Thermal batteries are designed to activate at high temperatures (~500℃), therefore, the electrodes used in these systems are typically made into pellet form using compression molding techniques that do not involve polymer binders. However, the compression molding technique poses limitations in scaling up the electrode area without increasing thickness for high-power properties. Additionally, the tape casting method has been studied as a way to solve with, but too low a loading level is still an obstacle to practical use. This study fabricated a film cathode of high loading level (35.79 mAh·cm-2) using the tape casting method for these problem. As utilized fabricated cathode, it investigated the influence of electrode thickness and density on electrochemical performance. Furthermore, a film cathode with a larger area but the same amount of active material as the pellet was fabricated, enabling the design of high-power cells with the same energy density. We expect that the fabricated film cathode with a high loading level and scalable area will enable the development of various thermal battery designs.
In the past, the efficiency of solar cells had been increased in order to increase the efficiency of solar modules. However, in recent years, in order to increase output in the solar industry and market, the competitiveness of solar cells based on large-area solar cells and multi-bus bar has been increasing. Multi-busbar solar module is a technology to reduce power loss by increasing the number and width of the front busbar of the solar cell and reducing the current value delivered by the busbar by half through half-cutting. In the case of the existing M2 (156.75×156.75 ㎟) solar cell, even with a half-cut, power loss could be sufficiently reduced, but as the area of the solar cell is enlarged to more than M6 (166×166 ㎟), the need for more divisions emerged. This affected not only solar cells but also inverters required for module array configuration. Therefore, in this study, the electrical characteristics of a large-area solar cell and after division were extracted using Griddler simulation. The output characteristics of the module were predicted by applying the solar cell parameters after division to PSPice, and a guideline for the large-area solar module design was presented according to the number of divisions of the large-area solar cell.
According to the recent global warming, it is necessary to use energy efficiently together with eco-friendly energy. The development of alternative technologies is requisite for managing the current energy and climate crises. In this regard, “smart windows,” which can control solar radiation, can be used to mitigate energy demands. Electrochromic devices (ECDs) effectively control the amount of solar energy reaching commercial and other living areas and maintain climate conditions via color modulation in response to small external stimuli, such as temperature and light irradiation. However, the performance and the stability of ECDs depend on the state of the electrolyte and sealing of the device. To resolve the aforementioned issues, an ECD was manufactured by using a poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-based gel polymer electrolyte (GPE), and a laminating method was used to adequately seal the ECD. The concentrations of PMMA, acetonitrile (ACN), and ferrocene (Fc) were controlled to optimize the composition of the GPE to achieve an enhanced electrochromic performance. The fabricated GPE-based ECD afforded high optical contrast (~81.92%), with high electrochromic stability up to 10,000 cycles. Moreover, the lamination method employing the GPE could be used to fabricate large-area ECDs.
An 80 nm thick zinc aluminate thin film was deposited on a glass substrate via radio-frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering and heat treated to analyze changes in the wetting angles due to a surface modification. The thin films were modified from hydrophilic to hydrophobic by a simple thermal treatment. The surface modification from a heat treatment increased the wetting angles up to 111°, which was explained by the relationship with the excess surface area. The wetting angles of the annealed thin films decreased with increasing exposure time under ambient conditions, which was attributed to the oxygen vacancies in the films that were introduced during deposition. The annealed thin films were treated by ionized oxygen via oxygen plasma. After the oxygen plasma treatment, the decreased wetting angles were maintained at ~95° for 11 days.
Two-dimensional (2D) materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted tremendous scientific interests owing to their potential of solving the zero band-gap issue of graphene. In this work, the research areas and technology evolutionary dynamics of the 2D materials were identified using the scientometric method focusing on keyword mapping and clustering. The time-series analysis showed that the technological progress of 2D material is in the early growth period. The overlay mapping analysis were carried out to investigate the technology evolution of 2D materials with time. The strategic diagram of co-word analysis classifying the topological positions of keyword was derived to support the analysis results. It is conjectured that extensive research will be conducted widely on the application of 2D materials not only in electronic and optoelectronic devices, but also in various other fields such as biomedical applications, and that their development will be more rapid based on accumulated results of extant graphene research.
Device model parameters are very important for accurate estimation of electrical performances in devices, integrated circuits and their systems. There are a large number of methods for extraction of model parameters in power MOSFETs. For high efficiency, design is important considerations of a power MOSFET with high-voltage applications in consumer electronics. Meanwhile, it was proposed that the efficiency of a MOSFET can be enhanced by conducting JFET region double implant to reduce the On-resistance of the transistor. This paper reports the effects of JFET region double implant on the electrical properties and the decreasing On-resistance of the MOSFET. Experimental results show that the 1st JFET region implant diffuse can enhance the On-resistance by decreasing the ion concentration due to the surface and reduce the On-resistance by implanting the 2nd Phosphorus to the surface JFET region.
