Showing papers on "Contact resistance published in 2018"

Direct Room Temperature Welding and Chemical Protection of Silver Nanowire Thin Films for High Performance Transparent Conductors

Abstract: Silver nanowire (Ag-NW) thin films have emerged as a promising next-generation transparent electrode. However, the current Ag-NW thin films are often plagued by high NW–NW contact resistance and poor long-term stability, which can be largely attributed to the ill-defined polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) surface ligands and nonideal Ag–PVP–Ag contact at NW–NW junctions. Herein, we report a room temperature direct welding and chemical protection strategy to greatly improve the conductivity and stability of the Ag-NW thin films. Specifically, we use a sodium borohydride (NaBH4) treatment process to thoroughly remove the PVP ligands and produce a clean Ag–Ag interface that allows direct welding of NW–NW junctions at room temperature, thus greatly improving the conductivity of the Ag-NW films, outperforming those obtained by thermal or plasmonic thermal treatment. We further show that, by decorating the as-formed Ag-NW thin film with a dense, hydrophobic dodecanethiol layer, the stability of the Ag-NW film can be gr...

A simple and robust approach to reducing contact resistance in organic transistors

Abstract: Efficient injection of charge carriers from the contacts into the semiconductor layer is crucial for achieving high-performance organic devices. The potential drop necessary to accomplish this process yields a resistance associated with the contacts, namely the contact resistance. A large contact resistance can limit the operation of devices and even lead to inaccuracies in the extraction of the device parameters. Here, we demonstrate a simple and efficient strategy for reducing the contact resistance in organic thin-film transistors by more than an order of magnitude by creating high work function domains at the surface of the injecting electrodes to promote channels of enhanced injection. We find that the method is effective for both organic small molecule and polymer semiconductors, where we achieved a contact resistance as low as 200 Ωcm and device charge carrier mobilities as high as 20 cm2V−1s−1, independent of the applied gate voltage. Minimizing contact effects in organic semiconductor-based devices is a key step toward the development of a low-cost technology for next-generation electronics. Here, the authors reduce contact resistance in organic devices by engineering electrodes with high work function surface domains.

High Mobilities in Layered InSe Transistors with Indium-Encapsulation-Induced Surface Charge Doping.

Abstract: Tunability and stability in the electrical properties of 2D semiconductors pave the way for their practical applications in logic devices. A robust layered indium selenide (InSe) field-effect transistor (FET) with superior controlled stability is demonstrated by depositing an indium (In) doping layer. The optimized InSe FETs deliver an unprecedented high electron mobility up to 3700 cm2 V-1 s-1 at room temperature, which can be retained with 60% after 1 month. Further insight into the evolution of the position of the Fermi level and the microscopic device structure with different In thicknesses demonstrates an enhanced electron-doping behavior at the In/InSe interface. Furthermore, the contact resistance is also improved through the In insertion between InSe and Au electrodes, which coincides with the analysis of the low-frequency noise. The carrier fluctuation is attributed to the dominance of the phonon scattering events, which agrees with the observation of the temperature-dependent mobility. Finally, the flexible functionalities of the logic-circuit applications, for instance, inverter and not-and (NAND)/not-or (NOR) gates, are determined with these surface-doping InSe FETs, which establish a paradigm for 2D-based materials to overcome the bottleneck in the development of electronic devices.

Microstructural origin of resistance-strain hysteresis in carbon nanotube thin film conductors.

Abstract: A basic need in stretchable electronics for wearable and biomedical technologies is conductors that maintain adequate conductivity under large deformation. This challenge can be met by a network of one-dimensional (1D) conductors, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or silver nanowires, as a thin film on top of a stretchable substrate. The electrical resistance of CNT thin films exhibits a hysteretic dependence on strain under cyclic loading, although the microstructural origin of this strain dependence remains unclear. Through numerical simulations, analytic models, and experiments, we show that the hysteretic resistance evolution is governed by a microstructural parameter [Formula: see text] (the ratio of the mean projected CNT length over the film length) by showing that [Formula: see text] is hysteretic with strain and that the resistance is proportional to [Formula: see text] The findings are generally applicable to any stretchable thin film conductors consisting of 1D conductors with much lower resistance than the contact resistance in the high-density regime.

