal circuit element provides unique features that enable versatile circuit applications to either replace the semiconductor transistor-based circuit elements or semiconductor diode-based circuit elements.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Fast-Response High-Accuracy Overvoltage Protection Circuit for Soft-Switching Current-Source Converters

Although voltage-source converters (VSCs) have been a focus of research for decades and are widely applied in numerous applications, they face great challenges in short-circuit failures, high dv/dt and electromagnetic interference (EMI), especially using wide bandgap devices. Instead, current-source converters (CSCs) are attracting increasing attention in recent years owing to their friendliness to short-circuit faults, improved EMI, etc. For CSCs, overvoltage is the most catastrophic failure since the semiconductor devices can hardly withstand an overvoltage for a short pulse. In this paper, a fast-response high-accuracy overvoltage protection (OVP) circuit is proposed to protect CSCs from overvoltage damage. It also features a small form factor, good noise-immunity, friendly retrofit capability, and no need for active switches. In this paper, the operating principle and design guideline of the proposed OVP circuit is introduced. Its effectiveness is validated in soft-switching solid-state transformer (S4T) at 500 V. In experiments, the voltage detection error of less than 5% and a propagation delay of fewer than 400 ns have been achieved.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2019

Discovery of III–V Semiconductors: Physical Properties and Application

This overview is devoted to the discovery, development of the technology, and investigation of III–V semiconductors performed at the Ioffe Institute, where the first steps in fabricating III–V semiconductors were taken in 1950 and investigations into their fundamental properties were begun under the leadership of two outstanding scientists—Nina Aleksandrovna Goryunova and Dmitry Nikolayevich Nasledov. Further development of these investigations is reflected in the works of followers and pupils of D.N. Nasledov, who have worked and continue to work at subsidiaries of the Ioffe Institute. The contribution of these investigations to studying heterostructures based on III–V compounds as well as to the development of semiconductor devices for electronics, optoelectronics, and photonics is considered.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Disorder effects in nitride semiconductors: impact on fundamental and device properties

Abstract Semiconductor structures used for fundamental or device applications most often incorporate alloy materials. In “usual” or “common” III–V alloys, based on the InGaAsP or InGaAlAs material systems, the effects of compositional disorder on the electronic properties can be treated in a perturbative approach. This is not the case in the more recent nitride-based GaInAlN alloys, where the potential changes associated with the various atoms induce strong localization effects, which cannot be described perturbatively. Since the early studies of these materials and devices, disorder effects have indeed been identified to play a major role in their properties. Although many studies have been performed on the structural characterization of materials, on intrinsic electronic localization properties, and on the impact of disorder on device operation, there are still many open questions on all these topics. Taking disorder into account also leads to unmanageable problems in simulations. As a prerequisite to address material and device simulations, a critical examination of experiments must be considered to ensure that one measures intrinsic parameters as these materials are difficult to grow with low defect densities. A specific property of nitride semiconductors that can obscure intrinsic properties is the strong spontaneous and piezoelectric fields. We outline in this review the remaining challenges faced when attempting to fully describe nitride-based material systems, taking the examples of LEDs. The objectives of a better understanding of disorder phenomena are to explain the hidden phenomena often forcing one to use ad hoc parameters, or additional poorly defined concepts, to make simulations agree with experiments. Finally, we describe a novel simulation tool based on a mathematical breakthrough to solve the Schrödinger equation in disordered potentials that facilitates 3D simulations that include alloy disorder.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

Predicted and measured temperature compensated surface acoustic wave devices for high-temperature applications

Industrial monitoring and process control, power plants, aerospace industry, military equipment manufacturing, oil and gas industries are examples of businesses in need for high-temperature and harsh environment electronic components and systems. In particular, resonators and filters that operate beyond the 125°C military range upper limit, normally dictated by silicon-based semiconductor devices, are required in applications which demand frequency control, clocking and sensors. In this Letter, temperature compensated surface acoustic wave orientations appropriate for the fabrication of resonators and filters >125°C have been identified through numerical calculations and experimentally confirmed on a commercially available langasite wafer, a piezoelectric crystal which operates at high temperatures. Resonator filters have been designed, fabricated and tested along two orientations, confirming the zero temperature sensitivities at 150 and 300°C. These devices are of great interest for modern harsh environment frequency control, timing and sensor applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Optimal design of chemoepitaxial guideposts for the directed self-assembly of block copolymer systems using an inexact Newton algorithm

Directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers (BCPs) is one of the most promising developments in the cost-effective production of nanoscale devices. The process makes use of the natural tendency for BCP melts to form nanoscale structures upon phase separation. The phase separation can be directed through the use of chemically patterned substrates to promote the formation of morphologies that are essential to the production of semiconductor devices. Moreover, the design of substrate pattern can be formulated as an optimization problem for which we seek optimal substrate designs that effectively produce given target morphologies. In this paper, we adopt a phase field model given by a nonlocal Cahn–Hilliard partial differential equation (PDE) based on the minimization of the Ohta–Kawasaki free energy, and present an efficient PDE-constrained optimization framework for the optimal design problem. The design variables are the locations of circular- or strip-shaped guiding posts that are used to model the substrate chemical pattern. To solve the ensuing optimization problem, we propose a variant of an inexact Newton conjugate gradient algorithm tailored to this problem. Additionally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our computational strategy on numerical examples that span a range of target morphologies. Owing to our second-order optimizer and fast state solver, the numerical results demonstrate five orders of magnitude reduction in computational cost over previous work. The efficiency of our framework and the fast convergence of our optimization algorithm enable us to rapidly solve the optimal design problem in not only two, but also three spatial dimensions.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

