Thickness Of Dielectric Layer Research Articles

Threshold Voltage Modulation and Gate Leakage Suppression of Enhancement‐Mode GaN HEMT by Metal/Insulator/p‐GaN Gate Structure

Herein, a metal/insulator/p‐GaN gate HEMT (MIP‐HEMT) with Si3N4 gate dielectric layer is fabricated. Compared to the conventional p‐GaN HEMT, the MIP‐HEMT has a higher threshold voltage (Vth) of 4.8 V and better gate leakage suppression. The mechanism of threshold voltage increase in MIP‐HEMT is elucidated through an analysis of the electric field distribution in the gate region and the proposed gate capacitance model. Furthermore, MIP‐HEMTs with gate dielectric layers of varying dielectric constants and thicknesses are designed and simulated. The obtained results lead to the derivation of an empirical formula for the threshold voltage of the MIP‐HEMT under ideal dielectric/p‐GaN interface conditions, in relation to the dielectric constant and thickness of the gate dielectric layer. Additionally, simulations are conducted on the MIP‐HEMT incorporating fixed charges at the dielectric/p‐GaN interface, and the impact of interface charges is investigated. This refinement enables a more accurate prediction of the MIP‐HEMT's threshold voltage. Conclusively, MIP‐HEMTs can effectively modulate the threshold voltage by manipulating the parameters of the gate dielectric layer, thereby extending the threshold voltage range of conventional enhancement‐mode devices.

Nearly polarization-insensitive angular filters enabled by metal-dielectric photonic crystal in the visible region

We report on the design and fabrication of nearly polarization-insensitive angular filters, which have been developed through the optimization of one-dimensional Ag/MgF2 photonic crystals (PCs). We evaluate different initial systems for optimization and compare their results in terms of both the wavelength and angular selectivity. Our findings reveal that relaxing the strict periodic condition of initial photonic crystals with a small number of lattices has enabled improvement in the angular selectivity via Fabry–Perot resonances in dielectric layers, achieving a transmission as high as 81% at normal incidence by optimizing the dielectric layer thickness. The simulation results demonstrate that the transmitted beam through the angular filtering sample at 633 nm has allowable angles within 29° and 33° for TE and TM polarization, respectively, with a transmission over 80% at normal incidence. This proposed and demonstrated angular filter represents what we believe is a novel way to utilize 1D metal-dielectric PCs as polarization-insensitive angular filters, overcoming the main drawback of a low transmission. This angular filter will have significant applications in lighting, beam manipulation, optical coupling, and optical detectors.

Thermal protection properties of profiled timber with peat-vermiculite insulation

Today, the use of environmentally friendly materials is becoming increasingly important. The construction of energy-saving buildings with enclosing structures made of insulated profiled timber, is one of the most promising areas in low-rise construction.Materials having minimum negative impact on the environment during their operation, include new construction insulation materials based on peat-vermiculite granules. The paper studies the main physical properties of wooden exterior walls made of profiled timber, in which peat vermiculite is used as insulation, thermal conductivity of which ranges from 0.05 to 0.06 W/(m·K). For this purpose, numerical simulation is performed for the heat-mass transfer in wooden enclosing structures made of insulated timber with three different connector options.The temperature and heat flow distributions are obtained as a result of modeling stationary thermal conductivity processes in timber structures. It is shown that plywood connectors do not affect the thickness temperature distribution in wooden walls with peat-vermiculite insulation. An increase in thermal conductivity of insulation has no significant effect on the temperature difference along the connector axis or outside the region of its temperature influence.It is found that the thickness of the peat-vermiculite insulation layer should be at least 0.176 m to ensure the compliance with the main requirements for thermal protection properties of enclosing structures in the climatic conditions of Tomsk. The greatest heat loss with a minimum insulation thickness is observed for the wall made of profiled insulated timber with T-shaped connectors. A high-strength timber with the additional central lamella has the best thermal protection with the lowest insulation thickness.

Optimization of Bilayer Resistive Random Access Memory Based on Ti/HfO2/ZrO2/Pt.