Synthetic Lateral Metal-Semiconductor Heterostructures of Transition Metal Disulfides

Abstract: Lateral heterostructures with planar integrity form the basis of two-dimensional (2D) electronics and optoelectronics. Here we report that, through a two-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, high-quality lateral heterostructures can be constructed between metallic and semiconducting transition metal disulfide (TMD) layers. Instead of edge epitaxy, polycrystalline monolayer MoS2 in such junctions was revealed to nucleate from the vertices of multilayered VS2 crystals, creating one-dimensional junctions with ultralow contact resistance (0.5 kΩ·μm). This lateral contact contributes to 6-fold improved field-effect mobility for monolayer MoS2, compared to the conventional on-top nickel contacts. The all-CVD strategy presented here hence opens up a new avenue for all-2D-based synthetic electronics.

High-Performance Wafer-Scale MoS2 Transistors toward Practical Application.

Abstract: Atomic thin transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are considered as an emerging platform to build next-generation semiconductor devices. However, to date most devices are still based on exfoliated TMD sheets on a micrometer scale. Here, a novel chemical vapor deposition synthesis strategy by introducing multilayer (ML) MoS2 islands to improve device performance is proposed. A four-probe method is applied to confirm that the contact resistance decreases by one order of magnitude, which can be attributed to a conformal contact by the extra amount of exposed edges from the ML-MoS2 islands. Based on such continuous MoS2 films synthesized on a 2 in. insulating substrate, a top-gated field effect transistor (FET) array is fabricated to explore key metrics such as threshold voltage (V T ) and field effect mobility (μFE ) for hundreds of MoS2 FETs. The statistical results exhibit a surprisingly low variability of these parameters. An average effective μFE of 70 cm2 V-1 s-1 and subthreshold swing of about 150 mV dec-1 are extracted from these MoS2 FETs, which are comparable to the best top-gated MoS2 FETs achieved by mechanical exfoliation. The result is a key step toward scaling 2D-TMDs into functional systems and paves the way for the future development of 2D-TMDs integrated circuits.

Influence of Temperature on the Pressure Distribution Within Press Pack IGBTs

Abstract: Press pack (PP) packaging technology has been applied to insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) for high-voltage and high power density applications in recent years. The pressure distribution within PP IGBTs is very important because it affects both the electrical and thermal contact resistances, thermal cycling capability, and short-circuit current rating. Too much pressure will mechanically damage the chip and too little pressure will increase the thermal contact resistance, which eventually leads to chip thermal damage. In this paper, a finite-element multiphysics model cocoupled with an electrical field, thermal field, and mechanical field is proposed to analyze the collector current distribution, pressure distribution, and junction temperature distribution within PP IGBTs. The most important coupling variables, such as electrical and thermal contact resistances, for this cocoupled multiphysics model are calculated or measured by experiment through a single IGBT/fast-recovery diode chip submodule. Based on this multiphysics model, the influence of the high temperature generated by the chip's power dissipation on the pressure distribution within PP IGBTs (in the heating phase) is discussed, and then, compared with the pressure distribution in the clamping phase. The results show that the pressure distribution within PP IGBTs in the heating phase is extremely uneven and different from the value in the clamping phase. Furthermore, the mechanical model and its boundary conditions are verified through the pressure distribution experimental results in the clamping phase, which is measured based on the Fuji prescale film and the clamping test bench. Based on the simulation and experimental results, an optimization of the collector electrode and pedestal is proposed to improve the pressure distribution within PP IGBTs in the heating phase.

