ADEPT - Advanced Devices by ElectroPlaTing

ADEPT - 电镀先进设备

基本信息

批准号：
EP/N035437/1
负责人：
Philip Bartlett
金额：
$ 806.82万
依托单位：
University of Southampton
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2016 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FN035437%2F1
关键词：
ADEPT Advanced Devices ElectroPlaTing

项目摘要

Almost the whole of modern technology and life is underpinned by methods for depositing and shaping materials. For instance the transistors which power our mobile phones, tablets, etc. consist of areas of silicon whose dimensions are now of the order of only tens of atoms across. Whilst current materials deposition technologies are truly impressive, there is still a need for more innovative, better and reduced cost methods for depositing technologically important materials in order to increase energy efficiency, improve their functional properties and break through into potential new markets. This is particularly true when we consider materials beyond the narrow range of those used in electronics and telecoms. A clear example of this is in the field of thermoelectric materials which can already be used in devices such as refrigerators, but more importantly in generating electricity directly from waste heat. Fundamental science has shown that if we could produce such materials in the form of dense parallel arrays of ultrathin wires that are each only 10-100 atoms across, the efficiency of these devices would be massively enhanced. However, the technology to achieve the necessary high quality materials at this size scale does not currently exist. In the field of computer memory, materials whose electrical resistances can be altered by rapid heating and cooling, so called phase change materials, are being developed The key barriers to the wide spread application of these materials are their relatively high switching energy and reliability of many billions of switching cycles. These could be overcome if a materials deposition technique existed which allowed us to deposit smaller elements than can currently be achieved. Finally the materials that are used in heat, i.e. infrared, sensing cameras could have a much wider range of applications, e.g. in home security and short range communications between smart appliances, if the cost of depositing them wasn't so high. This project will directly address these challenges, by building upon our recent breakthroughs in using electrodeposition, in which an electrical current causes the deposition of a material, from unusual, 'weakly-coordinating' solvents, to develop methods for depositing high quality materials for advanced applications in the fields of thermoelectric devices, phase change memory and infrared sensors and cameras.

几乎整个现代技术和生活都是以材料沉积和成型方法为基础的。例如，为我们的手机、平板电脑等供电的晶体管由硅区域组成，其尺寸现在仅为数十个原子的数量级。虽然当前的材料沉积技术确实令人印象深刻，但仍然需要更创新、更好和降低成本的方法来沉积技术上重要的材料，以提高能源效率、改善其功能特性并突破潜在的新市场。当我们考虑超出电子和电信领域使用的材料范围时尤其如此。一个明显的例子是热电材料领域，该材料已经可用于冰箱等设备，但更重要的是直接利用废热发电。基础科学表明，如果我们能够以密集平行的超细线阵列的形式生产这种材料，每条线只有 10-100 个原子，那么这些设备的效率将大大提高。然而，目前还不存在实现这种尺寸所需的高质量材料的技术。在计算机存储器领域，正在开发能够通过快速加热和冷却来改变电阻的材料，即所谓的相变材料。这些材料广泛应用的主要障碍是其相对较高的开关能量和许多器件的可靠性。数十亿次开关周期。如果存在一种材料沉积技术，使我们能够沉积比目前所能实现的更小的元素，那么这些问题就可以得到克服。最后，用于热（即红外）传感相机的材料可以具有更广泛的应用，例如如果存放它们的成本不是那么高的话，可以用于家庭安全和智能设备之间的短距离通信。该项目将直接解决这些挑战，通过利用我们最近在使用电沉积方面取得的突破（其中电流导致材料从不寻常的“弱配位”溶剂沉积）来开发沉积高质量材料的方法，用于先进的热电器件、相变存储器以及红外传感器和相机领域的应用。