In this paper, the electrothermal coupling model of metal oxide resistive random access memory (RRAM) is analyzed by using a 2D axisymmetrical structure in COMSOL Multiphysics simulation software. The RRAM structure is a Ti/HfO2/ZrO2/Pt bilayer structure, and the SET and RESET processes of Ti/HfO2/ZrO2/Pt are verified and analyzed. It is found that the width and thickness of CF1 (the conductive filament of the HfO2 layer), CF2 (the conductive filament of the ZrO2 layer), and resistive dielectric layers affect the electrical performance of the device. Under the condition of the width ratio of conductive filament to transition layer (6:14) and the thickness ratio of HfO2 to ZrO2 (7.5:7.5), Ti/HfO2/ZrO2/Pt has stable high and low resistance states. On this basis, the comparison of three commonly used RRAM metal top electrode materials (Ti, Pt, and Al) shows that the resistance switching ratio of the Ti electrode is the highest at about 11.67. Finally, combining the optimal conductive filament size and the optimal top electrode material, the I-V hysteresis loop was obtained, and the switching ratio Roff/Ron = 10.46 was calculated. Therefore, in this paper, a perfect RRAM model is established, the resistance mechanism is explained and analyzed, and the optimal geometrical size and electrode material for the hysteresis characteristics of the Ti/HfO2/ZrO2/Pt structure are found.

Design and Evaluation of a Double-Gate Tunnel Field Effect Transistor for the Detection of Breast Cancer Cells

This research paper investigates the application of a Double Gate (DG) Tunnel Field-Effect Transistor (DG-TFET) for the detection of cell lines derived from breast cancer tissue, namely Hs578T, MDA-MB-231, MCF-7, and T47D. The device incorporates two nanocavities positioned beneath the two gate electrodes, significantly enhancing detection capabilities. The study emphasizes the differentiation between healthy non-tumorigenic cells (MCF-10A) and breast cancer-derived cell lines by incorporating gate engineering into the TFET. Furthermore, the research explores the impact of changes in dielectric values specific to different breast malignant cell types on the biosensor's detection capabilities. Additionally, the investigation delves into the influence of variations in device geometry, including cavity dimensions and dielectric layer thickness, on critical parameters such as drain current sensitivity, transconductance sensitivity, and ION/IOFF sensitivity. Sensitivity analysis concerns drive current, ION/IOFF ratio, threshold voltage (Vth), and transconductance. The structural design of the device is tailored to facilitate array-based diagnosis and screening of cell lines derived from breast cancer tissue. This design offers several advantages, including a simplified transduction process, compatibility with CMOS processes, cost-effectiveness, reproducibility, and adjustable electrical responses. The researchers employed ATLAS, a two-dimensional (2D) device simulator from Silvaco, to model and define the device structure. The numerical simulations validate the device's performance, demonstrating favorable ON-OFF transition profiles.

Engineering electrically tunable TiN/SiO2 epsilon-near-zero metamaterials

Electrically tunable TiN/SiO2/TiN epsilon-near-zero photonic structures with various parameters were fabricated using the reactive DC magnetron sputtering approach. Effective medium approximation was used to predict the optical permittivity of a multilayered TiN/SiO2 metamaterial and guide the design/fabrication. Experimental reflectance measurements for tunable TiN/SiO2/TiN structures were obtained using the ellipsometer technique in the visible and near-infrared spectral ranges. Results show that reflectance for biased (12 V) and un-biased bulk TiN/SiO2/TiN structure changes up to ∼ 2% with the spectral shift at the ENZ spectral point ∼ 10 nm for samples with an optimal SiO2 dielectric layer (thickness d=10 nm). Reflectance measurements for multilayered tunable TiN/SiO2/TiN structures show strong variation in reflectance change for s- polarized light at epsilon-near-zero wavelengths due to applied voltage (12 V). We expect that the results of this research study of the tunable TiN/SiO2/TiN epsilon-near-zero photonic structures will potentially be useful for the photonic density of states engineering, surface sensing, and metamaterial-based super-resolution imaging.