Photo electrode is an important component for DSSC. DSSCs electrical characteristics and efficiencies fabricated with different TiO2 photo electrodes thickness and modified phoro electrode surface area were studied. 11 ㎛ TiO2 photo electrode shows a 4.956% efficiency. The highest short circuit current density was a 9.949 mA/cm2. Efficiencies and short circuit current density increased as tape casting thickness decreased. Modified surface area of the photo electrode by needle stamp processing were studied. 200 times needle stamp processing on photo electrodes shows a highest 5.168% efficiency. Also the short circuit current density was a 10.261 mA/cm2.
Nano-structured one-dimensional Na2Ti6O13 particles were synthesized by a molten salt process. Effects of processing parameters on the microstructure and band gap energy of the Na2Ti6O13 powder were studied in this paper. For the synthesis of the Na2Ti6O13 particles, two different raw materials of tubular shaped Na-titanate (Na-TiNT) and spherical shaped TiO2 were utilized. Synthesizing with the raw material of Na-TiNT, around 70nm thick 1D-Na2Ti6O13 with the bandgap energy of 3.5 eV was obtained at 810℃. Below 810℃ or without the presence of NaCl, 1D-Na2Ti6O13 was in a relatively short in length and agglomerated state. With the processing temperature increased, the thickness of the 1D-Na2Ti6O13 was also observed to be increased. On the other hand, when TiO2 was employed as a raw material, the mixed amount of Na2CO3 played an important role in transforming the morphology and phase of the raw material, affecting the bandgap energy of the synthesized product. Specific surface area of the synthesized 1D-Na2Ti6O13 was significantly affected by the raw and mixed materials as well as processing temperature. When Na-TiNT was processed at 810℃ with NaCl, the specific surface area of the 1D-Na2Ti6O13 showed the best value of 30.63 m2/g.
In semiconductor wafer fabrication, etching is one of the most critical processes, by which a material layer is selectively removed. Because of difficulty to correct a mistake caused by over etching, it is critical that etch should be performed correctly. This paper proposes a new approach for etch endpoint detection of small open area wafers. The traditional endpoint detection technique uses a few manually selected wavelengths, which are adequate for large open areas. As the integrated circuit devices continue to shrink in geometry and increase in device density, detecting the endpoint for small open areas presents a serious challenge to process engineers. In this work, a high-resolution optical emission spectroscopy (OES) sensor is used to provide the necessary sensitivity for detecting subtle endpoint signal. Partial Least Squares (PLS) method is used to analyze the OES data which reduces dimension of the data and increases gap between classes. Support Vector Machine (SVM) is employed to detect endpoint using the data after PLS. SVM classifies normal etching state and after endpoint state. Two data sets from OES are used in training PLS and SVM. The other data sets are used to test the performance of the model. The results show that the trained PLS and SVM hybrid algorithm model detects endpoint accurately.
The charged particle type display is a kind of the reflectivity type display and shows an image by absorption and reflection of external light source, which has keep an image without additional electric power because of bistability. In this paper, we made a device whose cell gap is 56 ㎛ and also analyzed driving and memory characteristics by applied driving voltages. As a result, we found that the driving voltage and memory effect depend on q/m(charge to mass ratio) of charged particle. In this case of breakdown voltage, the devices showed degradation of reflectivity and memory effect due to irregular movement of overcharged particles. In addition, contrast ratio of the device varies with memory effect. Thus, we consider that device needs uniform q/m for improvement of electric and optical properties and memory effect.
A measurement method of the particle-based reflective display is proposed, estimated, and compared with reported method. The reflectivity measurement by previous studies is simply obtained by integrating sphere, but it has a limitation for the estimation of real moving particles because its data include surface reflection and incomplete attachment on electrodes. To get the number of real moving particles, the area by attached particles on the electrodes is calculated at microscopic signals. The moving particles on subthreshold voltage are observed and this fluctuational variation of surface on subthreshold voltage gives a tip to understand the driving mechanism. By this measurement we ascertained the relationship of a particle layer and real driving particles, and the feasibility of observation and estimation for moving color particles, which were measured by the reflectivity and CIE (Commission Internationale de I`Eclairage) system of color specification at previous studies.