I-Corps: Ultra-Sensitive and Fast-Response Zinc Oxide Schottky-Contact Ultraviolet Nanosensor

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提供一种生产高灵敏度、快速响应、超低功耗、低成本和高热稳定性UV传感器的新方法。UV传感器具有从工业、制造业、健康到消费应用的广泛市场，因此具有巨大的社会和经济影响潜力。公众将受益于创新带来的UV传感器技术的资本和经常性成本的显着降低。该技术通过提供更低的功耗、更宽的工作温度范围以及灵活的器件实施方案，有可能影响紫外线传感器行业。该I-Corps项目将使客户能够发现可能影响紫外线（UV）传感器行业的核心技术。由于氧化锌（ZnO）纳米结构具有大的表面积与体积比和降低的有源区维数，因此具有高的光子电导率，这导致了器件性能的高灵敏度。利用肖特基接触代替传统的欧姆接触，ZnO紫外纳米传感器的灵敏度和响应时间得到了很大的提高。此外，该器件可以沉积在硅以及柔性基板上。ZnO UV纳米传感器的特性（即性能指标、系统集成、封装、形状因子等）将与当前和未来的客户需求保持一致，同时，将为这项新技术探索商业模式。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide a novel approach towards producing high sensitivity, fast response, ultra-low power consumption, low cost, and highly thermal stable UV sensors. UV sensors have wide ranging markets from industrial, manufacturing, health, to consumer applications, and therefore have significant potential for societal and economic impact. The general public will benefit from the significant reduction in the capital and recurring cost of UV sensor technologies brought by the innovation. The technology has the potential to impact the UV sensor industry by providing lower power consumption, wider operation temperature ranges, and the potential for flexible device embodiments.This I-Corps project will enable customer discovery for a core technology that could potentially impact the ultraviolet (UV) sensor industry. Due to large surface-to-volume ratio and reduced dimensionality of the active area, Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have been shown to have high photon conductance, which leads to high sensitivity of the device performance. Utilizing the Schottky contact instead of conventional Ohmic contact in device fabrication, the sensitivity and response time of ZnO UV nanosensors have been greatly improved. In addition, the device can be deposited on silicon as well as flexible substrates. The characteristics of the ZnO UV nanosensor (i.e. performance metrics, system integration, packaging, form factors, etc.) will be aligned with current and future customer needs, while at the same time, a business model will be explored for this novel technology.