Optimizing thermal insulation in subtropical monsoon climate religious buildings: material selection and thickness assessment

Purpose Determining the suitable material and accurate thickness of the thermal insulation layer used in exterior walls during the design phase of a building can be challenging. This study aims to determine suitable material and optimum thickness for the insulation layer considering both operational and embodied factors by a comprehensive assessment of the energy, economic and environmental (3E) parameters. Design/methodology/approach First, the energy model of an existing building was created by using Autodesk Revit software according to the as-built floor layout to evaluate the impact of five alternative insulating materials in varying thickness values. Second, using the results derived from the model, a thorough evaluation was conducted to ascertain the optimal insulation material and thickness through individual analysis of 3E factors, followed by a comprehensive analysis considering the three aforementioned factors simultaneously. Findings The findings indicated that polyurethane with 13 cm thickness, rockwool with 10 cm thickness and EPS with 20 cm thickness were the best states based on energy consumption, cost and environmental footprint, respectively. After completing the 3E investigation, the 15-cm-thick mineral wool insulation was presented as the ideal state. Practical implications This study explores how suitable material and thickness of insulating material can be determined in advance during the design phase of a building, which is a lot more accurate and cost-effective than applying insulating materials by assumed thickness in the construction phase. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is unique in investigating the advantages of using thermally insulating materials in the context of a mosque structure, taking into account its distinctive attributes that deviate from those of typical buildings. Furthermore, there has been no prior analysis of the cost and sustainability implications of these materials concerning the characteristics of subtropical monsoon climate.

Efficiency improvement by using metal–insulator-semiconductor structure in InGaN/GaN micro-light-emitting diodes

InGaN/GaN micro-light-emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) with a metal–insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure on the sidewall are proposed to improve efficiency. In this MIS structure, a sidewall electrode is deposited on the insulating layer-coated sidewall of the device mesa between a cathode on the bottom and an anode on the top. Electroluminescence (EL) measurements of fabricated devices with a mesa diameter of 10 μm show that the application of negative biases on the sidewall electrode can increase the device external quantum efficiency (EQE). In contrast, the application of positive biases can decrease the EQE. The band structure analysis reveals that the EQE is impacted because the application of sidewall electric fields manipulates the local surface electron density along the mesa sidewall and thus controls surface Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) recombination. Two suggested strategies, reducing insulator layer thickness and exploring alternative materials, can be implemented to further improve the EQE of MIS micro-LEDs in future fabrication.Graphical

Thermal and electrical switchable wide-angle multi-band terahertz absorber.

Multi-band terahertz (THz) absorbers have recently gained attention due to their favorable application prospects in communication, imaging, detection, and other fields. However, many multi-band THz absorbers are tuned by a single method, which limits their tuning effect. To address this issue, we propose a multi-band THz absorber that can be co-modulated by thermal and electrical methods. Our proposed absorber uses vanadium dioxide (VO2) to achieve this co-modulation. When VO2 is insulating, the frequency of the absorbing peaks originating from the lateral Fabry-Pérot resonance mode can be changed by adjusting the VO2 width. When VO2 is a conductor, the quality factor of the absorbing peak based on the inductor-capacitor resonance mode can be tuned by adjusting the width of VO2. By varying the top dielectric layer thickness, the frequency of the absorbing peaks can be tuned over a wide range. For devices with two or three layers of graphene nanoribbons-dielectric stacks, a modulation effect similar to that of varying dielectric layer thickness in a single-layer graphene device can be achieved simply by applying a 1 eV Fermi energy to graphene nanoribbons in different layers. By combining thermal and electrical modulation, the two or three-layer stacked device can be dynamically switched between four or six absorbing states, and a wider range of dynamic peak frequency modulation can be realized. Furthermore, the performance of the absorber does not deteriorate significantly at an incident angle of up to 70°. Our proposed thermal-electrical switchable wide-angle multi-band THz absorber provides a reference for the design, fabrication, and application of high-performance THz absorbers in different fields.

Tunable terahertz absorption of ion gel-graphene hybrids based on the Salisbury effect.