High-throughput manufacturing of epitaxial membranes from a single wafer by 2D materials-based layer transfer process

Layer transfer techniques have been extensively explored for semiconductor device fabrication as a path to reduce costs and to form heterogeneously integrated devices. These techniques entail isolating epitaxial layers from an expensive donor wafer to form freestanding membranes. However, current layer transfer processes are still low-throughput and too expensive to be commercially suitable. Here we report a high-throughput layer transfer technique that can produce multiple compound semiconductor membranes from a single wafer. We directly grow two-dimensional (2D) materials on III–N and III–V substrates using epitaxy tools, which enables a scheme comprised of multiple alternating layers of 2D materials and epilayers that can be formed by a single growth run. Each epilayer in the multistack structure is then harvested by layer-by-layer mechanical exfoliation, producing multiple freestanding membranes from a single wafer without involving time-consuming processes such as sacrificial layer etching or wafer polishing. Moreover, atomic-precision exfoliation at the 2D interface allows for the recycling of the wafers for subsequent membrane production, with the potential for greatly reducing the manufacturing cost.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

A Manufacturing Cost and Supply Chain Analysis of SiC Power Electronics Applicable to Medium-Voltage Motor Drives

Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices are increasingly being considered for use in certain power electronics applications, where they can improve efficiency, performance, footprint, and, potentially, total system cost compared to systems using traditional silicon (Si) devices. Silicon carbide (SiC) devices in particular -- which are currently more mature than other WBG devices -- are poised for growth in the coming years. Today, the manufacturing of SiC wafers is concentrated in the United States, and chip production is split roughly equally between the United States, Japan, and Europe. Established contract manufacturers located throughout Asia typically carry out manufacturing of WBG power modules. We seek to understand how global manufacturing of SiC components may evolve over time by illustrating the regional cost drivers along the supply chain and providing an overview of other factors that influence where manufacturing is sited. We conduct this analysis for a particular case study where SiC devices are used in a medium-voltage motor drive.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Unexpected magnetization enhancement in hydrogen plasma treated ferromagnetic (Zn,Cu)O film

The effects of H{sup +} incorporation on oxygen vacancies (H{sub O}{sup +}) on the giant ferromagnetic behavior (moment up to 3.26 μ{sub B}/Cu) in ZnO:Cu polycrystalline films have been closely examined using different microstructural and magnetic characterization tools. Fine thermal stability (up to 450 °C) and low resistivity demonstrate a significant correlation between Cu 3d-states and H{sub O}{sup +} donor defects in H plasma treated ZnO:Cu films, analogous to dual-donor (V{sub O} and Zn{sub i}) defects mediated case. These H{sub O}{sup +} donors can delocalize their electrons to the orbits of Cu atoms and contribute to a stronger spin-orbit coupling interaction. Suitable H{sub O}{sup +} defect concentration and matched proportion between Cu{sup 2+} and Cu{sup +} species ensure that orbital momentum shall not be quenched. Hence, unexpected moment enhancement, less than spin-orbit coupling upper limit (3.55 μ{sub B}/Cu), can be also expected in this scenario. The manipulation from spin-only to spin-orbit coupling mode, using a facile thermally-mediated H plasma exposure way, will allow achieving spin transport based diluted magnetic semiconductor device.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Identification of the primary compensating defect level responsible for determining blocking voltage of vertical GaN power diodes

Electrical performance and characterization of deep levels in vertical GaN P-i-N diodes grown on low threading dislocation density (~10 4 –10 6 cm –2 ) bulk GaN substrates are investigated. The lightly doped n drift region of these devices is observed to be highly compensated by several prominent deep levels detected using deep level optical spectroscopy at E c -2.13, 2.92, and 3.2 eV. A combination of steady-state photocapacitance and lighted capacitance-voltage profiling indicates the concentrations of these deep levels to be N t = 3 × 10 12 , 2 × 10 15 , and 5 × 10 14 cm –3 , respectively. The E c -2.92 eV level is observed to be the primary compensating defect in as-grown n-type metal-organic chemical vapor deposition GaN, indicating this level acts as a limiting factor for achieving controllably low doping. The device blocking voltage should increase if compensating defects reduce the free carrier concentration of the n drift region. Understanding the incorporation of as-grown and native defects in thick n-GaN is essential for enabling large V BD in the next-generation wide-bandgap power semiconductor devices. Furthermore, controlling the as-grown defects induced by epitaxial growth conditions is critical to achieve blocking voltage capability above 5 kV.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Control Scheme to Mitigate the Dead-Time Effects in a Wireless Power Transfer System

In practice, a dead-time is always provided between the complementary switching instances of the inverter phase-leg devices. At higher operating frequencies, the dead-time issues in wireless power transfer (WPT) systems become critical, especially as the power level increases. In certain operating conditions, the dead-time effect in wireless power transfer system affects the switching characteristics. Consequently, the switching losses in the power semiconductor devices increase and also impact the efficiency of the overall system. In this paper, a simple control scheme is proposed to eliminate the dead-time effect (or voltage polarity reversal) in the WPT inverter. The proposed control scheme monitors the inverter output voltage, and the switching frequency is auto-tuned to eliminate the undesired switching instances in the inverter voltage. The proposed control scheme is validated using the closed-loop simulations in PLECS, and the experimental results on a 5.6 kW WPT prototype are also presented. After eliminating the voltage-polarity-reversal at the inverter output, the inverter losses were reduced by ~40%, and the overall system losses were reduced by ~17%.

Kavimandan, Utkarsh↗