Ultra-low contact resistance in graphene devices at the Dirac point

Abstract: Contact resistance is one of the main factors limiting performance of short-channel graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs), preventing their use in low-voltage applications. Here we investigated the contact resistance between graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and different metals, and found that etching holes in graphene below the contacts consistently reduced the contact resistance, down to 23 m with Au contacts. This low contact resistance was obtained at the Dirac point of graphene, in contrast to previous studies where the lowest contact resistance was obtained at the highest carrier density in graphene (here 200 m was obtained under such conditions). The 'holey' Au contacts were implemented in GFETs which exhibited an average transconductance of 940 S m−1 at a drain bias of only 0.8 V and gate length of 500 nm, which out-perform GFETs with conventional Au contacts.

Controlled p-type substitutional doping in large-area monolayer WSe2 crystals grown by chemical vapor deposition.

Abstract: Tungsten diselenide (WSe2) is a particularly interesting 2D material due to its p-type conductivity. Here we report a systematic single-step process to optimize crystal size by variation of multiple growth parameters resulting in hexagonal single crystals up to 165 μm wide. We then show that these large single crystals can be controllably in situ doped with the acceptor Niobium (Nb). First principles calculations suggest that substitutional Nb doping of W would yield p-doping with no gap trap states. When used as the active layer of a field effect transistor (FET), doped crystals exhibit conventional p-type behavior, rather than the ambipolar behaviour seen in undoped WSe2 FETs. Nb-doped WSe2 FETs yield a maximum field effect mobility of 116 cm2 V-1 s-1, slightly higher than its undoped counterpart, with an on/off ratio of 106. Doping reduces the contact resistance of WSe2, reaching a minimum value of 0.55 kΩμm in WSe2 FETs. The areal density of holes in Nb-doped WSe2 is approximately double that of undoped WSe2, indicating that Nb doping is working as an effective acceptor. Doping concentration can be controlled over several orders of magnitudes, allowing it to be used to control: FET threshold voltage, FET off-state leakage, and contact resistance.

High Efficiency (>17%) Si‐Organic Hybrid Solar Cells by Simultaneous Structural, Electrical, and Interfacial Engineering via Low‐Temperature Processes

Abstract: Highly efficient organic–inorganic hybrid solar cells of Si-poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) have been demonstrated by simultaneous structural, electrical, and interfacial engineering with low processing temperature. Si substrate has been sculpted into hierarchical structure to reduce light reflection loss and increase interfacial junction area at the same time. Regarding the electrical optimization, highly conductive organic PEDOT:PSS layer has been formulated with low sheet resistance. It is argued that the sheet resistance, rather than conductivity, is the primary parameter for the high efficiency hybrid cells, which leads to the optimization of thickness, i.e., thick enough to have low sheet resistance but transparent enough to pass the incident sunlight. Finally, siloxane oligomers have been inserted into top/bottom interfaces by contact-printing at room ambient, which suppresses carrier recombination at interfaces and reduces contact resistance at bottom electrode. Contrary to high-temperature doping (for the formation of front surface or back surface fields), wet solution processes or vacuum-based deposition, the contact-printing can be done at room ambient to reduce carrier recombination at the interfaces. The high efficiency obtained with low processing temperature can make this type of cells be a possible candidate for post-Si photovoltaics.

Predictive Model for the Electrical Transport within Nanowire Networks

Abstract: Thin networks of high aspect ratio conductive nanowires can combine high electrical conductivity with excellent optical transparency, which has led to a widespread use of nanowires in transparent electrodes, transistors, sensors, and flexible and stretchable conductors. Although the material and application aspects of conductive nanowire films have been thoroughly explored, there is still no model which can relate fundamental physical quantities, like wire resistance, contact resistance, and nanowire density, to the sheet resistance of the film. Here, we derive an analytical model for the electrical conduction within nanowire networks based on an analysis of the parallel resistor network. The model captures the transport characteristics and fits a wide range of experimental data, allowing for the determination of physical parameters and performance-limiting factors, in sharp contrast to the commonly employed percolation theory. The model thus constitutes a useful tool with predictive power for the evaluat...