The gate-tunable absorption properties of graphene make it suitable for terahertz (THz) absorbers. However, the realization of a graphene-based THz absorber faces challenges between the difficulty of patterning graphene for processing and the intrinsically low absorbance of graphene with the high electric field needed to change the conductivity of graphene. This report presents an electrically tunable graphene THz absorber where a single-layer graphene film and a gold reflective layer are separated by a polyimide (PI) dielectric layer to form an easily fabricated three-layer Salisbury screen structure. The carrier density of the graphene layer can be efficiently tuned by a small external electrical gating (-5V-5 V) with the assistance of an ion gel layer. The voltage modulation of the Fermi energy level (EF) of graphene was confirmed by Raman spectra, and the variation of the device absorbance was confirmed using a THz time-domain spectroscopy system (THz-TDS). The measurements show that the EF is adjusted in the range of 0-0.5 eV, and THz absorbance is adjusted in the range of 60%-99%. The absorber performs well under different curvatures, and the peak absorbance is all over 95%. We conducted further analysis of the absorber absorbance by varying the thickness of the PI dielectric layer, aiming to examine the correlation between the resonant frequency of the absorber and the dielectric layer thickness. Our research findings indicate that the proposed absorber holds significant potential for application in diverse fields such as communication, medicine, and sensing.

Global optimization of multilayer dielectric coatings for precision measurements.

We describe the design of optimized multilayer dielectric coatings for precision laser interferometry. By setting up an appropriate cost function and then using a global optimizer to find a minimum in the parameter space, we were able to realize coating designs that meet the design requirements for spectral reflectivity, thermal noise, absorption, and tolerances to coating fabrication errors. We also present application of a Markov-Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) based parameter estimation algorithm that can infer thicknesses of dielectric layers in a coating, given a measurement of the spectral reflectivity. This technique can be a powerful diagnostic tool for both commercial coating manufacturers, and the community using dielectric mirrors for precision metrology experiments.

Analysis of the Energy Efficiency of Poultry Houses in Türkiye

Türkiye is an important producer, consumer and exporter in the poultry farming industry across the world. The poultry farming is one of the fastest growing sectors in the field of food and agriculture and has become one of the strongest sectors over time. Especially with the development of industrial sectors, the effective usage and management of energy, which is the most important issue of almost every business, has recently become an important structure in the building sector in Türkiye. This study examined optimum insulation layer thickness, energy savings, and emissions of CO2 for the exterior walls and roofs of poultry farming facilities. The study used the degree day method, which is widely used in standard insulation calculations, in accordance with broiler production. As the equilibrium temperature, the desired temperature values of broilers for each week in the 6-week period were taken as the basis (31, 29, 25, 23.50, 22.50, 20.50°C). Life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) was applied to identify the optimal values of insulation thickness in the facilities. Accordingly, the optimum insulation layer thickness, savings amount, and payback period for the walls and roofs ranged between 0.043-0.270 m and 0.022-0.094 m, 7.53-164.65 S/m2 and 12.85-319.62 S/m2, 1.19-2.19 years and 1.18-1.99 years, respectively. It has been calculated that a 70-80% reduction in CO2 emissions could be managed by applying the optimum insulation layer thickness.

1.43 kV GaN-based MIS Schottky barrier diodes

In this letter, we report on a quasi–vertical GaN-based metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) Schottky barrier diode (SBD) with an insertion of 2 nm thick Al2O3 dielectric layer. It shows a turn-on voltage of 0.7 V, a specific on-resistance of 3.5 mΩ·cm2, and a high on/off current ratio of 1011. The proposed structure enables a breakdown voltage of 1430 V, rendering a Baliga’s power figure-of-merit of 0.58 GW cm−2. The enhanced performance is attributed to defect-related leakage can be suppressed and the direct tunneling process dominates at the MIS-based Schottky contact interface.

Highly sensitive flexible capacitive pressure sensor with structured elastomeric dielectric layers

Sensitive yet stable, robust yet flexible and accurate yet energy efficient pressure sensors are required for variety of purposes. While a large variety of designs and dielectric materials have been explored for this purpose, there is still need of a flexible pressure sensor that will allow easy scale up and inexpensive fabrication. To this end, we have presented here the design of a flexible capacitive pressure sensor using copper coated paper as flexible electrodes and soft Ecoflex layers decorated with cylindrical micro-pillars as the dielectric. While microscopic construct of the sensor allows its easy manufacturability, softness of the layer imparts sensitivity to it. In contrast to many conventional sensors, this design yields sensitivity as high as ∼5 kPa−1 at pressure <1 kPa and somewhat smaller sensitivity as pressure exceeds 1 kPa. We have varied systematically pillar diameter, skin thickness of dielectric layer and pitch of the pillar array to optimise the design and demonstrate its easy tunability. We have presented a model based on buckling of the pillars to predict the response of the sensor. We have explored also a specific design that minimises the hysteresis.

