A review on thin films, conducting polymers as sensor devices

Thin film sensors are used to monitor environmental conditions by measuring the physical parameters. By using thin film technology, the sensors are capable of conducting precise measurements. Moreover, the measurements are stable and dependable. Furthermore, inexpensive sensor devices can be produced. In this paper, thin film technology for the design and fabrication of sensors that are used in various applications is reviewed. Further, the applications of thin film sensors in the fields of biomedical, energy harvesting, optical, and corrosion applications are also presented. From the review, the future research needs and future perspectives are identified and discussed.

An in-depth Experimental Investigation of the Outdoor Performance of Wafer and Thin Film PV Technologies in a Tropical Climate

The photovoltaics (PV) industry is booming at an impressive rate. Knowledge of the outdoor perfor-mance of different PV technologies under different climatic conditions is becoming increasingly im-portant for all stakeholders. The aim of this research was to perform the outdoor characterisation of three PV technologies in a tropical climate and evaluate their performances with the aid of a set of key performance indicators. An innovative energy autonomous outdoor test facility has been used to measure the weather conditions and the IV curves of mono-Si, poly-Si and CIGS PV modules. Each IV curve was sampled within less than a second, for every 10 minutes, between sunrise and sunset for a whole year, representing a data set of around 28,000 IV curves of 240 points each. The variations of current, voltage and power were thoroughly studied for changes in temperature and irradiance. This paper reports the variations of temperature coefficients of current, voltage and power with the inten-sity of light. While PV module documentation only present the temperature coefficients of the short circuit current and open circuit voltage at Standard Test Conditions, this paper additionally provides highly valuable information to PV system designers on the variation of these coefficients in the field. The research is also the first to report the variations of the fill factor with temperature and irradi-ance. In general, the wafer technologies were found to have a better performance than the thin film technology. Moreover, the open-circuit temperature coefficient was found to improve for higher irra-diances only for the wafer technologies, while that for the thin-film technology experienced a degrada-tion. The temperature coefficient of current for the mono-Si module was found to be positive at low irradiance levels, but negative at higher irradiance levels.

Thin Films/Properties and Applications

Since its discovery in early times, thin films rapidly found industrial applications such as in decorative and optics purposes. With the evolution of thin film technology, supported by the development of vacuum technology and electric power facilities, the range of applications has increased at a level that nowadays almost every industrial sector make use of them to provide specific physical and chemical properties to the surface of bulk materials. The possibility to tailor the film properties through the variation of the microstructure via the deposition parameters adopted in a specific deposition technique has permitted their entrance from the simplest like protective coatings against wear and corrosion to the most technological advanced applications such as microelectronics and biomedicine, recently. In spite of such impressive progress, the connection among all steps of the thin film production, namely deposition parameters-morphology and properties, is not fully accurate. Among other reasons, the lack of characterization techniques suitable for probing films with thickness less than a single atomic layer, along with a lack of understanding of the physics have impeded the elaboration of sophisticated models for a precise prediction of film properties. Furthermore, there remain some difficulties related to the large scale production and a relative high cost for the deposition of advanced structures, i.e. quantum wells and wires. Once these barriers are overcome, thin film technology will become more competitive for advanced technological applications.

Ku/Ka band diplexer based on thin-film technology for small ground-segment user terminals

This paper describes the outcome of the “Small user TErminal multi band DIplexer” project where the goal is the validation of novel SMD-compliant planar diplexer. The real application scenario concerns an integrated multi-band radio terminal for ground-segment satellite links. The advantageous and novel approach involves the simultaneous use of three different well-established concepts: a microstrip low-pass filter, a substrate integrated waveguide high-pass filter, and the thin-film technology as manufacturing process. The proposed topology applied to a planar alumina-based design guarantees a 15 × 11.1 mm2 footprint and the best integration with surface mountable soldering process over standard PCB technology. Achieved performance and resilience to environmental toughness are suitable for consumer-oriented satellite links or man-pack applications. The designed component targets the Ku 10.7–12.75 (RX) and Ka 27.5–30 (TX) GHz bands but the layout can be easily tuned across the spectrum. The described solution has been manufactured and validated. Thermal cycling and mechanical tests have been carried out to prove the high technology readiness level of the proposed device.

Special Issue “Materials Processing for Production of Nanostructured Thin Films”

The field of thin film technology [...]

Diversified Methodologies to Prepare Metal Oxide Thin Film for Super Capacitor Applications – A Review

In this review, we focused on various deposition methods. Viewing to the literature, the metal oxides have been synthesized by many chemical and thermal treatments, including, chemical oxidation, reduction, chemical vapor deposition, calcinations, annealing, plus laser deposition, and arc discharge, chemical bath deposition etc.1-4. Thin film technology is applicable to various materials, like polymers or metals. Common substrate materials are silicon, steel. The deposition materials and the technology, properties of the substrate material could be enhanced for Specific applications by using Chemical Bath Deposition (CBD). In addition to this, recently thin film technology is applicable for plane objects. In broad view thin film has the number of applications like corrosion preventive, decorative coating, photo detector, image processing, optical memories and mainly storage of energy. With these basic ideas, thin-film is the very easiest accurate, sensitive method for deposition purposes. Apart from this technique, there are various methods for deposition. An innovative way of advancement of thin-film acceptable. Thin-film has more advantages in device preparation from electrochemical characterization. Electrochemical supercapacitor is unique electrochemical devices with high power density, high charge-discharge cycle life with high energy efficiency.

Liquid-liquid interfaces: a unique and advantageous environment to both prepare and process thin films of complex materials

Thin film technology is pervasive for many fields with high impact in our daily lives, which makes processing materials such as thin films a very important subject in materials science...