Gate-tunable interfacial properties of in-plane ML MX2 1T′–2H heterojunctions

Abstract: The two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) field effect transistor (FET) with in-plane heterojunction contacts between the semiconducting 2H phase (as channel) and the metallic 1T or semi-metallic 1T′ phase (as electrode) has received much recent attention because it has significantly reduced contact resistance and enhanced gate tunability and thus improved device performance. However, the underlying mechanism of its good conductivity remains open. We systematically explore for the first time the contact properties of the monolayer (ML) 2H MX2 (MoS2, WS2, MoSe2, WSe2, MoTe2) FET with their 1T′ phase as electrode by using ab initio quantum transport simulations. We find that the metal induced gap states (MIGS) at the interface penetrate the Schottky barrier and bridge the electrodes and the conduction/valence band of the channel, thereby forming a lower and tunable effective Schottky barrier height (ESBH) and causing an equivalent Ohmic contact under the appropriate gate voltage. Our study provides a new insight into the observed reduced contact resistance with the 1T′ phase as electrode and is instructive for further experiment.

In-Depth Study of Laser Diode Ablation of Kapton Polyimide for Flexible Conductive Substrates.

Abstract: This work presents a detailed study of the photothermal ablation of Kapton® polyimide by a laser diode targeting its electrical conductivity enhancement. Laser-treated samples were structurally characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), as well as Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy. The results show that the laser-assisted ablation constitutes a simple one-step and environmental friendly method to induce graphene-derived structures on the surface of polyimide films. The laser-modified surface was also electrically characterized through the Transmission Line Method (TLM) aiming at the improvement of the conductivity of the samples by tuning the laser power and the extraction of the contact resistance of the electrodes. Once the laser-ablation process is optimized, the samples increase their conductivity up to six orders of magnitude, being comparable to that of graphene obtained by chemical vapor deposition or by the reduction of graphene-oxide. Additionally, we show that the contact resistance can be decreased down to promising values of ∼2 Ω when using silver-based electrodes.

Enhanced Corrosion Resistance and Interfacial Conductivity of TiCx/a-C Nanolayered Coatings via Synergy of Substrate Bias Voltage for Bipolar Plates Applications in PEMFCs

Abstract: Proton-exchange membrane fuel cells are one kind of renewable and clean energy conversion device, whose metallic bipolar plates are one of the key components. However, high interfacial contact resistance and poor corrosion resistance are still great challenges for the commercialization of metallic bipolar plates. In this study, we demonstrated a novel strategy for depositing TiCx/amorphous carbon (a-C) nanolayered coatings by synergy of 60 and 300 V bias voltage to enhance corrosion resistance and interfacial conductivity. The synergistic effects of bias voltage on the composition, microstructure, surface roughness, electrochemical corrosion behaviors, and interfacial conductivity of TiCx/a-C coatings were explored. The results revealed that the columnar structures in the inner layer were suppressed and the surface became rougher with the 300 V a-C layer outside. The composition analysis indicated that the sp2 content increased with an increase of 300 V sputtering time. Due to the synergy strategy of bias...

Interdigitated back-contacted crystalline silicon solar cells with low-temperature dopant-free selective contacts

Abstract: In the field of crystalline silicon solar cells, great efforts are being devoted to the development of selective contacts in search of a fully low-temperature and dopant-free fabrication process compatible with high photovoltaic conversion efficiencies. For high-efficiency devices, selective contacts have to simultaneously combine high conductivity with excellent passivating properties. With this objective, a thin passivating extra layer of a-Si:H or SiO2 is usually introduced between the conducting layer and the silicon substrate. In this work, we present an interdigitated back-contacted (IBC) silicon based solar cell that avoids the use of either thermal SiO2 or a-Si:H interlayers achieving a dopant-free, ITO-free and very low thermal budget fabrication process. In this work, we propose a new electron transport layer using ultrathin Al2O3/TiO2 stacks deposited by atomic layer deposition at 100 °C covered with a thermally evaporated Mg capping film. A specific contact resistance of 2.5 mΩ cm2 has been measured together with surface recombination velocities below 40 cm s−1. This electron-selective contact is combined with a thermally evaporated V2Ox-based hole selective contact to form the rear scheme of an IBC structure with a 3 × 3 cm2 active area as a proof-of-concept resulting in efficiencies beyond 19%. This approach sheds light on potential technological simplification and cost reduction in crystalline silicon solar cells.