High Thermal Performance Ultraviolet (368 nm) AlGaN-Based Flip-Chip LEDs with an Optimized Structure

In this study, we have fabricated a 368 nm LED with an epitaxial Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) contact layer. We analyze the thermal performance of the flip-chip LED with a symmetric electrode and metal reflective layer, applying ANSYS to build a coupled electro-thermal finite element model (FEM) of the temperature distribution in the multiple quantum wells (MQWs). We compare our system with the traditional Au-bump flip-chip LED and a flip-chip LED with a Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) layer. The simulation results have shown that the flip-chip LED with a metal reflective layer and symmetric electrode exhibits better heat dissipation performance, particularly at high input power. The influence of the insulating layer on the LED chip junction temperature is also examined. The simulation data establish an effect due to the thermal conductivity of the insulating layer in terms of heat dissipation, but this effect is negligible at an insulation layer thickness ≤1 µm.

Study on liquid dielectrophoresis based on double flexible electrodes simulating interdigitated pattern electrodes

Dielectrophoresis affects the surface wettability by applying a non-uniform electric field to dipoles inside dielectric liquid, achieving adjustable droplet contact angle and overcoming the saturation limitation of contact angle caused by the electrowettability effect. However, it is difficult to realize useful three-dimensional tunable optical devices because most of the driving electrodes need to be patterned. In this work, a model of double flexible electrodes simulating planar interdigitated pattern electrodes is proposed based on the dielectrophoresis. Double flexible electrodes, which are wrapped with an insulating dielectric layer and are not conductive to each other are arranged at close intervals and wound along the plane substrate to form a two-dimensional planar line wall. A hydrophobic layer is used to fill the gap and increase the initial contact angle. Ultimately, the “droplet-interdigitated planar line wall” dielectrophoresis driven-droplet model is formed after the dielectric droplets have been deposited on the line wall surface. Firstly, considering the influence of penetration depth and electrode gap area, Young’s equation is theoretically modified to adapt to this model. Then, the finite element algorithm simulation is used to used to comparatively analyze the potential distribution of this model and the planar interdigitated pattern electrode model. The field strength distributions of the electrodes with different wire diameters and insulating layer thickness values are analyzed. It can be found that with the increase of the diameter of the electrode wire and the thickness of the insulating layer, the morphology of the model changes from the tip electrode into the planar electrode, the surface field strength attenuates exponentially and the peak value decreases. This shows that the structure of this electrode in this model is superior to that of the planar electrode. After that, the contact angle of the model is measured experimentally in a range of 58°－90° under 0–250 &lt;i&gt;V&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;rms&lt;/sub&gt; voltage, which is in line with the theoretical expectation. At the same time, neither obvious contact angle lag nor saturation is observed in the experiment. Finally, the new electrophoretic driving droplet model constructed in this paper transforms the dielectric electrophoretic driving mode from a two-dimensional planar electrode to a one-dimensional flexible linear electrode. Because of its flexibility and plasticity, it is convenient to form a three-dimensional cavity and can be applied to more complex device structures.

Physical Modeling of Metal Insulator-SiC Hydrogen-Sensitive Sensors and Simulation of Superconducting Temperature and High-Precision Characteristics

The response mechanism of a metal insulator-SiC (MISiC) Schottky barrier diode (SBD) gas sensor is analyzed. By combining the SBD hot electron emission theory with the hydrogen adsorption and desorption theory, a physical model of the MISiC SBD gas sensor is developed by considering the barrier height modulation effect and the variation of the ideal factor with the external conditions. Using this model, the relationship between device characteristics and insulation layer thickness is analyzed, and the optimal design is carried out between sensitivity, reliability and operating current/current resolution factors.

Multiple narrowband whispering-gallery model and transparent display applications of spherical hyperbolic dispersive metamaterial cavity

A novel spherical hyperbolic metamaterial (HMM) cavity for enhancing color-transparent display is designed in this work. This HMM cavity consists of a silver core wrapped alternatively by several dielectric layers and silver layers. According to the effective medium theory and Mie scattering theory, we demonstrate that such an HMM cavity supports multiple whispering-gallery modes with deep subwavelength characteristics. The number of whispering-gallery modes with the same angular momentum is equal to the number of silver layers within the HMM cavity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these excited whispering-gallery modes are capable of strongly confining the electric fields within the different dielectric shell layers, thus reducing Ohmic losses and narrowing resonance linewidths. In addition, we systematically investigate how the structure parameters affect whispering-gallery modes for an HMM cavity with 5 alternative dielectric layers and silver layers. Interestingly, by increasing the thickness of outermost dielectric layer and silver layer, the resonance wavelength of TM&lt;sub&gt;1,2&lt;/sub&gt; mode and TM&lt;sub&gt;1,3&lt;/sub&gt; mode remain nearly unchanged. However, the TM&lt;sub&gt;1,1&lt;/sub&gt; mode experiences a significant blueshift, and the intensity of the TM&lt;sub&gt;1,1&lt;/sub&gt;, TM&lt;sub&gt;1,2&lt;/sub&gt; and TM&lt;sub&gt;1,3&lt;/sub&gt; mode can be substantially tuned. Consequently, through structural optimization, the HMM cavity can support triple narrowband resonances in the red, green, and blue spectral regions. Finally, we show that the HMM cavity exhibits dipole radiation characteristics at the three resonance wavelengths, effectively confining light within an angular range from –45° to +45° relative to the incident light direction, and confirming the scattered light viewed from a wide angle. These features make the HMM cavity suitable for achieving high transparency, brightness, and wide viewing angles in full-color transparent displays.

Test and analysis of the flexural performance of sandwich insulation wall panels with textile-reinforced engineered cementitious composites in wythes after hot rain cycles

A sandwich insulation wall panel is a novel composite wall that integrates load bearing, thermal insulation and decoration. Most of the wall materials of sandwich insulation wall panels are made of ordinary concrete or lightweight concrete, which causes the wall panels to be too thick and heavy, and there are problems associated with poor durability and high energy consumption. Textile-reinforced engineered cementitious composite (TRE) materials have excellent mechanical properties, toughness and durability. Therefore, a type of sandwich insulation wall panel (SIWP) was constructed using textile-reinforced engineered cementitious composites (TRE) as the inner and outer wythes. Its good crack control ability and tensile performance can compensate for the brittle cracking and shedding of ordinary concrete sandwich insulation wall panels. Through a four-point bending test, the bending performance of the TRE sandwich insulation wall panel (TRE-SIWP) was analyzed from three aspects: failure mode, load-midspan deflection curve and ductility. The research variables included the number of hot rain cycles, the thickness of the TRE wythes, the hot rain environment, the thermal insulation layer type and thickness, and the number of heating-freezing cycles. The results show the that hot-rain cycles had the least effect on the specimen with a rock wool board, and they caused more damage to the TRE wythes than they did to the insulation board. Increasing the thickness of the insulation layer and TRE width could improve the flexural bearing capacity and stiffness of the TRE-SIWPs.

Simulation research of localized surface plasmon sensor based on gold nanocone hexagonal array structure

The sensor based on gold nanocone hexagonal array structure was designed. Gold nanocone array was positioned above a gold film and separated by silica dielectric spacer layer. Finite-difference time-domain simulation was used to discuss theoretically the influence of gold film and dielectric layer thickness on the structure performance. The formation mechanism of three resonance peaks was studied through the electric field distribution. With the increase of the dielectric thickness, the absorption went upwards first and then went downwards. The refractive index sensitivity of the structure and figure of merit (FOM) at the dipole resonance peak can reach 450 nm/RIU and 4.3, respectively. At the peak caused by the plasmon resonance between the gold nanocone array and the gold film, the sensitivity is 275 nm/RIU while the FOM value is 18.3. The results provide a valuable insight into the application of metal nanoarrays in sensors.