Combination of Electrodeposition and Transfer Processes for Flexible Thin-Film Thermoelectric Generators

Abstract: To reduce consumption for ambient assisted living (AAL) applications, we propose the design and fabrication of flexible thin-film thermoelectric generators at a low manufacturing cost. The generators were fabricated using a combination of electrodeposition and transfer processes. N-type Bi2Te3 films and p-type Sb2Te3 films were formed on a stainless-steel substrate employing potentiostatic electrodeposition using a nitric acid-based bath, followed by a transfer process. Three types of flexible thin-film thermoelectric generators were fabricated. The open circuit voltage (Voc) and maximum output power (Pmax) were measured by applying a temperature difference between the ends of the generator. The thin-film generators obtained using thermoplastic sheets with epoxy resin exhibited a Voc that was tens of millivolts. In particular, the contact resistance of the thin-film generator decreased when silver paste was inserted at the junctions between the n- and p-type films. The most flexible thin-film generator fabricated in this study exhibited a Pmax of 10.4 nW at a temperature difference of 60 K. The current performance of the generators was too low, but we innovated a combination process to prepare them. It is expected to increase the performance by further decreasing the micro-cracks and contact resistance in the generators.

Tunnel-injected sub 290 nm ultra-violet light emitting diodes with 2.8% external quantum efficiency

Abstract: We report on the high efficiency tunnel-injected ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UV LEDs) emitting at 287 nm. Deep UV LED performance has been limited by the severe internal light absorption in the p-type contact layers and low electrical injection efficiency due to poor p-type conduction. In this work, a polarization engineered Al0.65Ga0.35N/In0.2Ga0.8N tunnel junction layer is adopted for non-equilibrium hole injection to replace the conventionally used direct p-type contact. A reverse-graded AlGaN contact layer is further introduced to realize a low resistance contact to the top n-AlGaN layer. This led to the demonstration of a low tunnel junction resistance of 1.9 × 10−3 Ω cm2 obtained at 1 kA/cm2. Light emission at 287 nm with an on-wafer peak external quantum efficiency of 2.8% and a wall-plug efficiency of 1.1% was achieved. The measured power density at 1 kA/cm2 was 54.4 W/cm2, confirming the efficient hole injection through interband tunneling. With the benefits of the minimized internal absor...

Large-area niobium disulfide thin films as transparent electrodes for devices based on two-dimensional materials

Abstract: Direct contacts of a metal with atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) semiconductors have been found to suppress device performance by producing a high contact resistance. NbS2 is a 2D TMDC and a conductor. It is expected to form ohmic contacts with 2D semiconductors because of its high work function and the van der Waals interface it forms with the semiconductor, with such an interface resulting in weak Fermi level pinning. Despite the usefulness of NbS2 as an electrode, previous synthesis methods could not control the thickness, uniformity, and shape of the NbS2 film and hence could not find practical applications in electronics. Here, we report a patternable method for carrying out the synthesis of NbS2 films in which the number of NbS2 layers formed over a large area was successfully controlled, which is necessary for the production of customized electrodes. The synthesized NbS2 films were shown to be highly transparent and uniform in thickness and conductivity over the large area. Furthermore, the synthesized NbS2 showed half the contact resistance than did the molybdenum metal in MoS2 field effect transistors (FETs) on a large transparent quartz substrate. The MoS2 device with NbS2 showed an electron mobility as high as 12.7 cm2 V-1 s-1, which was three times higher than that found for the corresponding molybdenum-contacted MoS2 device. This result showed the high potential of the NbS2 thin film as a transparent electrode for 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) semiconductors with low contact resistance.